From celebrating Halloween in France to giving your French friends a fright (with outdated expressions) and small, but mighty, French symbols, this week's La Belle Vie newsletter offers you an essential starting point for eating, talking, drinking and living like a local. La Belle Vie is our regular look at the real culture of France - from language to cuisine, manners to films.
I've spent years observing French people and how life is lived here. I am fascinated by French history and culture, from the arts to national characteristics. For instance (and I'm being general here, obviously there are exceptions) French people hate to be wrong about anything and will insist "I never said that" if they give you duff information. They know that they were wrong, will laugh when you point out that actually there are witnesses to what they said,
Most recently, interior minister Bruno Retailleau sent out a special kind of memo - called a circulaire - to préfecture and interior ministry staff about how they ought to interpret and apply the 2024 immigration law. In reality, the memo will not lead to sweeping changes, but it does mean that some enforcement of existing rules could be stricter moving forward.
