France Today

While still maintaing its role as one of Europe's biggest leaders in culture, politics, and art, France has had an undeniably tough last few years, with several fatal terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016. First there were the shootings at the Paris office of the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper in January 2015, and later, in November, 130 people lost their lives in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks throughout the city. In summer 2016, Nice saw over 130 people die after a truck drove into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day.

Following these tragic incidents, security has been stepped up at major locations throughout the country, and border controls have been tightened to stem the flow of migrants from Syria and Iraq. This extra vigilance may cause delays for travelers at border controls or even major tourist attractions, but that's really all that should affect visitors to the country. The attacks obviously shook the nation, but tourism here is still thriving, with France maintaining its rank as the world's top tourist destination, with more than 86 million visitors each year. The French remain leaders in science and technology. France is the world's leading producer of luxury goods, and fashion remains the nation's birthright. Dining in Paris has never been better, with the city experiencing a vibrant emergence of smaller, lower-priced bistros concentrating on quality and terroir, the local bounty that France is famous for.

Food

Several of France's acclaimed chefs, including Yannick Alléno, Eric Fréchon, and Bertrand Grébaut, have handed in their Michelin stars and bowed out of the fast track in favor of smaller, less formal settings. The global financial crisis and changing lifestyles have deeply influenced a new generation of chefs seeking a more modern approach to cooking, yet are still eager to strut their stuff for an educated, ever-appreciative audience. All of these trends have culminated in a movement that's taken France by storm—bistronomie.

Well under way since the late 1990s, the bistronomie movement is now in full swing, with exciting new restaurants opening in Paris every month. A hybrid of "bistrot" and "gastronomy," bistronomie broadly defines a new breed of bistro, run by ambitious young chefs who combine rigorous haute cuisine training with a more laid-back, individual, and creative approach. As the irreverent foodie publications Omnivore and Le Fooding—viewed as little more than cheeky upstarts when they appeared a decade ago—have evolved into major forces behind the movement, people have taken notice.

Bistronomie dovetails with other popular movements—like the locavores, who advocate the use of fresh, local ingredients, and the trend toward natural and biodynamic wines, which are grown without the use of chemical fertilizers and produced with less sulfites. An international roster of passionate young chefs has also invigorated the movement, with no single approach stealing the limelight.

Politics

The Fifth Republic, the current poltical constitution in France, was founded in 1958, largely by Charles de Gaulle. This semi-presidential system has a head of state (the president) elected for a five-year term by the citizens. The president appoints a prime minister, and they work together to appoint the government. Winning the run-off in 2012 with 51.7% of the vote, François Hollande is France's first Socialist president in 17 years. Since his appointment, the popularity of the president and his left-leaning government has evaporated. A double-dip recession, record levels of unemployment, and a succession of high-profile factory closures (including PSA, Arcelor Mittal, and Goodyear) have cranked up fervor for the opposition. Hollande has failed to turn the French economy around despite policies meant to lighten fiscal pressure for small- to medium-size enterprises, and cost-cutting measures such as reforming the local government system (slicing the 22 regions down to 13 and saving an estimated €15 billion).

Currently, France has two major political parties; on the right, the Republicans are headed by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, and on the left the Socialist party currently in power. A growing third-party movement is the far-right National Front, which made ripples in the 2015 regional elections leading in six out of 13 mainland regions. Popularity for the far right has been boosted by current issues like refugees, fear of terrorist attacks, and high unemployment. This shake-up of the political scene comes mere months before the 2017 presidential elections, with the entire country eager to see who will lead the country next.

Marriage Equality

In 2013, François Hollande’s Socialist government easily won passage of a law allowing same-sex marriage. At the time the law passed, polls found that about 53% of French adults favored same-sex marriage. In 2014, less than a year later, that number had jumped to 61%. But Hollande also burned a lot of bridges along the way. In 2014, after a round of protests, his government announced that it would not push ahead with legislation to give joint parenting rights to gay couples who had a child together.

Feminism

The French government made a long-overdue concession to French feminists, finally enforcing a law that excises the honorific "mademoiselle" from official forms, and advising that all women now be referred to as "madame" regardless of marital status. So what took France so long? A deep ambivalence on the part of both men and women regarding gender roles certainly plays a part, as does entrenched inequality, with men still earning wages an average of 14%–28% higher than women (although France has been working on closing the gender pay gap, following EU directives). Attitudes here are slow to change, and with so few female legislators, another area where France lags behind other nations, it seems that French women have their work cut out for them.

Taxes

French millionaires can relax—for now. President Francois Hollande's proposed 75% tax on individuals earning more than €1 million was abandoned in 2015. The threat of this tax alone is said to have caused wealthy people to leave the country. Gérard Depardieu, France's most famous actor, has already jumped ship. Depardieu, courted by none other than Russia's Vladimir Putin, put his 20,000-square-foot mansion in Paris's elegant 7th arrondissement up for sale. Ex-president Nicholas Sarkozy set France abuzz when his plan to vacate Paris and start up a hedge fund with a group of wealthy investors in London was uncovered during a police raid on the scandal-ridden former president's property.

From a distance, an income tax this steep may seem like madness. But the French have long reconciled themselves to higher taxes in the interest of a fundamental French value, égalité, reaping the benefits in the form of one of the world's best health-care systems, low-cost education, universal child care, and a plethora of social safety nets. With the global financial crisis, however, preserving the French quality of life is an ever-more-delicate balancing act. President François Hollande has the lowest public approval ratings of any French president. As the jockeying for position takes place for the presidential elections in 2017, Hollande is trying to boost his popularity, but with unemployment figures on the rise, recent polls indicate that Hollande might not even survive the first round.

Traffic

Paris has taken another big step toward mitigating the noise, pollution, and congestion caused by the city's automobile traffic. The dapper four-seat, fully electric Bluecar has finished its test run and is now available as a car-sharing service at 2,000 stations around the city. Similar programs have been launched in Lyon, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Based on the successful Vélib' bicycle exchange, which boasts more than 20,000 bicycles and is still growing, the Autolib' program allows cars to be taken from one of the semicircular metal-and-glass stations to any point in Paris, and 56 suburban destinations. After a nominal subscription rate, each ride is paid for in half-hour increments, costing €5.50–€9.