Category: France

Issued on: 30/03/2026 – 16:00

3 min Reading time

Court proceedings, which got underway on Monday, are expected to run for at least three months, with seven of the defendants – including former intelligence agents, soldiers and business figures – facing the possibility of life imprisonment if convicted.

At the heart of the case is the Athanor Masonic Lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. Prosecutors allege that the lodge served as a hub for a tightly organised network that carried out violent acts ranging from assaults to contract killings.

Among those in the dock are at least four freemasons, alongside four officers from France’s DGSE external intelligence agency, three police officers, six business executives, and professionals including a doctor and an engineer. Most of the accused, aged between 30 and 73, have no prior criminal records – a detail that has added to the intrigue surrounding the case.

The alleged ringleaders – Jean-Luc Bagur, Frederic Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu – are all linked to the Athanor lodge and are accused of orchestrating a series of crimes through a structured chain of command. They, along with Beaulieu’s associate Sébastien Leroy, face the most severe penalties.

Neo-Nazi suspects in custody over planned attack on Masonic lodge

From botched plot to major investigation

The case first came to light following a failed contract killing in July 2020. Two members of France’s parachute regiment were arrested near the home of business coach Marie-Helene Dini while in possession of weapons.

Under questioning, the pair claimed they believed they had been tasked by the state to eliminate Dini, alleging she had ties to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

Investigators quickly uncovered links to Bagur, a business rival of Dini and the 69-year-old “venerable master” of the Athanor lodge. According to prosecutors, Bagur commissioned the hit for a fee of €70,000, allegedly passing the task through Vaglio to a network overseen by Beaulieu, a former agent with the French secret service.

Leroy, described as the operational leader of the group, later admitted in custody that he and his associates had carried out numerous violent acts on behalf of the network. These allegedly included robberies, assaults and at least one murder – that of racing driver Laurent Pasquali, whose body was discovered in a forest in 2018.

Prosecutors say the group’s activities escalated over time – evolving from acts of revenge to more organised and lethal operations. One alleged incident involved industrial espionage, in which a businesswoman was attacked and her computer stolen. In another, a car was set ablaze after its owner reportedly uncovered financial irregularities linked to Bagur.

France vows to boost security for crypto executives after spate of kidnappings

Troubling questions

As the trial unfolds, it is expected to shine a light not only on the alleged crimes but also on the unusual composition of the group – which includes individuals from law enforcement, intelligence and professional sectors.

Leroy has told investigators he believed he was acting in the interests of the state throughout, claiming he had been misled by Beaulieu and encouraged to think he was working towards becoming an informant.

For Marie-Helene Dini, the intended target of the 2020 plot, the case is deeply unsettling. Her lawyer, Jean-William Vezinet, has described it as “terrifying”, noting that many of those implicated were figures entrusted with public responsibility.

Uncertainty remains over what testimony Beaulieu will be able to provide. His lawyer has said he suffered lasting impairments after an apparent suicide attempt while in custody, including difficulties with concentration.

Despite the gravity of the allegations, the trial is also being seen as an opportunity for the French justice system to demonstrate its thoroughness and independence – particularly given the sensitive roles held by some of the accused.

(with newswires)

Why do I need to know se mettre la rate au court-bouillon?

This French expression might sound ancient but it actually only dates back to the 20th century and is used in every day language. It is an exaggerated metaphor that sounds quite absurd. 

What does it mean?

The expression se mettre la rate au court-bouillon, roughly pronounced suh met-ruh lah raht oh koor boo-yon (listen here), literally translates to “to put one’s spleen into a poaching broth”, but in reality it means “to get all worked up over something”.

So why spleen? And why broth?

First of all, the word rate refers to the human organ, the spleen. For a long time, doctors suspected it of producing black bile, a substance theorised by ancient physicians as the cause of sadness and anxiety. People, therefore, believed that one had to faire rire la rate (make the spleen laugh) by eating roots like black radish or dandelion to better deal with the winter months and maintain good spirits.

Other French expressions include se dilater la rate, meaning “to laugh”, or se décharger la rate to mean “letting out one’s anger”.  The spleen thus remains associated with moods, whether good or bad.

It’s also used in more serious medical contexts, however, to discuss the organ – for example if you had ruptured your spleen in an accident.

Court-bouillon (stock), on the other hand, is a quickly-cooked broth used for poaching other foods, most commonly fish or seafood. The word bouillon (broth) has been used since the 13th century to refer to liquid food in which certain substances are boiled, and is still widely used in cooking contexts.

The idea was that when you were angry or upset, your spleen would contract, as if it were immersed in a hot broth. But the true origins remain uncertain.

The expression is featured as the title of a work by the writer Frédéric Dard, also known as San Antonio, La rate au court-bouillon, published in 1965. It later appears in a slang dictionary published in 1970 by the writers Alphonse Boudard and Étienne Luc. From slang, it seems to have entered everyday language.

Use it like this

Ça ne sert à rien de se mettre la rate au court-bouillon, tu ne peux rien changer à la situation. – It’s useless to get all worked up over this; you can’t change anything about the situation.

Ne te mets pas la rate au court-bouillon. On finira le projet demain. – Don’t get all stressed over this. We’ll finish the project tomorrow.

Il se met la rate au court-bouillon pour tout, cela doit être épuisant. – He worries all the time about everything, it must be exhausting. 

Air China has restarted direct flights between Beijing and Pyongyang after a six-year hiatus, just weeks after the resumption of train services between the capitals. Travel between the East Asian neighbours had been heavily restricted when strict border closures were imposed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hazel Smith looks at the Académie française’s centuries-long battle for linguistic purity…

The Académie française is a fiercely proud cultural institution whose aim is to protect the purity of the French language. Dating back to the late 1620s, it symbolises the respect the French have for their native tongue… although for some, it is an absurd anachronism. Once a clandestine gathering of like-minded men who mused over literature and linguistics, news of their meetings eventually reached the ears of a sympathetic Cardinal Richelieu, who offered them official recognition in 1635. Ironically, most of the members would have been happier to remain cloistered away.

Most Recent inductee Florian Zeller_Césars -wikimedia

The Académie sought to refine the French language through specific rules, making the language pure and eloquent. Members proposed to “cleanse the language from the impurities it has contracted in the mouths of the common people, from the jargon of the lawyers, from the misuses of ignorant courtiers, and the abuses from the pulpit”.

AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB

The 40 life members of the Académie are known as ‘the Immortals’. New members are chosen by the Immortals; no rank or nationality is necessary, only a recognised contribution to the French language. Notable past members include writers Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas-fils; scientists Louis Pasteur and Jacques Cousteau; presidents Clemenceau and Poincaré; and playwrights Ionesco and Jean Cocteau. Most recently, playwright and director Florian Zeller was elected to the Académie at the age of 46, making him one of its youngest members in modern times. Since 2010, members have been required to be under 75 when elected. With five vacant seats, the Académie currently has 35 members, five of them women. After centuries of exclusion, women were finally admitted in 1980 with the election of novelist Marguerite Yourcenar.

Louis_Duchesne_recevant_son_ami_Lyautey_à_l’Académie_Française. wikipedia

Since its beginnings, the Académie has been entrusted to compile a Dictionnaire de l’Académie française. The first edition was published in 1694. The ninth edition was completed with the publication of its final volume, R to Zzz, and was formally presented to President Emmanuel Macron in November 2024. Work on it had begun in 1986, and its publication came 89 years after the previous complete edition, published in the early 1930s. New words, which appear yearly in other dictionaries, have been ignored: the Académie prefers not to accept newfangled terms.

AN ONGOING BATTLE

The Académie feels that English words, such as email, selfie, or hashtag, are a threat to French culture. Instead, French substitutes, S such as courriel for email and mot-dièse for hashtag, are promoted. However, most French people are perfectly happy to use words such as le selfie, le sandwich, le brunch and le week-end.

Debates flare whenever English infiltrates, but the Académie’s disapproval has little effect: legally, it has never had a say in what words people can use. Yet in 1994, the Toubon Law supported the Académie, requiring French to be used in official communications, advertising campaigns and the workplace. A win at last in the Académie française’s ongoing battle to guard traditional French from the encroaching language of convenience.

From France Today Magazine

Lead photo credit : Academie Francaise is locaed in this building. Institut_de_France_-_Académie_française_et_pont_des_Arts

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Issued on: 30/03/2026 – 10:12Modified: 30/03/2026 – 10:14

2 min Reading time

Europe’s leading artificial intelligence company Mistral AI has secured over €750 million ($830 million) in loans to fund a major expansion of its computing power, underlining Europe’s growing ambition to compete with the US and China in the global AI race.

The Paris-based company will use the financing to purchase 13,800 advanced chips from Nvidia, forming the backbone of a new data centre near the French capital. The deal, to be announced on Monday, marks Mistral’s first foray into debt markets and signals rising investor confidence in Europe’s homegrown AI sector.

The funding was arranged by a consortium of seven banks, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC and MUFG. Together, they are backing a project that could help Europe close the gap with dominant US cloud and AI providers such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

Mistral and ASML forge €1.7bn alliance to shape Europe’s AI future

Building Europe’s AI backbone

At the heart of the investment is a large-scale data centre in Bruyères-le-Châtel, south of Paris, which is expected to come online in the second quarter of 2026. The facility will play a key role in supporting the training and deployment of advanced AI models across Europe.

Mistral selected the site in February 2025 as part of a broader strategy to anchor critical AI infrastructure within Europe. The move reflects a wider push among European policymakers and companies to ensure that the continent retains control over the technologies shaping its economic future.

Chief executive Arthur Mensch said increasing capacity locally was essential to maintaining both innovation and autonomy.

“Scaling our infrastructure in Europe is critical to empower our customers and to ensure AI innovation and autonomy remain at the heart of Europe,” he said in a statement.

France’s Mistral AI teams up with UAE-backed developers as Le Chat app launches

Broader push for independence

The new data centre is only the beginning of Mistral’s expansion plans. The company recently unveiled a second facility in Sweden and aims to secure 200 megawatts of computing capacity across Europe by the end of 2027.

This growing network is designed to support governments and businesses seeking alternatives to US-based providers, particularly in sensitive sectors where data sovereignty and security are paramount.

Mistral has already positioned itself as a strategic partner in this space, supplying AI models to the French armed forces and offering both software and infrastructure solutions. Its dual approach – combining model development with physical computing capacity – sets it apart from many newer entrants in the field.

With fresh funding secured and expansion plans in motion, Mistral’s move points to a more serious European push to build its own AI capacity alongside dominant US and Chinese players.

(with newswires)

The move away from the southern airport – announced back in 2023 – ends an 80-year relationship Air France has had with Orly, where it ran mostly domestic and short-haul flights.

The airline said it was responding to declining passenger demand, with increased video-conferencing and reduced domestic business travel – both accelerated during the Covid pandemic – and a shift in France towards train journeys.

The airline told AFP that the last flight would be an air shuttle arriving on Saturday night from the southern French city of Nice.

The only services left with Air France livery at Orly are flights to and from the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, which fulfil a public service role.

Air France’s budget subsidiary Transavia will also remain at Orly.

Groupe ADP, the state-controlled operator of Paris’s airport, said in February passenger volumes last year had essentially returned to levels seen before Covid.

In tennis, Jannik Sinner won back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami. Kimi Antonelli won the Japanese Grand Prix in Formula 1. In cycling, Jonas Vingegaard won Volta a Catalunya. Stade Français put on a spectacular performance against Clermont in Top 14.