We laughed, we cried, we creaked … The Franco-American year 2019 was full of events. French Morning has them covered for you. Small retrospective in 10 words, among the most read articles this year.
1. Foie Gras
Once bold, this symbol of French gastronomy and luxury no longer smells of holiness in the United States. The year began with the return of the foie gras ban to California and it ended the passing of a law by New York City prohibiting all sales from 2022. Happy new year for ducks, less for farmers.
All the articles on the liver crisis here.
2. Taxes
The “bromance” between Trump and Macron that made American comedians laugh so much in 2018 is far away. 2019 was the year of a serious cooling of presidential relations, with surly tweets from the White House against the “French stupidity”. But the most serious sign of stiffening relates to trade relations between the European Union and the United States, and was reflected in particular in the imposition in the fall of "prices" 25% American imports of French wines:
3. Green
We may see in it the paradoxical effect of the most “anti-environmental” president that the United States has known for a long time, but ecology has indeed been one of the key words of Franco-American current affairs. Our series “Without filter”, on Facebook, notably gave the floor to several French people engaged on this subject in the United States: Luc Hardy, amateur explorer, Cyril Guillot, urban farmer, or Hervé Breuil, animal advocate and convinced vegan.
Entrepreneurs have helped to raise awareness. They save bees, like Ubees, the subject of the first episode of our French Ecolo podcast series, or launch a very successful vegan fur brand:
Listen to “Episode 1: Ubees, the Guardian of the American Bees” on Spreaker.
4. Love
We also talked about love, of course. And especially of these sometimes complicated “cross-cultural” relationships. The mysteries of dating American-style entertainment has continued to fascinate you, making our most-read article "How do we dredge in the United States" in February (Valentine's Day requires it!). In video, very cute Franco-American couples have also been very successful (over a million views in French and English!).
5. Gad
Almost every year, Gad Elmaleh is one of our winners. This year too, but this time he would probably have done without the honor. It was the more than reserved reception for his series on Netflix US, "Huge in France", which made headlines in 2019. Like most of the other reviews, we watched and not much liked …
6. Visas
For many French people in the United States, this was the bad news of the summer and the scathing reminder that an "expatriate" is first of all an immigrant. By suddenly deciding to plan the duration of E (investor) visas and then a whole series of other visas, the Trump administration has made life difficult for many – and delighted some lawyers.
7. Low-cost
The turbulence has been severe in the airline industry, particularly low-cost airlines. XL Airways, which linked Paris to New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco in particular, filed for bankruptcy in September. Previously, Wow had done the same in the spring, leaving many passengers in the background. For its part Norwegian also reduced the airfoil by announcing the abolition of the very popular flights between New York and the French Antilles.
8. Vital card
The decision annoyed many expats: to the almost general surprise, the French parliament decided to change the conditions under which French people from abroad could be entitled to the Carte Vitale (which allows access to care supported by social Security). It now takes 15 years of contributions to be eligible, against three years previously.
The decision was all the more frowned upon, given that health on this side of the Atlantic remained a major concern. To the point that going back for treatment in France is sometimes the only solution:
9. Money
It is good to know and to repeat it regularly, the culture of the American tip remains a source of many questions. As a result, you have made our article “How-to Tip” one of the most read of the year. More seriously, you also seriously questioned the explosion of the cost of living in certain American cities, and in particular in San Francisco:
10. Lost in translation
Misunderstanding is sometimes also literal. You voted for our list of “English words that don't have French translation” or that of “10 expressions to know to speak like a real American”. And you have especially watched millions of our videos of the battle that is sometimes expressed in another language …
