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France

The strange story of France’s abandoned skate utopia

Inside Rooler Gab — 25 years ago, an eccentric retired winemaker built a 3000-square-metre skate park, complete with fully functioning ski lift. It closed within months – making it the skate world’s first ever ‘ghost town.’

  • Skate
  • Maxime Brousse

The Parisian street gangs who fought fascists in style

Rockabilly rebels — At the age of 23, photographer Philippe Chancel embedded himself with two rockabilly gangs who lived life on the edge – resulting in the adventure of a lifetime. Now, over 35 years later, the images have finally come to light.

  • Photography
  • Cian Traynor

The story behind the year’s most powerful LGBTQ film

120 Beats Per Minute — We speak to French director and former ACT UP member Robin Campillo about activism, Aids, and his moving must-see masterpiece, 120 BPM.

  • Film
  • Thomas Curry

Life inside Europe's biggest alternative-living community

A symbol of resistance — The ZAD is a micro-society in rural France where activists, farmers and free-spirits live in harmony. Photographer Kevin Faingnaert tried to find out why.

  • Outdoors
  • Cian Traynor

Pro-surfer Maud Le Car shares her guide to Basque France

Lost in Hossegor — Home to Billabong, Volcom, and Quicksilver, Hossegor is Europe's surf hub. Here, professional surfer and artist Maud Le Car – a native of the region – gives us the grand tour.

  • Surf
  • Daryl Mersom

Coming of age in Paris as a young black woman

First generation — Balancing liberal European culture with African tradition, photographer Carolina Arantes captures a new generation of Afro-French women.

  • Photography
  • Carolina Arantes

Self-appointed 'King' Macron is no antidote to Trump

From Where I Stand — After parading through the Palace of Versailles with an entourage of underlings, French president Emmanuel Macron has allowed the mask to slip. What lies beneath, says Sam Kriss, looks scarily familiar.

  • Culture
  • Sam Kriss

An off-the-grid nirvana on the French Atlantic coast

The Travel Diary — Hidden in the forest along beaches of the South of France lies an organic slice of paradise.

  • Photography
  • Zeger Dox

Shooting the Graffiti Trucks of Paris

Subverting the streets — For his latest zine photographer Marc Vallée took to the streets of Paris late at night, to capture the trucks that parade subversive graffiti throughout the city in an act of reclamation and defiance.

  • Photography
  • Dr. Oli Mould

Evicting the Jungle: Finding facts amid the endless speculation

Never ending waiting — For the thousands of refugees still stuck in a state of flux in the Calais Jungle, stability and security were already hard to come by. Now the camp is facing impending eviction, but with little information coming from the authorities life feels even more delicate.

  • Reportage
  • Nancy Dent

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