Christian Louboutin: ‘If you love it, it’s never too much’

The shoemaker to the rich and famous, finds inspiration in childhood, conversation and collecting

Revealed: The fight to stop Samuel Beckett winning the Nobel prize

Waiting for Godot author’s ‘nihilism’ caused fierce dispute at Swedish Academy in 1969

Samuel Beckett rejected as unsuitable for the Nobel prize in 1968

Newly released papers show chairman’s reluctance to give Irish author the award

The beginning of French politics as we know it

Paris Letter: Sixty years ago, General Charles de Gaulle created the Fifth Republic

Versailles shows the enduring power of the French state

Tourists still flock in their droves to gawk at Louis XIV’s red and gold brocade bed

Lara Marlowe: France has a fatal attraction to the Middle East

France and the jihadists seem locked in a wrestlers’ hold, a mutual fascination and loathing which neither can escape

The naive and the knowing of Haitian art

A show at Paris’s Grand Palais vividly captures how Haitians have portrayed their culture while subverting dictators

France considers sending Delacroix masterpiece to China

Culture minister says ‘Liberty Leading the People’ too fragile to travel

Braque is back: French cubist finally escapes Picasso

The inventors of cubism were inseparable for seven years, then remained frenemies, observing one another’s work with suspicion. A Braque exhibition in Paris considers his work on its own merits

Hollande caught between Pantheon and a hard place

The French president’s comment on the need to honour women heroes has created a dilemma

Fourth person with Irish link dies in Syria

Libyan-born man shot dead during fighting between rebels and regime forces

EU concern at number of European fighters joining Syrian rebels