Hi All,
I was wondering if anyone on here subscribe(d) to the on-line newspaper “Connexion, French News and Views in English” and whether you found it worth it, useful. Or otherwise . . . .
Yes, we do. Very useful in keeping up to date without effort.
Yes, I agree. It’s well worth the annual subscription. It goes into depth on some subjects which I have found very useful. In the past it helped me with (trying to understand) Brexit, obtaining a Carte Sejour and selling a car - it has all the links and forms needed when it writes about the subject.
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If you are happy to subscribe to something that’s frequently wrong! I personally find it useless.
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Also very conservative. I prefer The Local
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I just use https://12ft.io/ if I occasionally want to read an article in Connexion or The Local. I certainly wouldn’t subscribe.
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It’s much maligned on SF and occasionally with good cause, but I still enjoy reading the paper newspaper once a month and have found their annual tax guides very helpful.
There’s also a daily online e-bulletin, that comes with the subscription and its hyperlinks are often of more immediate practical use than the monthly paper.
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I like the crosswords
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It amuses me that there are always people who knock something, suggesting a bit of a know all attitude. I suspect that the Connexion gets it right a damn sight more times than most contributors to forums.
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I’ve thought sites like Connexion useful for those who moved to France after reading A Year In Provence and who don’t make the effort to learn the language. All the information available on their site is freely available elsewhere, just not necessarily in English.
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Don’t disagree, but for me The Connexion serves two purposes, firstly explaining in greater detail up-coming changes that I’ve read about in the French regional press and secondly the nostalgic enjoyment of reading a physical .
I’ve cancelled my subscriptions to the the London and New York reviews of books (the former became too depressing and the latter became too expensive) so The Connexion is my only real paper newspaper. I also read the local press in my local bar, but the articles are either mundane or lurid!
That’s so funny!
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But forum contributors don’t charge for the privilege.
Anyway the connection take all their news from press releases and official bulletins, so all available in much more detail elsewhere and for free. So perhaps just their translator app that is sometimes wrong.
They also try to get away with not paying for content.
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I’d like to too, but crosswords, particularly cryptic ones are just too seductive. It took me several decades to realise that whereas you think time’s standing still, in fact hours may have disappeared. That said, my best ever time for a Guardian cryptic was four minutes, but I was unemployed and had been refining my crossword skills for some time.
I have subscribed to both Connexion and TheLocal and found Connexion useful in terms of their Tax Guide when I was first here permanently. I stopped the subscription because the paper itself was so depressing. It does seem to have a particular liking for stories of the “British person treated badly by the French” type. The stories don’t match my experience at all but if you like reading that sort of thing then of course that’s fine.
I still subscribe to TheLocal and read some of it from time to time as it is a) a lot more up-beat b) has more about the whole age-range experience rather that just the older end and c) has useful sections on the French language.
Each to their own.
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I’m not knocking the Connexion … it has its place. I don’t subscribe but know those who do… horses for courses.
I have mentioned before how the Connexion often carries an article on something we’ve previously thrashed about here on the Forum… so perhaps their writers read our Forum … as their conclusions quite often mirror our own 
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Did you know that it’s available on Kindle Unlimited? It’s a pain to read on a Kindle device, but not so bad on a proper screen.
Many other magazines are available.
Thanks for the suggestion, I wasn’t aware of that option. However I don’t have a Kindle whereas my wife uses hers all the time.
I’m happy to publish digitally and appreciate the advantages of a search facility over an index, but remain fairly conservative about reading - love hard-bound books and ‘real’ magazines.
We each have a Kindle, and I have Kindle Unlimited which I use on my own device and on an old one which we share (so Mrs P can read KU books on it).
Reading on a Kindle remains the equivalent of taking protein pills instead of eating a proper meal.
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