Talking France

Why the US can be grateful to the French, France's tremor threat and avoiding ETA scams

Talking France

Published: 20 March 2025 at 18:57 Europe/London

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Episode notes

This week we look at the earthquake risks in different parts of France after the city of Nice and the surrounding area was recently shaken by a 4.1 magnitude tremor. Scientists say France should expect a big quake one day, but do we know where and when?

We also wade into a new transatlantic war of words over the Statue of Liberty and look at what else France has given the United States over the years.

We explain a new and very innovative plan to combat drought in the south of France and find out when foreigners living here will be able to do most of their admin online like the French are doing more and more with a new digital ID.

And we explain how to avoid being scammed and needlessly paying far too much when getting an ETA visa waiver to go the UK, which will be required from next month.

Host Ben McPartland is joined today by the dazzling duo from The Local France, Emma Pearson and Gen Mansfield.

Useful websites

In this episode, we reference three websites that you may find useful.

To look at the risk of earthquakes and other natural disasters near you, try going to the French government website Géorisques.
To keep track of water restrictions in France, use the vigieau.gouv.fr website.
And finally for the UK's ETA visa waiver, the genuine site can be found here - look out for the prefix www.gov.uk indicating a genuine UK government website

Further reading:

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