Emma Pearson

@emmapearson.bsky.social

4550 Followers 451 Following

Editor of The Local France, co-host of Talking France podcast. Paris resident, Yorkshire born, Castres Olympique 🏉 fan - emma.pearson@thelocal.com

Text reads, in French, Darty - your order is ready and is waiting impatiently
Text reads - The success of French football has been achieved by good and cheap sports facilities and the hard work of amateur coaches for children’s teams. It has also been achieved by encouraging, rather than denigrating the diverse qualities offered to France by migrants and their children and their children’s children. If that has produced a “surplus” of talent which France can export back to the players’ countries of origin, all the better. The problems of the banlieues remain. They cannot be solved by sport alone. Hence my question. What is French football doing right which the rest of France should copy?
Swimmers use the Seine bathing space at Bras Marie
the white politician Jordan Bardella
Text reads - French rail company SNCF said on Sunday evening there were delays of up to six hours for trains arriving at or leaving from Paris's Gare de Lyon. At the station, 34-year-old physiotherapist Kelly took the delay in stride. "It's global warming," she said. "It's the disruption of the seasons...there are political decisions to be taken."
Front page of the Darlington & Stockton Times, leading a campaign to 'save Hope Moor'
A bat flying directly at the camera. Its face looks demonic, it is clearly not bald and it has large leathery wings
A painting showing a man in the dress of an 18th century aristocratic, next to a TV showing a scene from La Haine. The paint appears to melt and dribble
Text reads- There are in fact two brothers - born in Angers in western France - playing in this tournament; Désiré Doué is one of the stars of the French team and his brother Guéla Doué is playing for Côte d'Ivoire, the birthplace of their father. I've always thought that one of the joys of being an immigrant is that you get two teams to cheer for at sporting tournaments, so double the fun, and these talented young men have taken that one step further. Dual nationals are often spoken of in negative terms of having 'divided loyalties', but surely it's just about loving more than one thing? Does anyone suggest that parents who have more than one child must 'divide' their loyalties and pick their favourite kid?
Text reads - We all know that the records set this week won't remain for long, more heatwaves are coming, and they will be even longer, even hotter, even more brutal. A political battle has erupted in France over air conditioning, which is rapidly becoming necessary for public spaces such as schools and hospitals, and for the homes of people in high-risk groups such as the elderly. But air-conditioning is, at best, only treating a symptom. Looking at the terrifying, burning heatwaves sweeping across Europe and responding with only AC is like trying to treat a bubonic plague patient by sticking a couple of nice, neat surgical dressings over their suppurating boils.
A bearded collie, hair in a top knot, looks penitant and sad
A man sits in full armour, holding a sword, his head (shaved with a large beard) bare. He sits in a school sports hall, with a floral tote bag at his feet
Hand fan with the message 'putain de chaleur' (fucking heat)
Close up of street art of 2 leopards and some butterflies
A mad photo - of Andy Burnham standing between a man dressed as a fox and another with a bin on his head - captioned simply as 'the British MP Andy Burham waves at supporters'
External view on Pont Neuf, La Caverne
Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump sitting at a conference table. Trump looks like he's about to burst into tears, Macron is smiling slightly manically and pointing
A Fennec Fox being held by a handler, it has enormous ears and a very cute face
Headline reads - AI replaces Paul the octopus for 2026 World Cup tips
Emails from language learning app Duolingo. Subject lines are; I'm not that upset, it's allergies; Your French won't practice itself; Nobody ignores me . . . for long
Boxes of perfume with the name 'gueule de bois' (hangover)
A roundabout with new trees around it, plus some older trees, and vegetation planted in the middle around the statue of La Semeuse (the sower)
A Paris road with a strip of grass, trees and wildflowers in the centre
The elaborate roof of the Paris Opéra building
Text reads 'fancy a fish & chips? Welcome to the UK'
Foundation Louis Vuitton building in Paris, blue sky in background
Final score: Leinster 19 Bordeaux 41
A plastic skeleton sitting in an office chair
A Paris metro station in the early morning sunshine
Poster for the French film Le Grand Bain
headline reads, in French, We tested the recipes of english chefs in Paris. The article is illustrated with a bizarre image of a woman sitting on a bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background, plus a Union Flag. In front of her are a dish of beans on toast and a pie, plus a booklet saying 'ration book'
A statue of a black woman in historic clothing breastfeeding a white baby while her own child pulls at her skirt
Sculpture of some kind of long limbed creature in a pond
Email subject - AI proof careers the ultra-wealthy will pay six figures for. Email starts 'Hi Emily'
Label reads, in French, 'model rooster given to Armand Blanchonnet, Olympic road cycling champion, by the city of Paris in 1924'. The English translation is 'Cock given to Armand'
Red rose on the memorial to the Colonel Fabien resistance group
Message reads, in French 'Once again, I express my regrets for the contradictory information on our tracking system. I wish you an excellent day, With all my attention [yours sincerely]
Post it notes containing predictions for 3 French prime ministers - Michel Barnier, François Bayrou and Sebastien Lecornu
Text reads - L'amour est dans le parlement It appears now to be a fact universally acknowledged that a French politician with presidential ambitions must be in want of media interest in their love life. While French politicos traditionally kept their private life private - to the extent that François Mitterand had a secret family who lived close to the presidential Elysée Palace and benefited from taxpayer funded security - these days public romance appears to be the name of the game.
Small vase with a red rose and lucky muguet (lily of the valley)
Photo of a bike in front of a Metro station. Below the saddle are a massive swarm of bees
On the window is a squashed mosquito and a notice reading 'bien joué' (well played)
Paris quais with an Aperol Spritz in the foreground
Facebook comment on The Local France from a user calling themselves Cork Antiques: "You know this page definitely gets some funding from dodgy NGOs with the amount of hard left garbage they spout"
An advert for Brets salted caramel flavour crisps
Page 1 of the memo. Sorry it's too long to copy the whole thing, but find a summary in the article linked in the original post
Photo of 4 fancy dress masks - ex French president (and jailbird) Nicolas Sarkozy, new Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, American musician and paedophile Michael Jackson and Donald Trump aka a sack of shit
Florent Wieczorek wearing his signature glasses, with bright orange frames
text reads - Besides those calling for the removal of the single article of the text and those seeking to increase the compensation paid to employees working on May 1st, MPs from the hard-left La France Insoumise have hit back with proposals for the establishment of a raft of new public holidays. These would include February 4th, to commemorate the 1794 vote abolishing slavery in all French colonies; March 18th, to honour the short-lived and brutally repressed Paris Commune of 1871; July 30th as a celebration of friendship; and August 4th, to recall the 1789 vote abolishing the feudal privileges of French nobles and members of the clergy.
Matisse painting
Text reads: It's not just me! Everyone finds this hard, even people born to it. Spending enough time in the company of the French subjunctive, reflexive, COD et al is enough to make anyone feel like a halfwit, a simpleton who cannot grasp the most basic concept, a hapless stumbling fool who should not be allowed out unaccompanied. OK this isn't quite what a series of French teachers have said to me, but the subtext was clearly there. The knowledge that even native speakers of French struggle with grammar, and that there are very common mistakes for native French speakers, gives me hope to continue.
Film poster for Un Ours dans le Jura (a bear in the Jura region)
Headline reads 'Swedish Steven, 28, is looking for the last box of white snus in Paris', accompanied by a picture of perhaps the most Swedish looking man in existence
text reads - Snus, or snuff, is a major diplomatic issue for the Swedes. When the country joined the European Union in 1995, it did so on the condition that it would be exempted from the EU's ban on the small tobacco pouches, which users stuff under their upper lip.
UK headline reads - Transgender women athletes banned from female events at Olympics by IOC
Back and white photo of Violette wearing a masculine style suit and tie and smoking a cigarette
Film poster for Les Rayons et les Ombres, starring Jean Dujardin
Text reads - As a card-carrying nerd, I'm normally very excited about elections. But as an immigrant in France, each new election brings with it a creeping sense of dread - how well will the far right do this time? It's been a constant drum beat since I landed in France in 2019, and each election has brought with it gains for Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National party, although never (so far) the 'big win' that would have seen them take the presidency or control of the government.
Text reads - Chef Arnaud Lallement said that few things give him as much pleasure as the glass of Champagne he treats himself to every Tuesday at lunchtime