SPECIAL EDITION

French Leap Day Paper Prints Ninth Issue

First published in 1980.

Newspaper readers in France found a rare treat beside their daily papers this morning—a broadsheet called La Bougie du Sapeur that appears only on leap day. First published in 1980, the paper takes a satirical approach to the news. “We try not to be naughty; we just try to be funny,” said Jean d’Indy, the paper’s editor and publisher. “But we are not funny. Life is funny. So, it’s the way of seeing life which is funny.” D’Indy said that though his paper has four years of material from which to draw, he tries to steer clear of stories that have been overcovered. He said he’s considered selling subscriptions to the paper but worried there may be too many changes of address between editions.