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Matthew Fraser

Matthew Fraser

The Spectator

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Marine Le Pen’s return is a nightmare for French centrists

Marine Le Pen’s comeback has thrown France’s presidential election into disarray as rivals for the Élysée Palace scramble to revise their game...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

Le gavroche / What should Paris do about Hamza?

Armed with his water gun and foul language, a truculent 14-year-old Arab boy called Hamza has become the unexpected sideshow of the Paris heatwave...

05.07.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

What should Paris do about Hamza?

Armed with his water gun and foul language, a truculent 14-year-old Arab boy called Hamza has become the unexpected sideshow of the Paris heatwave...

05.07.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

Why do the French have a problem with air conditioning?

In the French city of Nantes, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the city’s long-anticipated railway station was a big event. The socialist mayor,...

30.06.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

Ca craint! / Paris’s Left Bank is dying

In the heart of Paris’s Left Bank, the Café de Cluny has witnessed many tumultuous events in modern French history. During the liberation of Paris...

21.06.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

Paris’s Left Bank is dying

In the heart of Paris’s Left Bank, the Café de Cluny has witnessed many tumultuous events in modern French history. During the liberation of Paris...

21.06.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew Fraser

What will become of Paris’s ugliest building?

Parisians were recently treated to the impromptu spectacle of a shirtless 26-year-old man scaling bare-handed the 59-storey Montparnasse office tower....

07.06.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

Bricking it / What will become of Paris’s ugliest building?

Parisians were recently treated to the impromptu spectacle of a shirtless 26-year-old man scaling bare-handed the 59-storey Montparnasse office tower....

06.06.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

Bricking it / What will become of Paris’s ugliest building?

Parisians were recently treated to the impromptu spectacle of a shirtless 26-year-old man scaling bare-handed the 59-storey Montparnasse office tower....

06.06.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

What will become of Paris’s ugliest building?

Parisians were recently treated to the impromptu spectacle of a shirtless 26-year-old man scaling bare-handed the 59-storey Montparnasse office tower....

06.06.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

Renaissance / The glorious revival of Paris’s English bookshop

Stepping into Smith & Son bookshop across from the Tuileries, my first instinct is to look for signs of change. A regular customer for decades,...

23.05.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

The glorious revival of Paris’s English bookshop

Stepping into Smith & Son bookshop across from the Tuileries, my first instinct is to look for signs of change. A regular customer for decades,...

23.05.2026 10

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

What happened to Provence?

The best time to visit Provence, I always advise when asked, is in the spring before the scorching heat and summer crowds. I have been spending time...

20.04.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

What happened to Provence?

The best time to visit Provence, I always advise when asked, is in the spring before the scorching heat and summer crowds. I have been spending time...

19.04.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser

The intertwined lives and deaths of Jean Genet and Simone de Beauvoir

A strange literary coincidence occurred in Paris exactly 40 years ago, on 14 April, 1986.  In the small hours of the morning, Jean Genet, enfant...

14.04.2026 20

The Spectator

Matthew fraser