Spotlight on France
An in-depth look at what makes this country tick.
Podcast: Dictionary wars, France digests Trump, disaster solidarity
Controversy around the latest edition of the Académie Française dictionary. How France is processing the re-election of US President-elect Donald Trump. The first disaster to prompt waves of international solidarity. The Academie Française, guardian of the French language since 1735, has issued the 9th edition of its official dictionary, with…
Podcast: France's packaging problem, spider crab invasion, women's labour rights
After a ban on single use plastic food containers, France tackles shipping packaging in its fight to reduce waste. A stand-off between mussel farmers and spider crab fishers in Brittany. And the 1924 sardine strike that set the example for women demanding labour rights. France produces 2.2 million tonnes of plastic…
Podcast: French song's popularity abroad, screens in school, France's Nobels
Why songs in French are attracting new audiences in non-francophone countries. How are French schools using screens in classrooms? And the history of France's Nobel prizes. The Paris Olympic Games and Paralympics gave French-language songs huge exposure, building on a growing interest in listening to songs in French on streaming…
Podcast: Restituting human remains, street-naming, redefining rape in France
A shamanic ceremony in Paris prepares human remains to return to French Guiana. French villages finally get street names. And the 1970s court case that changed France's approach to prosecuting rape. Native Americans from French Guiana and Suriname were recently in Paris to demand the restitution of the remains of…
Podcast: Inclusive sports, Deaflympics, compromise in French politics
How the Paris Paralympics have boosted interest in inclusive sports in France. A look back at the origins of the first international games for deaf athletes, 100 years ago. And why it’s difficult, but necessary, for France’s deeply divided National Assembly to embrace the art of compromise. The Paralympics in…
Podcast: France revives hemp farming, New Romance, Paris's 1924 Olympics
France is reviving its industrial farming of hemp – 'green gold' – in the search for more sustainable, energy-saving building materials. French publishers are flocking to romance, as a new generation of authors are writing for a new and growing audience of young women readers. And when Paris hosted the…
Podcast: Imagining a far-right government in France, forgotten fashion icon revived
As France heads into snap parliamentary elections with the prospect of the far-right National Rally winning a majority, what powers would its prime minister have, and what would change in France? Also, a look at previous presidents who dissolved parliament and risked getting a result they didn't like. And the…
Podcast: D-Day and its aftermath seen through French and American eyes
The United States played a key role in the Allied effort to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis, but not everyone sees it in the same light. As France marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, an American veteran reflects on the differing ways the US and France remember the war…
Podcast: Pro-Palestinian student protests, French euroscepticism, Channel Tunnel
How student protests in support of Palestinians at Paris's political science institute are different from those in the US, a look at France's growing disaffection with Europe, and the long birth of the Channel Tunnel linking France to Britain – 30 years old this week. Student protests against Israel's war…
Podcast: War on youth, Ionesco in Paris, French women's right to vote
Why French youth are once again under fire as the government vows to crack down on violent crime. The staying power of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano in one of Paris's smallest theatres. And why French women won the right to vote so much later than many of their European neighbours…
Podcast: France-Russia relations, hair discrimination, tax history
How France's new hardline position on Russia marks a major shift away from decades of pro-Russia policies. The fight to make hair discrimination illegal. And why VAT – a tax introduced 70 years ago – is so important to French finances, despite being deeply unequal. French President Emmanuel Macron has…
Podcast: Covid obedience, vasectomies in France, was Rosa Bonheur a lesbian?
Four years after the start of the first Covid lockdown in France, what has been the impact? What's stopping more men getting vasectomies in France. And why not everyone wants to accept that Rosa Bonheur, the most famous female painter of the 19th century, was a lesbian. For 55 days,…
Podcast: #MeToo hits French cinema, movie theatre on wheels, bissextile news
How a wave of #MeToo allegations against French directors is shaking up the cinema industry; the Cinémobile movie theatre bringing culture to the countryside; and the satirical news rag that appears just once every four years, on 29 February. Seven years after the #MeToo movement shook Hollywood, Judith Godrèche and…
Podcast: French farmers protest, battling the mathematics gender gap
No quick fix for French farmers who have been protesting by laying siege to Paris. And it's just the latest in a long string of farmers' demonstrations over the last 100 years. Plus, why French girls are faring worse at maths than boys, and what to do about it. Farmers…
Podcast: Fixing France, opposing immigration reforms, Françoise Giroud
A critique that highlights the gap between France and its ideals. Protests to try and block the new "racist" immigration reforms. And the story of Françoise Giroud, journalist-turned-minister in the 1970s. France is a country of impossible ideals, built on the myth of a Revolution fought to secure Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité, but…
Podcast: British in France, returning human remains, the Comtesse du Barry
How British people in France have been navigating visiting and living in France since Brexit effectively ended their visa-free travel to Europe. What to do with the human remains in French museums? And the story behind Louis XV's third mistress, the Comtesse du Barry, and how her name got associated…
Podcast: French rooster revival, thrifting, reporter Albert Londres
The man trying to save France's emblematic Gaulois doré rooster from oblivion. How online platforms are rivaling charity shops as thrifting and second hand products take off. And the story of Albert Londres, who left a lasting mark on French journalism. Since the Middle Ages, the Gallic rooster has been…
Podcast: Israel-Hamas conflict bleeds into France, bikers against bullying
France is feeling the shockwaves of the war in Gaza with a rise in Islamophobia and a wave of anti-Semitic attacks that have got the public and politicians worried. Also, bikers rev up to fight school bullying. And the African-American fighter pilot who flew for France in WWI because the…
Podcast: immigration referendum, childfree in France, the feline astronaut
Is a referendum the answer to France's deadlock on immigration reform? Childless by choice in the European country with the highest birthrate. And the story of Félicette – the first cat to fly into space. After the reform of the pension system, the next thorny political issue is immigration, with…
Podcast: French police go back to school, eating insects, deciphering hieroglyphics
Police officers join a sociology degree programme and are asked to reflect on their role in society. A French start-up banks on insect protein to feed livestock and pets more sustainably. And the Frenchman whose claim to have cracked the code of hieroglyphics in the 19th century allowed him to…