Stories du Moment, end of 2024 edition

The French political circus, Notre Dame reborn, Gisèle the hero, & French merch

Dec 13, 2024

There was no news story roundup in November because I think we know which event dominated global headlines. Like many, I found myself sucked into an abyss of U.S. election analysis and couldn’t think of much else but the calamity ahead. Then my father visited, which was a wonderful distraction, then it was Thanksgiving, and then the French government collapsed. So here we are! My nervous system is fried and my brain likely rotting but with the end-of-year slowdown approaching, I see a light—albeit a teeny, tiny one with a bulb on its last leg—at the end of the 2024 tunnel. A few other stories (and listens) of note below!

NOTRE DAME IS REBORN

RISEN FROM THE ASHES went several truthful but dramatic headlines. Those first video exclusives inside the newly immaculate and luminescent walls of Notre Dame cathedral inspired an overwhelming sense of the miraculous. How could it not? The materials and methods used for the restoration were many of the sames ones employed in the 13th century. The frescoes and paintings have been refreshed, the floors scrubbed, the stonework freed of centuries of soot and grime, and the spire firmly positioned in its rightful position. It’s been five years in the making, with thousands of skilled artisans— roofers, art restorers, woodworkers and more (including foreign carpenters like New Englander Hank silver)—working tirelessly to repair, rebuild, and restore this Gothic masterpiece whose eternal presence many of us had taken for granted.

I was all-in with the feel-good, unifying bromides of the endeavor. As Notre Dame’s rector Olivier Ribadeau-Dumas put it during a press conference I attended in November, the five-year reopening objective wasn’t easy to reach. “But it shows us that in this period of doubt and questioning, if we remain united and mobilized around a common goal, we are capable of achieving the impossible.” He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by period of doubt and questioning but I can make a few guesses. But at the inauguration last weekend, political hobnobbing seemed to take precedence over what should have been the true spectacle of the evening: the cathedral’s reopened doors and a celebration of the people who saved it.

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Heads of state, corporate donors, and big tech villains (who double as Presidential allies) were all in attendance. None were as visible from beginning to end as Trump who was seated next to Macron during the reopening ceremony. The French president was in usual form, engaging in excessive touching, whispering in Trump’s ear, and obsequiously welcoming him to the Elysée where they filmed ‘content’. The evening show included some truly exquisite music performances and some that felt ill-suited for the moment (can’t lie: I cringed until I turned off the stream) or like an excessive nod to a billionaire donor (looking at you, Pharrell and Arnault).

In a way, it makes sense that it would become the Macron geopolitical show— the French state, not the Catholic church, owns Notre Dame, along with many other churches in France built before 1905. France handles upkeep while the Church is allowed free use of them and control their religious identity, worship and ecclesial governance. But the milestone of the reopening itself felt overshadowed by a deeply unpopular leader’s attempt at appearing triumphant.

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WTF FRANCE?

No surprise here,

Lauren Collins

‘s report for The New Yorker on what has transpired in French politics this year is epic. I’ve shared some of the context for the dissolution and frustration this summer on the newsletter and on the podcast but this is an incredibly detailed and meticulously reported overview with some truly noteworthy soundbites from political heavyweights. A teaser:

De Villepin, who later served as Chirac’s Prime Minister, told me that he had long believed Macron’s hauteur would be his downfall. Watching his showy, solitary stride across the Louvre courtyard on the night of his first victory, in 2017, de Villepin recalled, “I realized that we weren’t in France—we were in Hollywood.”
De Villepin told me, “Lots of French people voted for him not because they supported him but by default, because they didn’t have a good choice. And he never understood that.” Since his dramatic entry into electoral politics, Macron had explicitly positioned himself as a bulwark—the bulwark—against the extreme right. Yet although he owed both of his elections to a ramshackle coalition of voters, he had insisted on managing France “by certitude,” talking much but listening little to traditional partners such as local officials and trade unions. “He doesn’t change, he doesn’t learn, and he doesn’t draw lessons from his failures,” de Villepin said.

“I think he’s a narcissistic pervert,” Marine Tondelier, the head of the Green Party, told me. “He enjoys manipulating people. Everyone thinks it, but I’ll say it out loud.”

Read the full story here. Update: as of today, Macron has appointed the centrist François Bayrou to the role of Prime Minister.

GISELE PELICOT: A FRENCH HERO

Vogue Germany cover featuring Gisèle Pelicot

Nothing more to say here other than this piece in New Lines Magazine is one of the most powerful I’ve read to date about the mass rape trial and Gisèle Pelicot’s newfound role as a feminist hero. What I will add is that Time Magazine should’ve taken a page from Vogue Germany’s cover feature, shown above, for its Person of the Year award attributed to the orange goblin who returns to the White House in January. This is the same publication that featured Hitler in 1938 to much backlash. Time stands by its selections, arguing that the criteria since it first began producing the Person of the Year series in 1927 is based on influence, whether positive or negative. But what statement does it make to put evil in the limelight, on the cover, when the editorial space could champion someone honorable? Mention these terrible men in the issue, fine. But slapping them on the cover is a missed opportunity to spread a story like Gisèle Pelicot’s even wider and remind the world what courage looks like in the face of abject trauma.

LE MERCH

The Parisian restaurant consultant and entrepreneur Julien Pham and his business partner-creative director Mathieu Lebreton are behind Gift Shop, an online shop for well-designed, premium merch from the best restaurants and wine bars in France, the U.S., the U.K, and South Korea. Initially, they launched with rights to distribute goods from Zabars, Katz's, Veselka, In & Out, etc. but they’ve dropped that to focus exclusively on developing and designing goods for established French spots, from Le Verre Volé, the Bistrot Paul Bert, and Café de Flore to Folderol, Double Dragon, and Clamato. And that finally landed their concept in The New York Times.

THE SEINE, PAST & PRESENT

My friend Mary Winston Nicklin wrote the National Geographic cover story this summer all about the Seine cleanup project but on my podcast we talk about much more than its present state. I loved this conversation (recorded at a café a few feet from the Seine, of course) and I think you’ll find Mary Winston’s insights illuminating.

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