I don’t talk about politics on this blog, but the French President calling snap elections a few weeks ahead of the Olympics was on no one’s bingo card. As a result, we spent June in election mode, with voting taking place at the end of June and the beginning of July. This followed the European Parliament elections in early June.
Don’t ask.

So here we are, with the world’s biggest sporting event about to begin, a host city full of disgruntled citizens who have just been forced to cast their votes and who only wish their summer vacation were already there.
But there are still a few more events coming first:

The Tour de France
The Tour is a huge annual event. It dominates French television for three weeks, even on rest days. This year, in order to avoid an overlap with the Olympics, the Tour started a week earlier than usual and finished for the first time ever far away from the capital, in Nice. (This should have scored with the disgruntled Parisians. Probably not, though.)

Bastille Day
July 14 is the French National holiday, with a big military parade and lots of flag-waving and fireworks. Nothing special to report there, but two days later the prime minister’s resignation was accepted. His government stayed on as caretaker government until all of Paris 2024 was concluded.

On July 17, the French mayor took a quick swim in the Seine, with dozens and dozens of journalists immortalizing her heroic feat. Talk about a political summer!

Promise, no more politics until September.