Having long battled the creeping use of English in advertising, music and film, French MPs have declared a new struggle: keeping their home Olympics this year free from anglicisms.
Teachers and parents in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris have staged several weeks of strikes and protests in the run-up to the Paris Olympics, leveraging the Games as they call for urgent measures to help struggling state schools in mainland France’s poorest region, home to many of the Olympics’ signature venues.
The Paris Oympics flame was formally handed to French organizers on Friday in the all-marble stadium where the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896.
The talk before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games ideally should be about its grandiose backdrop: a summer sun setting on the Seine River as athletes drift by in boats and wave to cheering crowds.
Long the envy of other cities, Paris' creaking underground metro system has become a subject of daily frustration for users just as the French capital gears up to host this year's Olympics.
Mayors in rural and small-town France are increasingly angry over the transfer of migrants from the capital to their communities, which they believe is linked to clean-up efforts ahead of the Paris Olympics.
