PODCAST 🎧 : How to live without a car in France and are we facing an insufferably hot summer?

Host Ben McPartland is joined by The Local France’s Emma Pearson, Emma Albright, political expert John Lichfield special guest Katy Wright for a look at all the latest news and talking points from France. 

We start off with the intense heatwave gripping France over the past few days, what’s driving these unusually high temperatures, and what this could mean for the summer ahead.

You can find the Talking France podcast on Spotify, Apple or the French platform Deezer or on World Radio Paris. You can download it here or listen on the link below.

Then we turn to French politics, where the race for the 2027 presidential election is continuing to heat up. We look at the latest candidates and at the growing scrutiny surrounding former prime minister Édouard Philippe, who is facing an embezzlement investigation as he campaigns for the presidency.

The boss of French car giant Citroën has just made an announcement guaranteed to make classic car fans happy. CEO Xavier Chardon revealed that the iconic Citroën 2CV is set to return, 36 years after production ended. We explore why the quirky little car became such a cultural icon, and what the modern version will be like. 

And continuing on the subject of cars, special guest Katy Wright talks about car sharing and why this network could grow more and more in the future, in both urban and rural areas. 

And finally, we wrap up the episode with a practical vocabulary guide to talking about a heatwave in French – including the kinds of everyday expressions and slang you definitely won’t find in textbooks for saying you’re boiling hot and sweating buckets.