L’Express is celebrating its 70th birthday this year, always keeping in mind the journalistic requirement assigned by its co-founder Françoise Giroud: lifting the veil and delivering reliable and verified information in a rapidly changing world. In this summer of 2023, whether you are on your vacation spot or at home preparing for the start of the school year, we invite you to (re) dive into our great stories published in recent months. Discover the mysterious address of the Alma, discover the astonishing link between Gad Elmaleh and the sulphurous community of the Beatitudes, and devour our investigation into the crazy success of Marie Blachère, the “roundabouts” bakery. Here is a selection of our must-haves:
1/From Mazarine Pingeot to Alexis Kohler: Alma, the mysterious address of the presidency
The Alma Palace, located at 11 quai branly, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, is the residence of the Presidency of the Republic.
© / Photo12 via AFP
This is the story of a residence located a stone’s throw from the Elysée, on the other side of the Seine, which yesterday housed François Mitterrand, and today Alexis Kohler, the powerful secretary general of the Elysée. Here, little secrets, carabistouilles, forgotten tunnels and great history intertwine; a precipitate of the Fifth Republic freeing itself in pain from its monarchical atavism.
>> Read our big story
2/Gad Elmaleh and the sulphurous community of the Beatitudes
French comedian and actor Gal Elmaleh at the Marrakech Film Festival in November 2022.
© / Getty Images via AFP
Thirty press articles, radio and television invitations; released in mid-November 2022 in cinemas, the film Stay a bit, written and directed by Gad Elmaleh, was a great commercial success. A feat that this intimate story, questioning the definition of Judaism and the promise of Christianity. The affair could end there, everyone believing what they want, if the most famous of French humorists had not chosen, to evoke this course, the community of the Beatitudes, which thus benefits from advantageous publicity. However, this movement has dragged, since its origin, scandals of sexual abuse, denounced since 2010.
>> Read our big story
3/Marie Blachère: survey of the “roundabout” bakery
If you live in Paris or another large French metropolis, there is little chance that you are a customer of Marie Blachère, or even that you know the brand. By playing the artisanal and promotions card, the brand’s bakeries, non-existent ten years ago, have stormed a France that is motorized and concerned about its wallet. These “roundabout bakeries” illustrate the paradoxes and fractures between an ultra-urban France and that of the car.
>> Read our great report
4/The hidden history of the Collège des Bernardins
President Emmanuel Macron greets the then Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit, during the Conference of Bishops of France, on April 18, 2018 at the College des Bernardins.
© / ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP
Around the funny story between the ex-archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, and a favored teacher, Laetitia Calmeyn, the college of Bernardins went through a lot of turbulence. Nestled in the 5th arrondissement of the capital, the place has become, since its renovation, completed in 2008, a scene where stroll, dine or think about almost everything that matters in the country; a coveted, flattered address. L’Express investigated this prestigious foundation where Gad Elmaleh, Emmanuel Faber, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, François Ruffin or Fanny Ardant flock. On the menu: Miter, vaudeville and Roman passes.
>> Read our big story
5/ From Hélène to Emmanuel Carrère (d’Encausse)… The fascinating trajectory of a French family
Historian Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, pictured here in February 2022, died on Saturday August 5, 2023.
© / AFP
She was believed to be immortal among the Immortals as her face and appearance have occupied the French intellectual scene for the past five decades. Recognized historian, renowned academic, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, who died on August 5, passed on to her three children the taste for remarkable itineraries, each taking their own path in literature, television medicine or law, but with equal success. and equal recognition. Trajectories nourished by maternal transmission and particular dissensions that she carefully followed in the interstices of her agenda.
>> Read our big story
Other great stories to discover:
>> Macron and the castle of Villers-Cotterêts: the story of a presidential “madness” at 200 million euros
>> Delphine Horvilleur – Haïm Korsia: the truth about the “rivalry” between the two rabbis
>> When the advisers of the Macron couple tear each other apart: the Madame wing, the corridor of intrigue
>> C to You, his links with Sarkozy, Brad Pitt… Pierre-Antoine Capton, the TV madman who became king of the world
>> Hugo Clément, the ecologist that ecologists hate: his boss friends, his saucepans…
>> Yoga, Harry Potter uniforms, famous teachers… Survey of the most expensive primary school in France