Jean-Jacques Martial was six years old when he arrived at Orly airport in Paris one November morning wearing flip-flops and shorts. He had been removed from his grandmother’s care in the French island territory of Réunion as part of an official scheme to help boost the falling population in the rural heart of the mother country. He had only one idea in his head: “I was going to cultivate myself and I would denounce what had happened to me,” he said. Continue reading…
Author Archives: Anne Penketh
Libération journalists fight investors’ vision for future of French newspaper
Three months ago a crazed gunman opened fire in the Paris offices of the iconoclastic French newspaper Libération, critically wounding a photographer. The leftwing paper survived that crisis but now it is facing a different kind of threat – a war with itself. Continue reading…
“We are working on behalf of all the Rwandan victims”: the genocide hunters
Alain Gauthier, a retired French headmaster from Reims, is living out of a suitcase for the next five weeks. He is staying in a borrowed apartment in Paris while he and his Rwandan-born wife, Dafroza, attend the ground-breaking trial of an alleged participant in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Continue reading…
Postcard from…Montferrat
The black puddings were coiled on a table, and served with chips. The spicy mulled wine had a hint of orange. But when Jean-Michel invited about 20 friends to his fête du cochon, to celebrate the slaughter of a pig, they were actually attending a semi-clandestine party. Continue reading…
Valerie Trierweiler speaks publicly for first time since split with Hollande
Valérie Trierweiler has broken a two-day silence since her split from the French president, François Hollande, saying she intends to continue her public profile working for charity. Continue reading…
Anne Penketh 