Black entrepreneur breaks into France’s exclusive champagne club
By Reuters
14 February 2021 |
3:11 pm
When Marie-Ines Romelle, a Black woman born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, decided to join the exclusive world of France's Champagne producers, she saw no one who looked like her.
Instead of being intimidated, she applied the motto by which she tries to live her life. "You have to dare. When we dare, we manage to push open doors," she said.
In this article
Related
26 Apr
A decade after its creation, anaerobic digestion is flourishing in France. This method consists in breaking down organic matter to produce biogas, a renewable energy source. The sector already produces the equivalent of the energy capacity of a nuclear reactor, and this will likely be doubled by 2025.
27 Apr
In the sunlight of the French Riviera lies the port of La Ciotat. It's home to the Eden Theatre, the world's oldest cinema. It was there, in 1895, that an audience witnessed the first ever projection of moving pictures: the mythical "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" by France's Lumière brothers.
2 May
Finance Minster Bruno Le Maire said his government's determination to consolidate public finances was "total." The major public protests against a pension reform made credit ratings agency Fitch more skeptical.
7 May
The council turned down yet again an opposition proposal to cap the age of retirement at 62. Opponents of Macron's pension reform are now mobilizing for June 6 protests and strikes.
5 May
For more than 75 years, the "Maîtrise de Radio France" choir has been training schoolchildren to become classical singers. Andrélia is one of them. She has undergone demanding training, with music theory, piano and singing lessons. With the other choir members, the teenager is preparing a special concert alongside the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. Based in Paris, the choir now has a branch in Bondy, in the north-eastern suburbs of the French capital.
8 May
Faced with the climate crisis, more and more young people are denouncing government inaction. This movement has now reached France's top universities, where students and graduates alike are denouncing an education system that does not take environmental issues into account. Some recent graduates – from Sciences Po university, business school HEC and engineering school École Polytechnique – have decided to take action, from making radical career changes to shaking up courses at their alma maters. FRANCE 24's team went to meet them.
14 May
The trial has opened of a suspect in the Rwandan genocide who fled to France. Former military policeman Philippe Hategekimana allegedly set up roadblocks to identify ethnic Tutsis, who would be murdered.
14 May
In the heart of the Touraine countryside, in France's Loire Valley, old mechanical wind turbines are being dismantled from their masts to be restored.
11 May
A new French bill aims to make the internet safer for users, by fighting harassment and various online scams, as well as trying to protect children from pornography.
11 May
For the fourth consecutive year, France was the European country that received the most foreign investment last year, according to a survey by consultancy firm EY. Looking at the details though, these investments are leading to fewer job creations than in the UK or Germany. We speak to Pascal Cagni, the chairman of Business France, which is the government agency tasked with promoting inward investment in the country.
20 May
Coucouron has been receiving its drinking water by road. The surrounding region was previously not thought to be at risk of drought. The French government has announced a national plan to use water more efficiently.
17 May
May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. This Wednesday also marks exactly 10 years since gay marriage became legal in France. Since then, around 7,000 such marriages have taken place each year in the country.
Latest
1 day ago
Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Thursday.
1 day ago
The number of wild mountain gorillas, who are at risk from humans, is increasing for the first time in years. This is thanks to the efforts of conservationists like Uganda's first-ever wildlife veterinarian, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, who says they are truly gentle giants. There are just over a thousand mountain gorillas left, mostly high in the mountains in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kalema-Zikusoka has also written a book, "Walking with Gorillas", charting her life from young enthusiast to wildlife campaigner.
1 day ago
Brazilian nurses make more money working in Germany, but are afforded less responsibility and recognition than at home. Three women spoke with DW about their experiences.
1 day ago
Critics of Laos' repressive one-party state, both in the country and in exile in Thailand, have been targeted in a recent series of arrests and attacks.
1 day ago
Civilians living downstream of the dam have been urged to evacuate in the face of catastrophic flooding.