https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from France in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed Snooty waiters. Ill-mannered checkout clerks. Visitors to France often come back touting tales of the rudeness of French people. But is that really fair? A new book suggests it’s just because so many foreigners are forgetting to say one key word. https://www.thelocal.fr/20190408/french-language-is-this-the-most-important-word Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:23:44 +0200 french-language-is-this-the-most-important-word France is known for its overly strict policing of baby names, but in the case of a couple trying to call their son 'Jihad', French authorities might have a point. https://www.thelocal.fr/20171023/french-parents-fall-foul-of-name-police-for-calling-baby-jihad Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:41:34 +0200 french-parents-fall-foul-of-name-police-for-calling-baby-jihad The village of "Very Stupid" (Trécon) has officially been inducted as a member of the French towns and villages with funny names. https://www.thelocal.fr/20160711/very-stupid-village-honoured-in-france-for-its-silly-name Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:52:56 +0200 very-stupid-village-honoured-in-france-for-its-silly-name Recent efforts to call babies Nutella and Strawberry in France have fallen foul of the name police, but a change of the law means it may become easier in future for the French to pick a wacky name. https://www.thelocal.fr/20160512/why-it-may-become-easier-in-france-to-be-called-nutella Thu, 12 May 2016 11:07:38 +0200 why-it-may-become-easier-in-france-to-be-called-nutella Everyone's got their favourite French words, whether they're amusing, odd or just fun to pronounce. Here are 20 of the very best, according to The Local's readers. https://www.thelocal.fr/20160221/favourite-french-words-the-local-france Sun, 21 Feb 2016 16:28:48 +0100 favourite-french-words-the-local-france From Thursday, you can use Google Translate to read or write Corsican, as the translation tool adds more regional languages to its offerings. https://www.thelocal.fr/20160218/google-translate-adds-corsican-language-option Thu, 18 Feb 2016 17:29:07 +0100 google-translate-adds-corsican-language-option The French are well known for lending words from the English language but Anglos have proven just as willing to adopt Gallic words and have even reinvented a few. Here are 15 'French' words in English that the French themselves may not quite understand. https://www.thelocal.fr/20140929/15-french-words-reinvented-by-anglos Mon, 29 Sep 2014 18:27:00 +0200 15-french-words-reinvented-by-anglos There’s a handful of town and place names across France that regularly prompt shocked (and giggling) Anglos to pull over to the side of the road to snap a photo. So you know where they are The Local has taken a trip across France to find the naughtiest sounding French names. https://www.thelocal.fr/20140402/top-10-x-rated-french-place-names-2 Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:40:00 +0200 top-10-x-rated-french-place-names-2 Twitter has exploded after France's 'Journal Officiel' replaced "hashtag" with "mot-dièse," as reported by The Local on Wednesday. We've assembled the ten best reactions from users so far. https://www.thelocal.fr/20130124/top-10-twitter-reactions-to-frances-language-police Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:23:00 +0100 top-10-twitter-reactions-to-frances-language-police