French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal looks on before receiving the City of Strasbourg Medal, in Strasbourg, eastern France, on January 26, 2026. ROMEO BOETZLE / AFPNearly three months after his release from an Algerian prison, French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was on Thursday, January 29 elected to become a lifetime member of the Académie Française, the intellectual guardians of the French language. "I'm feeling a little euphoric because I'm enjoying freedom, the little things," Sansal said on Monday. The little things. Good little meals, little things.