"It needs to happen in my lifetime. We have wanted and deserved it for too long." Emma, a student studying in Barcelona, is a Catalan Independiste. She belongs to the 50% of the population of Spain's north-eastern region who would like to see Catalonia split from the Spanish state to...

Paris - and France - no longer has any mademoiselles. Luckily this is not in the wake of a mass exodus of les jeunes, but thanks to new legislation banning the title from all state literature.

French Prime Minister François Fillon has announced that women in France will no...

In the last few months I have rather enjoyed discovering how Parisian life differs from the postcards and sycophantic films. Cycling along the sunlight boulevards also involves dodging cavalier traffic with a moral aversion to lanes; outdoor cafes with heaters are balanced by glass boxes in clubs where smokers huddle...

There is the man who I pass everyday on the way to work, who wears a trilby and holds a beautiful russet puppy. There is the mother in Charles de Gaulle airport who navigates the terminal with 50 full plastic bags attached to a trolley.

There is the man...

On the Parisian street outside my flat two teenage girls were being violently held by a group of men. The girls were biting, writhing, desperately trying to free themselves from the arms that held their heads, waists and ankles. One of the women watching the struggle contemptuously informed me that...