Europe might be slowing down for the summer but we're still going strong. Regular host Ryan Heath is on holiday so news editor Andrew Gray stands in this week.

We've raided the archive to bring you something a bit different — Emmanuel Macron, before he was famous. Well, before he was French president, or even a presidential candidate.

Last year, soon after founding the movement that would help propel him to power, Macron sat down for a chat with Ryan and senior Paris correspondent Pierre Briançon at a POLITICO Playbook cocktail event in Brussels. We've put together the highlights from that conversation.

It's a rare chance to hear Europe's man of the moment talk — at length and in English — about French politics, Europe, trade policy... and which character he'd like to play on stage or screen.

Pierre Briançon joins us from Paris to bring us up to date on how Macron is doing as president so far — and how he's changed since that conversation in Brussels.

In our "EU WTF" feature, Brussels brains trust stalwart Ailbhe Finn is joined by POLITICO's Harry Cooper to discuss European commissioners' expenses following revelations that they spent €500,000 on 261 official trips in two months.

And in the Dear POLITICO advice session, our panel tries to help a Brussels intern looking for networking tips.