On this week’s show we’ll find out how the war in the Middle East is impacting life in France as fuel prices rise and protests kick off around the country.

What can the government do to ease the crisis?

With the local elections out of the way France’s next election race has begun. It’s the big one - we’ll get the lowdown on the lineup for the 2027 Presidential Election and whether we can already call a winner.

Excitement levels have gone through the roof in France this week and it’s all to do with Celine Dion. Why does the Canadian singer cause such a frenzy here?

And we’ll discuss the best and the worst, most ridiculous, most babyish ways to say hello in French. If you want to know why I’m getting a bit irate, stay with us until the end.

Host Ben McPartland is joined by the team at The Local France: Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and politics expert John Lichfield.

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We are out earlier than usual this week in order to bring you the results and analysis of the 2026 French local elections.

The definitive second round vote was held on Sunday in thousands of communes across France, from tiny rural villages to the big urban centres like Lyon, Marseille and Paris.

Over the next 20 minutes or so we'll bring you all the key takeaways from the main battle grounds, get some snap analysis from our politics expert and look ahead to what happens next.

Host Ben McPartland is joined by the team at The Local France - Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and John Lichfield.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Local’s Talking France podcast is attracting more and more listeners each week and we currently have over 12,000 monthly downloads on average. If your company would like to connect with our international audience and sponsor one of our episodes, please email news@thelocal.fr

This week we are, what the French describe as "l'entre deux tours" which means between two rounds.

I'm referring to the crucial French local elections that are taking place. We are between the first and the decisive second round on Sunday. There's a lot to decipher amid the political shenanigans that are happening in France right now, but we'll try and clear it all up and look ahead to Sunday's vote.

We'll also head to different parts of France in this week's episode to find out about some great towns to move to - mainly because property there is affordable.

Have a listen and see which of these less well known French towns takes your fancy.

We'll also discuss the French government's plan to get us all eating well - but do they really expect us to follow their advice?

And one of the many banes of a French language learner's life is the silent letter! Why are there so many, how can we possibly learn them all? We'll get some expert tips and explanations.

I'm Ben McPartland and I'll be joined for this episode of Talking France by the team at The Local, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and our French politics decoder John Lichfield.

We are recording this on Tuesday March 17th so a Happy St Patrick’s Day to all our Irish listeners both in France and Ireland, I know we have a fair few so a special "Cead Mile Failte" to you all - which means ‘100,000 welcomes’ in Irish.

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