IT’S hard to leave a place where the word for rubbish bin is ‘poubelle’. I mean, come on. Poubelle. Could there be a prettier word for such a utilitarian object? A thing stuffed with fag butts, rotting sandwiches, ice cream sticks, sweet wrappers, old newspapers and far worse — and yet still sounds like something from fairyland. Like Tinkerbell’s French cousin.

So what happens when a teen’s access to wifi is denied? Suzanne Harrington finds out

WE ALL know that when it comes to cultural superiority, France has cornered the market. If any of us remain unconvinced, look no further than books which tell us French Women Don’t Get Fat and French Children Don’t Throw Food.

How do self-employed people manage the no income thing if they stop working for any reason, asks Suzanne Harrington

RIGHT NOW, as we speak, there is a little 11-year-old Afghan boy called Shafiq all alone in the migrant camp in Calais, writes Suzanne Harrington.

DINITROPHENOL, according to government scientists, is “an industrial drug” which can be “extremely dangerous to human health”, writes Suzanne Harrington. 

SMARTPHONE owners — stop! Do you ever find yourself doing a U-turn and driving back home because you left your device on the kitchen table?

It’s a bit embarrassing, really, when you think about it. Usually when Amnesty International get involved, the human rights violations are in places we dismiss as far, far away. Poor, troubled, undeveloped places, or countries in the grip of some megalomaniac tyrant. Places you wouldn’t want to go on your holiday.

DOCUMENTARIES don’t tend to sell out by the lunchtime of their cinema opening night, or elicit prolonged emotional applause at the end — but the new film about Amy Winehouse was never going to be ordinary. And we all know the ending.

PERHAPS this bizarre phenomenon has also happened in your household. See if any of this sounds familiar — if it does, it would be a great comfort to me. Not as schadenfreude, of course, but more as a reassurance that we are not, you know, freaks.