Cathars, Paris waiters and other misunderstood Frenchmen

News in France this week has been dominated by wildfires, with thousands evacuated as huge blazes hit south-west France. These fires come hard on the heels of earlier blazes in Dordogne, Var, the Forest of Fontainebleau and many other places.

On Wednesday the Interior Minister revealed that 44,000 hectares of land have burned this year, more than burned in the whole of 2025, and the total has increased since then.

Much attention has been focused on the arrests of people for starting fires. I don’t pretend to understand the kind of twisted person who would do this, but in truth one cannot start a wildfire, only a fire. What turns a fire – small, contained, possible to extinguish – into a wildfire are climactic conditions, especially the parched land and tinder-dry vegetation that is the result of longer, hotter and drier summers.

They might not have been in the woods with a box of matches, but the fossil fuel CEOs and the governments who fail to take action on climate change are just as responsible for these fires as the person who ignited the spark.

READ ALSO: Explained: The causes of France’s increasingly severe wildfires

Culture wars

France is bidding to expand further its already impressive list of UNESCO world heritage sites, but a bid to have listed eight ‘Cathar castles’ in south-west France has caused controversy in the local area, due to the bid renaming them as Languedoc Historic Fortresses.

READ ALSO: Why UNESCO bid for the ‘Cathar castles’ is causing anger in south-west France

While perhaps more historically accurate, the new name would erase the link with the Cathars – the persecuted religious sect which sprung up in France in the 13th century – a fact that has angered many locals who say that ‘Cathar country’ is an important part of their local identity.

Despite this period of history being more than 800 years ago, and with little firm documentary evidence about their activities, the Cathars have become important to the modern region – and not only when it comes to banking tourist coin.

When I lived in south-west France, I learned early on about the Cathars, and the history was often presented with a distinct slant of ‘look what the hated Parisian oppressors did to us southerners’.

It’s not unique to France to dislike the capital, of course – where I come from in Yorkshire we maintain a healthy scepticism towards London – but south-west France has built itself a firm and distinct regional identity that diverges in many important ways from Paris and northern France.

There’s the local language, Occitan, which is seeing something of a renaissance in schools and in culture, there’s the preference for rugby over football, there’s the Spanish influences in activities like bullfighting and there’s the hearty regional cuisine. And that’s even before we get to chocolatine wars.

The mysterious Cathar sect and its brutal and blood-soaked repression might have taken place centuries ago, but that doesn’t mean that these long-dead people are not still a part of local life.

Plot twist

The Marine Le Pen saga rumbles on, with another court appearance in the pipeline and a potentially very high-stakes gamble. 

It’s just a couple of weeks since the Appeal court upheld her conviction for embezzlement and ordered her to wear an electronic tag as part of her prison sentence – but also threw her a political lifeline by reducing her ban on standing for office from five years to 15 months, meaning that she can take part in next spring’s presidential election. After having previously said she wouldn’t run if the court forced her to wear an ankle tag, she then changed her mind and announced she will be competing in the election.

But she’s not ready to give up on the legal front, and has launched another challenge – this time to the Conseil Constitutionnel on an obscure point of law. 

It seems like a clear attempt to delay her punishment by spinning out the legal process as long as possible – similar to how Nicolas Sarkozy managed to extend his legal proceedings for well over 10 years (although he did go to prison eventually, briefly). And in fact, how people with access to money and lawyers regularly delay their reckonings. 

But as John Lichfield points out, an appeal to the Conseil Constitutionnel carries a number of legal pitfalls that make this a very high-stakes gamble for Le Pen. If her gamble fails, she could even see herself barred from standing just weeks before the election itself.

Photo of the week

French footballer Zinedine Zidane is probably best known outside France for that headbutt moment in the World Cup final in 2006.

But ahead of his expected nomination as France’s new national football coach next week, Zidane has been showing his softer side, posting on Instagram this picture with his exceptionally small, fluffy white dog.

Photo: Zinedine Zidane/Instagram

In fact the dog – a Maltese bichon – has been a regular feature of Zidane’s family social media posts since she was adopted in 2021. 

Rant of the week

UK newspaper The Guardian’s ‘The hill I will die on’ series took on a Paris flavour this week – Paris waiters are not rude, they’re just badly misunderstood.

I agree. In my seven years in Paris I’m struggling to think of any truly rude serving staff I have encountered. Of course I’ve been to places where the service was slapdash and/or disinterested, but outright rude? I think that’s only happened to me once – at the hot dog stand at Stade de France on match day, so I’m not sure whether that technically counts.

Conversely, waiters chatting, bringing a bowl of water for the dog or adding sparklers to a dessert once they realised that it was someone’s birthday are all things I have experienced multiple times in Paris.

But for my money the real difference is professionalism – and I think that’s where some of the misunderstanding comes in. When Paris servers give recommendations, suggest another option or try to steer you away from steak ‘well done’, they’re offering their opinion as trained specialists in the culinary sector. That doesn’t mean that you have to follow their recommendation, but it also doesn’t mean that you should regard their advice as rudeness.

READ ALSO: FACTCHECK: Do French waiters really tell customers what they can order?

On my last few trips back to the UK I’ve been really struck by the fact that waiters and bar staff are all very keen to chat . . . but frequently get the order wrong, take ages to bring it or need you to remind them where you are sitting and what you ordered. Is it a sign that I’ve gone native in France that I find myself longing for a bit less ‘hi guys’ and a bit more Parisian professionalism?

And while we’re on the topic – it IS rude not to greet waiters or bar staff with a bonjour/bonsoir before starting your order.

In the anglophone world we wouldn’t go into a business meeting and not greet people, nor would we start an appointment with a doctor or lawyer without saying hello – so why do we think that it’s OK not to give servers or shop staff the courtesy of a greeting?

Here ends this week’s rant, vive les serveuses et serveurs de Paris et vive la France.

Inside France is editor Emma Pearson’s weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.