164
votes
Accepted
Are these 'French children held at gun point'?
Are they being held? Yes.
The Telegraph article you quote has the key facts. This article in Le Monde (Google Translate) has more details.
Are they children? Technically yes.
The Le Monde article ...
- 16.8k
116
votes
Accepted
Did Emmanuel Macron call a teenager an "idiot?"
To summarise up front, he used the word imbécile which is more or less like "idiot", but he used it as an element of an idiomatic figurative phrase which means "you can play-act someone who doesn't ...
- 26.7k
109
votes
Accepted
Was it ever illegal to name a pig "Napoleon" in France?
According to this article (French), there has never been such a law in French codes, but the rumor is persistent over time.
It seems that it all come from the censorship of George Orwell's Animal ...
- 1,701
89
votes
Can you have your lunch at your work-desk in France?
Yes, it is illegal for an employer to let an employee eat at their desk.
Article R4228-19
It is forbidden to allow workers to take their meals in the premises assigned to work.
It is the employer's ...
- 1,701
85
votes
Accepted
Was the 45.9°C temperature in France in June 2019 the highest ever recorded in France?
The 1930 measurement was taken incorrectly.
The claim was also made in domestic newspapers at the time, including L'Express du Midi:
50° AU SOLEIL A SAINT-ETIENNE
Saint-Etienne, 27 août. Le ...
- 11.2k
80
votes
Accepted
Did France kill millions of Muslims?
It is hard to define where "the history of France" actually started. There was the realm of Francia since 481, the Kingdom of France since 987, experiments with different forms of ...
- 2,115
76
votes
Did the French government print posters explaining COVID-19 vaccination passport policy already in January 2020?
According to several French newspapers, e.g. Liberation, the explanation is that the 2020 date was a typo.
Plusieurs affiches sur le pass sanitaire indiquent une date au 20 janvier 2020, avant les ...
70
votes
Accepted
Are all French citizens who go outside their home legally required to carry official papers with a reason why they are out (Covid-19 lockdown)?
Yes, it's true (but imprecise). All residents of France (this is unrelated to citizenship) need to carry an authorization and the police is checking these authorizations. The authorization is a sworn ...
53
votes
Accepted
Did French police fine homeless persons for not being confined at home in March 2020?
It is a bit unclear at the moment. But it is certainly not just "fake news". It is an ongoing situation with "his word against his", with the police being one "his", and a not particularly trustworthy ...
- 44.1k
47
votes
Can you have your lunch at your work-desk in France?
It was previously banned and now it is permitted, as of 2021:
Decree No. 2021-156 of February 13, 2021 temporarily adjusting the provisions of the Labor Code relating to catering premises now allows ...
- 1,430
44
votes
Accepted
Are there shanty towns in Paris?
The image is true in the sense that it was not manipulated in its pixels, and it is true that it depicts mainly Roma people who set camp on the railway line in Paris. But the date of "meanwhile" is ...
- 44.1k
38
votes
Did Emmanuel Macron call a teenager an "idiot?"
The French word Macron used to address the teenager was "imbecile", although in an advisory form: "You can act like an imbecile, but..."
Video here: Emmanuel Macron tells teenager: 'Call me Mr. ...
37
votes
Is this letter from Madame de Sévigné authentic?
A similar text was published on Instagram on April 29, 2020 by Véronique de Bure, a French author and one of the directors for Flammarion, a well-known French publishing house.
Un texte similaire a ...
- 403
32
votes
Accepted
Is this letter from Madame de Sévigné authentic?
It's hard to prove a negative, but here are some points against its authenticity:
This 12-volume edition of Madame de Sévigné's letters doesn't have any letter dated 30 April 1687 (the date given in ...
- 9,499
31
votes
Are there shanty towns in Paris?
Although, as LangLangC stated, the image you provided doesn't show an actual migrant camp (the Roma people didn't come to France during the migrant crisis of 2015 but rather since 2008 when Romania ...
- 411
27
votes
Was there a trial by combat between a man and a dog in medieval France?
This appears to be a folk tale with little contemporary evidence of the event actually happening, but the tale itself does seem to date to the 15th century.
According to Volume 17 of the 1911 ...
- 11.6k
26
votes
Accepted
Is this an old church being destroyed in France?
From the link posted by @SVilcans:
Fewer than 300 churches had been demolished between 1905 and 2014, the Catholic newspaper La Croix reported, out of more than 42,000 in total.
From the La Croix ...
- 19.2k
23
votes
Did France ban wifi in schools and daycares in 2015 because of health concerns?
EDIT: Used much more explicit reference to health concerns in the discussions made which led to the statute.
Has Wifi been banned in schools/daycares?
Wifi has only been banned in some cases, ...
- 3,269
20
votes
Did France kill millions of Muslims?
There has been a recent political agenda by Turkey's government to expose French violence in Algeria as Genocide, in response to France's recognition of the Armenian genocide. Consequently, English ...
- 1,430
17
votes
Is there a French law governing the shape of the croissant?
I'm pretty sure there's no law (but the habit is genuine). I cannot find a definitive answer, but since it's difficult to prove a negative, I'm going to offer some fairly strong evidence.
None of the ...
16
votes
Did 16% of French citizens support ISIS in 2014?
The French news magazine L'Express reported on this poll. They give information about the poll that complements the Newsweek article. In particular, the poll question was (my translation): ”According ...
14
votes
Accepted
Did Germany and France offer help to Italy in the Covid-19 crisis?
claim: Germany didn't offer help to Italy
I didn't find indication of Germany directly offering aid to Italy
But there is indication that on Mar 12th (4 days before the opinion piece) Germany decided ...
- 3,556
13
votes
Are there shanty towns in Paris?
To answer more precisely on the where part of the question, the shantytown is on BD Ney, 75018 Paris (48°53'53.1"N 2°21'05.6"E):
Google Maps screenshot
- 231
12
votes
Did France flood Guinea with counterfeit currency to destabilize it?
Yes, this actually happened, according to French journalists Roger Faligot and Pascal Krop, both of whom were mainstream journalists and specialized in French counterinsurgency and covert operations.
...
- 47.5k
12
votes
Did Europe have a Covid-19 case in December 2019?
This has been all over the breaking news, although none of the news stories I found link to the actual study, so here's Reuters' take:
The Italian National Institute of Health looked at 40 sewage ...
11
votes
Was there a trial by combat between a man and a dog in medieval France?
A book, The 14th Century, seems to back the claim up somewhat, but places the duel earlier than 1400, during the reign of Charles V of France, which was from 1364 until his death in 1380.
The book in ...
- 22.4k
11
votes
Did the French government print posters explaining COVID-19 vaccination passport policy already in January 2020?
For the extra skeptics out there, another strong indication of this date being a mere typo is the name of the "anti Covid" app mentioned near the bottom of this PDF document:
Téléchargez l’...
- 211
10
votes
Accepted
Did Macron say in 2019 it is better to make concessions to Russia on Ukraine rather than let Russia fall in Beijing's orbit?
Macron said something along these lines at the Conference of Ambassadors, on August 27, 2019:
Je pense en plus que pousser la Russie loin de l'Europe est une profonde erreur stratégique parce que ...
- 1,701
10
votes
Accepted
Do “Soupeurs” exist?
Yes.
This has its own ICD-10 code with F65.8, if it is based on sexual pleasure. But there are other reasons given for such practices. Most often some 'health' or 'spiritual' claim. But those are also ...
- 44.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Have over 500 Kanaks been "disappeared" by French troops in New Caledonia?
I'm French and I follow information sources that strive to be neutral or lean towards New Caledonian autonomy or independence, and this is the first time I hear this claim.
Unfortunately, it's hard to ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible