Welcome to a new episode of Talking France, a special episode it turns out, because we find ourselves in the midst of a new major protest movement in France.

This one is being led by high school students, who are fed up with the state of the education system and fear they don’t have much future ahead of them. Their movement, which has seen lycees blockaded, is supported by students, parents, teachers, unions and several political parties.

In the last week or so we’ve seen thousands of young people arrested, we’ve had hundreds of school students, education staff and police officers left injured as violence and vandalism has flared at flash points throughout the country.

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This week we’ve seen tens of thousands take to the streets in a mass demonstration as well as the president calling emergency meetings with his ministers.

This wasn’t meant to be a special episode but these student uprising has caught us by surprise and so we need to breakdown what’s going on, what’s caused it and find out where it’s heading.

To do that I’ll call on the team at The Local France Emma Pearson and Emma Albright, our French politics expert John Lichfield and as well as French education expert and author Peter Gumbel. I’m Ben McPartland your host.

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Up for discussion this week is the weather, will a town in rainy Brittany run out of water. What’s the situation like everywhere else? Will we all be forced to limit our showers to three minutes soon?

We’ll get the latest analysis on French politics from whether the government can do anything to quell anger around fuel prices or will it all feed Marine Le Pen’s populist campaign and whether shocking anti-semitism allegations directed at her number 2, Jordan Bardella could undermine her run for the Elysée in any way.

Problems with carte de séjour renewals give many foreign residents sleepless nights; We ‘ll get the latest on moves to ease the crisis and hear from several readers who have been badly impacted.

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Plus we’ll find out about where the battlegrounds are in FRance over the planned construction of controversial data centres.

And if a French person ever says sorry to you - we’ll tell you how to respond.

Host Ben McPartland is joined by Emma Albright from The Local France and our French politics expert John Lichfield, plus Katy Wright who’ll join us from Brittany.

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Among the words on everyone’s lips this week in France is - petrol, well and diesel. Yes fuel prices have reached record high levels in France. We’ll get the latest on what the government is doing, where the shortages are and whether the crisis could lead to social unrest and even the return of les Gillets Jaunes - remember them? They could be back.

We’ll also run you through the key numbers of the Pope’s historic visit to Paris this weekend, but should he be allowed to say mass on the Champs-Elysees in secular France?

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We’ve got a great interview with a civil liberties expert to hear about the potential dangers posed by Marine Le Pen and her party and we’ll look at whether competition on the rails in France will bring down the prices of train tickets - including on the eurostar.

And we’ll explain how to use capital letters in French - it’s not as obvious as you think.

I’m Ben McPartland and I’ll be joined for this episode of Talking France by the team at The Local Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and politics expert John Lichfield, plus journalist Katy Wright in Brittany and special guest, the civil liberties expert Rim Sarah Alouane

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