Spotlight on France
An in-depth look at what makes this country tick.
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…
Podcast: France's heatwave legacy, 15-minute city conspiracies, the first TGV
How France shifted its approach to heatwaves after nearly 15,000 people died in the summer of 2003. An urban planning concept gets picked up by conspiracy theorists. And the first TGV that started France's expansion of high-speed rail travel. The world has just had its hottest three months on record…
Podcast: A deeper look at urban and police violence in France's banlieues
As the dust settles on a week of intense urban violence triggered by the police shooting of a young man in the northern working-class suburb of Nanterre, we look at the causes and what, if anything, has changed in these poorer, multi-racial neighbourhoods since the 2005 riots. What role has…
Podcast: wheat on the Seine, denim goes home to Nimes, forgotten first woman filmmaker
How Rouen, a city on the Seine, far from the open sea, became France's largest grain port; denim production returns to its place of birth in Nimes; and the story of Alice Guy, the world's first woman director, forgotten by history. French wheat exports got a boost with the war…
Podcast: New Caledonia dialogue, homophobia in French football, moonlighting novelists
How to get New Caledonians talking to each other; the incompatibility of being gay and a football player in France, and the naval officer who turned his world travels into fiction. In the face of political deadlock over the status of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, pro-independence and…
Podcast: Conserving a martyred village, abortion drug shortages, identifying HIV
The village of Oradour-sur-Glane continues to memorialise the massacre of 643 of its inhabitants by the Nazis in 1944. Are shortages of an abortion drug in France linked to the anti-abortion movement in the United States? And the French doctor who helped identify HIV in the early days of the…
Podcast: French union paradox, Tintin today, first Miss France
Why French unions are so prominent despite record low membership. How Tintin defied critiques of racism, sexism and anti-Semitism to remain one of France's favourite comic strip characters. And the 1920 beauty pageant that evolved into Miss France, watched by millions each year. France's leading trade unions have seen a…
Podcast: holding multinationals to account, Agent Orange on stage, ten years of gay marriage
France's pioneering 2017 law that made French-based multinational companies responsible for human rights and environmental violations wherever they do business. Also, a Franco-Vietnamese theatre director brings Vietnamese history to life on stage. And the first same-sex marriage remembered 10 years after it became legal. The collapse of the Rana Plaza…
Podcast: France and China, menstrual leave, the 'Picasso Papers'
France's evolving relationship with China; allowing women time off for period pain; and why artist Pablo Picasso never became French. France has historically had good relations with China, but as Europe has been looking to distance itself from the People's Republic, France has had to follow suit. RFI's Jan van der…
Podcast: testing French democracy, surviving eco-anxiety, naming children
Is the French government denying people their democratic rights by passing its controversial pension reform without a vote in parliament? No, says a constitutional expert, but it has led to a political crisis. Fighting eco-anxiety by searching out France's eco-optimists. And a Napoleonic law that limited how you could name…
Podcast: French farmers post-Ukraine, fast fashion fallout, Life of Jesus
How French farmers are adapting since the war in Ukraine halted grain and seed exports. Why we need to buy fewer clothes if we want the fashion industry to be sustainable. And the voice of Ernest Renan – one of the big thinkers of 19th century France, famed for his…
Podcast: ChatGPT in French schools, Placard Man, first French pensions
How French educators are grappling with new AI-based technology, like ChatGPT, and how it will affect teaching, evaluating and learning. Voltuan, the most-recognised man on French demos, talks about life as a full-time activist. And the 17th century origins of France's pension system. Faced with a growing number of students…
Podcast: Pension reform fury, employment after 55, Paris Peace Accords
A majority of French people disapprove of the government proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64-years-old. Women could come off worse than men, and it will involve addressing senior employment, which France does not do particularly well. And how the Paris Peace Accords, marking a temporary end to…