The world’s only quadrennial, or four-yearly newspaper, has hit the kiosks again in France with the release of a new issue of the satirical La Bougie du Sapeur.
The singularity of the 20-page tabloid is that it comes out only on 29 February – so once every leap-year.
The first edition was in 1980, and this is issue 12.
Conceived by a group of friends who “wanted to have a laugh”, La Bougie du Sapeur (The Sapper’s Candle) has a print run of 200,000.
It is priced at €4.90 (£4.20), and more than meets its costs.
“After the first issue sold out in two days, the newsagents were clamouring for more copies – so we said fine, but only in four years’ time!”, says editor Jean d’Indy, whose main job is running the French equivalent of the Jockey Club.
Styling itself as anti-politically correct, La Bougie is organised like a regular newspaper, with sections on politics, sport, international affairs, arts, puzzles and celebrity gossip. But the articles are designed as humorous commentaries.
Credit: bbc.com
