On the eve of the 2022 French presidential election, the New Statesman’s writer-at-large Jeremy Cliffe caught a train from Courseulles-sur-Mer on the north coast of France to Marseille on the Mediterranean. Stopping in Caen, Paris and Vierzon along the way, he heard how contemporary France is reshaping itself in the long shadow of Charles de Gaulle – and against the backdrop of Europe’s biggest war since 1945. What does the future hold for the Fifth Republic? Written by Jeremy Cliffe and read by Adrian Bradley.Subscribe to Audio Long Reads, from the New Statesman here. Read the text version here. It was first published on the New Statesman website on 12 March 2022, and in the magazine on 18 March 2022. To receive all our long reads, subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special podcast offer. Just visit www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.