The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a rare condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and advocated for “meaningful immigration reform.”
Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY
Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.
Françoise Hardy “L’été où je suis devenue jolie”
Agathe Catel “Nos fantômes”
Rodolphe Burger and Julien Perraudeau “It’s in the Valley” 2025 – Watch the full concerte
Movie review: ‘Young Mothers’ by Dardenne Brothers
In Young Mothers, we have four teenagers navigating their motherhood while dealing with addiction, love, unstable parents and absent partners
By Anuradha Vellat
No process tests the spirit like motherhood does. A body in continuous transition for nine months for humans. Even the non-mothers know that growing a fetus inside takes a toll and might even change the body’s anatomy for good. Add to this the cocktail of adolescence and you have an impending train wreck.
In Young Mothers, a French feature directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne – referred to as the Dardenne Brothers – and screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) 2025, we have four teenagers navigating their motherhood while dealing with addiction, love, unstable parents and absent partners.
Perla, Julie and Araine are new mothers, their babies only a few weeks old. Perla pesters the father of the child, a teen himself, to be with them. He is dismissive of her. For Julie, the struggle is her own addiction. She distrusts herself with the responsibilities. Araine, meanwhile, understands the precarity of the life that lies ahead. Growing up with an abusive parent, she knows the repercussions her own baby might incur and wishes to give her away.
The girls – Jessica, Perla, Julie and Araine, played by Babette Verbeek, Lucie Laruelle, Elsa Houben and Janaina Halloy Fokan, respectively – live in the maternal home in Liege, Belgium, and are at the crossroads of adulthood. There is no pregnancy glow, no time for cravings, no partner to take turns to hold the baby. Just a few good women, symbolic of their own absent mothers, at a shelter, who have their backs to help them from falling into an emotional cesspool. Jessica is due any time soon, which is when she longs for her own mother who abandoned her as a child.
The girls want to assert themselves because they have just undergone a very adult process. However, they are scared of the consequences of their assertions which further confuse them. The girls see their relationships with their children as extensions of their longings in life, with fears of guilt and abandonment creeping in every now and then.
The phenomenal thing about Young Mothers is that the Dardenne Brothers do not delve into a singular state of being. They use the complexities of the community of teenage mothers to drive the plot. The directors are aware of the impossibility of describing the process of carrying a child so they stick to teen impulses and the actors deliver extraordinarily. Shot with a handheld camera, the scenes are intimate and often anxiety-inducing, especially because it involves weeks-old children in the arms of their “child mothers”.
The Dardenne Brothers trust their viewers with the intelligence of interpretations, which was evident from the ample conversations after the screening: Was the film about the universal question of motherhood? Was it particularly intense because of undetected post-partum showing up in individual ways? Was it about assertion of identities, which subverts the trope of a sacrificial mother?
It is difficult to arrive at conclusions after watching Young Mothers but the longing for closure is a closure in itself.
Source: DIFF review: ‘Young Mothers’ by Dardenne Brothers | Hollywood
Suffering from burnout, an American woman asks ChatGPT where to move and ends up in the Gard region
Thanks to ChatGPT, an American woman changed her life. Exhausted by her tech career in San Francisco, Julie Neis left everything behind to settle in Uzès, in the south of France.
Every morning, Julie Neis sits down at a table in the Place aux Herbes, in the heart of Uzès in the Gard region, to enjoy a coffee facing the fountain. This peaceful routine in the south of France is something the American woman would never have imagined without the help of… ChatGPT, reports CNN.
Originally from Michigan and raised in Texas, Julie Neis enjoyed a long and successful career in tech in San Francisco. But after years of stress and exhaustion, she nearly burned out. Seeking to regain balance, she turned to France, a country she had discovered as a teenager and where she had previously lived in Paris. Unable to choose a new destination, she trusted her decision to ChatGPT.
She’s selling everything to move to France
After describing his situation, values, and desires (a relaxed lifestyle, local markets, a pleasant climate, and an international community), the artificial intelligence assistant offered him two options: Sarlat-la-Canéda and Uzès. The AI ultimately chose the latter, deeming it more accessible and dynamic.
A few months later, Julie left the United States, sold her car, and landed in Nice with just two suitcases. From there, she took the train to Avignon before driving to Uzès. Upon arrival, she says she felt a connection: the medieval streets, the light, and the friendly atmosphere were exactly what she was looking for. She settled into a small furnished apartment, explored the market, the cafés, and the gentle pace of life in the South.
Constrained, but a peaceful life.
Far from the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley, Julie is rediscovering the pleasure of connecting with people without work being the primary topic of conversation. While she acknowledges that small-town life has its drawbacks (shops closed on Sundays, trips to Nîmes or Avignon for certain wanderers), she appreciates the peace and quiet, the close-knit community, and the more affordable cost of living.
Her YouTube channel, French Julie Travels, allowed her to meet other expats and build a circle of friends. She now organizes retreats and culinary tours to share her French way of life. This fresh start, she explained to CNN, has allowed her to regain her mental balance after years of exhaustion. Julie is now considering buying a property in Uzès, convinced that ChatGPT made the right choice.
Source: Suffering from burnout, an American woman asks ChatGPT where… | Seneweb –
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