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Left to right, top to bottom:
Battles of Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmühl, Ratisbon, Aspern-Essling, Wagram

The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Empire. The French were supported by their client states—the Kingdom of Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine and the Duchy of Warsaw. Austria was supported by the Fifth Coalition which included the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, and the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily, although the latter two took no part in the fighting. By the start of 1809 much of the French army was committed to the Peninsular War against Britain, Spain and Portugal. After France withdrew 108,000 soldiers from Germany, Austria attacked France to seek the recovery of territories lost in the 1803–1806 War of the Third Coalition. The Austrians hoped Prussia would support them, having recently been defeated by France, but Prussia chose to remain neutral.

Archduke Charles carried out major reforms to the Imperial Austrian Army, but the quality of it was diminished to some extent by the incompleteness of training and the Army's multinational nature. The French military relied on their talented emperor, veterans, whose numbers had dwindled over the course of recent wars, as well as the effective Napoleonic la maraude tactics. Napoleon, like the Austrians, had to cope with a multinational army, which included many foreign allies. On 10 April 1809, Austrian forces under Archduke Charles crossed the border of Bavaria, a French client state. The French response, under Louis-Alexandre Berthier, was disorganised but order was imposed with the arrival of Napoleon on 17 April. Napoleon led an advance to Landshut, hoping to cut off the Austrian line of retreat and sweep into their rear. Charles crossed the Danube at Regensburg, which allowed him to retreat eastwards, although he failed to reach the Austrian capital, Vienna, before the French. A French assault across the Danube was repulsed on 21–22 May at the Battle of Aspern-Essling but a repeat attack was successful in July. Napoleon won a major victory at the 5–6 July Battle of Wagram, which forced the Austrians to sign the Armistice of Znaim on 12 July. Austrian invasions of the Duchy of Warsaw and Saxony (where they fought alongside the Black Brunswickers) were repulsed and they were driven out of their territories in Italy. British forces landed in Walcheren, in the French client state of Holland, but were unable to seize their objective of capturing Antwerp and later withdrew. (Full article...)

Fauré was born into a cultured but not particularly musical family. His talent became clear when he was a small boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the French Republic. Outside France, Fauré's music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.

The madeleine (English: /ˈmædəlɪn/ ^ⓘ MAD-əl-in, /ˈmædəleɪn/ MAD-əl-ayn or /ˌmædəlˈeɪn/ MAD-əl-AYN, French: [madlɛn] ^ⓘ) is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France.

Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. (Full article...)

An engraving of Moustache at the Battle of Austerlitz, from 1836

Moustache, sometimes abbreviated to Mous, (September 1799 – 11 March 1812) was a barbet who is reputed to have played a part in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. His story is recounted in many publications but may be partly fictionalised. Moustache is said to have been born in Falaise, Normandy, France, in 1799 and to have joined a grenadier regiment at Caen. He followed the regiment through the Italian Campaign of the Revolutionary Wars and is said to have alerted the regiment to a surprise night attack by Austrian forces. He is reported to have been present at the Battle of Marengo, during which he lost an ear, and with a cuirassier regiment at the Battle of Austerlitz.

At Austerlitz Moustache was apparently responsible for the discovery of an Austrian spy, and the recovery of the regiment's standard from the Austrians. As a result of wounds taken at Austerlitz Moustache had a leg amputated and was reportedly rewarded with a medal by Marshal Jean Lannes. He is later said to have followed a unit of dragoons to Spain where he fought in several actions of the Peninsular War. Seeing action in the Sierra Morena and later, with a gunboat unit, at the Battle of Badajoz, where he was killed by a cannonball. Moustache was interred beneath a gravestone on the battlefield but his memorial is said to have been smashed and his bones burned after the war. (Full article...)

20 February 2026 –

The French agriculture ministry authorizes the culling of around 200 wolves, raising the annual removal limit to 21% of the estimated population of over 1,000 animals, with a possible increase to 23%, citing rising livestock losses as wolf numbers expand into agricultural areas and regions near major cities. (Reuters)

17 February 2026 – Killing of Quentin Deranque

French police arrest nine people, including an aide to legislator Raphaël Arnault, in connection with the fatal beating of Quentin Deranque during clashes between far-left and far-right groups in Lyon last week. (AFP and Reuters via Al Jazeera)

14 February 2026 – Death and funeral of Alexei Navalny

France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom assess that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison after being poisoned by epibatidine, a neurotoxin found in South American poison dart frogs. (NBC News)

13 February 2026 –

Three people, including two British tourists, are killed in an avalanche near Val-d'Isère, France. (BBC News)

• ...that 1911 journal Der yidisher arbeyter (The Jewish Worker) (pictured) was the first Yiddish labour journal published in France?
• ...that the French Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities took almost 50 years to complete from A to Z?
• ...that the French physician and agronomist Jules Guyot revolutionized the training of grape vines, and the Guyot-system is extensively used throughout vineyards in Europe?