[imagesource:facebook/labougiedusapeur]

Today is a particularly significant day in French media – a newspaper will appear in the news kiosks which has not been seen since 2020.

La Bougie du Sapeur (The Soldier’s Candle) is a satirical newspaper with an uncommon quirk: it is only published once every four years. The newspaper is only published on February 29th, therefore it only occurs in leap years (anneé bissextile in French).

Because 2024 is a leap year, the paper will be available at news kiosks on Thursday for the first time since 2020.

Keen crossword aficionados may be the first to take it up; the magazine publishes a crossword and then publishes the answers in the next issue, which means you’ll have to wait four years to find out the answer to that perplexing problem.

The magazine, founded in 1980, advertises itself as drôle mais pas méchant (‘funny but not nasty’) and is mostly dedicated to satirical news pieces and comments on the peculiarities of ordinary life in France.

For example, the 2012 front page focused on why requesting a demi (half) of beer results in a quarter of a litre rather than a half.

“It’s a veritable scandal,” the editorial said. “When you ask for a demi at your local, you receive a quarter. It’s a coordinated theft. We are embarking on a mission to restore the demi to its rightful place as a demi!”

The publication, which proudly boasts the distinction of the world’s least often published newspaper, was founded by Jacques Debuisson and Christian Bailly as a joke among friends.