1. Whip-round for financially troubled famous French actor
An online crowdfund has raised €20,000 to help 79-year-old French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, after he found himself in personal and financial difficulty.
Friends of Mr Léaud, dubbed the favourite of film director François Truffaut, set up the fund and called on the public to help.
Cinephile Armand Hennon, a friend, wrote: “Today, despite an exceptional career, Jean-Pierre is going through a difficult time emotionally, physically, and financially.”
By Wednesday (June 14), the crowdfund had reached its €20,000 target in just three days.
The actor thanked the public for their “generosity”, telling Le Parisien the money will be a “precious help in my daily life”.
2. Loyal customers help save French restaurant near Toulouse
Customers of a restaurant in south-west France have stepped in to pay its electricity bill and stop it from closing. Regulars of M…La Suite, a brasserie in Gratentour, north of Toulouse, helped owner Nathalie Sanchez to pay a €3,000 EDF bill.
She told Ouest France: “I first offered to pay in instalments, but they wouldn't let me. So I kept on working, telling myself that I was going to manage to pay it off.”
But one day, she arrived at the restaurant to find the electricity had been cut off. It was the final straw. She said she decided, on the spot, to end the business, and put a notice on the restaurant’s door to “thank customers and to warn the clientele of our definitive closure”. “It was just too much,” she said.
She continued doing takeaways for regular clients, but when word spread of the forthcoming closure, Ms Sanchez began receiving messages of support. A few days later, around 20 regulars had joined together to pay off the bill, and the restaurant was able to re-open.
Ms Sanchez said: “I'm lucky in that I've always been very close to my customers. This is like a canteen. It's not a four-star restaurant, but there's a great atmosphere. It's a family atmosphere. And everyone is happy that I'm continuing.”
3. World-first as in-womb operation saves French baby
A hospital in France has become the first to successfully perform a specific type of in-womb operation, to save an unborn baby from a life-threatening aneurysm.
Doctors at the Necker hospital in the 15th arrondissement in Paris operated on baby Lisandro on September 8, 2022. He had a rare Galen aneurysm, which had been identified in-utero. While it was not the first time that doctors have operated in the womb, it was the first such operation for this specific condition.
Galen aneurysms are a malformation of blood vessels in the brain. They are very rare and only affect a few dozen people per year. The condition is usually fatal if left untreated.
Baby Lisandro had been given an 88% chance of death after birth, or of being severely disabled if he did survive. The parents were offered three choices: a termination, to continue with the pregnancy without treatment, or a third option to try this unprecedented operation.
They chose the third way and had the operation at 33 weeks. The procedure went smoothly (although in the presence of around 20 doctors and trainees), and Lisandro was born five weeks later on October 15.
After three more operations, the eight-month-old is now well. The case has even inspired other doctors; in Boston, US, a similar operation successfully took place in March this year.
Read more: France completes first ever double arm, shoulder transplant
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4. French children handed more money for cultural activities
French children are set to receive more money to help them benefit from cultural activities.
The government already issues a credit of €20 for 15-year-olds and €30 for 16-and-17-year-olds. At age 18, the scheme gives access to €300-worth of credit, valid for 24 months.
The money is eligible to be spent on cultural activities such as books, music (whether physical or digital) and visits to cultural sites.
Since 2022, the scheme has also included a group component, with credit granted to schools to help them pay for “artistic and cultural education projects” inside or outside the school.
This previously applied to classes with children aged from around 14 to 18. But it has now been extended to 12 to 14-year-olds.
5. Lower prices as French store Casino gambles on radical strategy
French supermarket chain Casino is set to lower prices on thousands of products as part of a new ‘damage control’ strategy following bad press, high debts, and the rising cost of food.
The Casino group, which confirmed the sale of more than 100 stores to rival Intermarché this week, has debts of more than €6billion, and its CEO Jean-Charles Naouri has been investigated by police for insider dealing and price manipulation. Unions have accused the group of making “major strategic errors''.
Read more: Union publishes list of Casino stores in France sold to Intermarché
Similarly, the company last year chose to increase its prices to deal with inflation, rather than absorb the extra costs itself like competitor Leclerc.
The group has now ‘rethought’ its pricing approach, with 10,000 supermarket products and 20,000 hypermarket products having had their prices reduced by 10% on average.
New managing director, Sébastien Corrado said: “This is a way of changing our price image.” He said that the products included in the price drop “now represent 8% of [the chain’s] volumes and have doubled in terms of sales.”
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Has France’s anti-inflation drive cut supermarket food prices?
France performs world’s first virtual reality surgery
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