Spotlight on France
An in-depth look at what makes this country tick.
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Le Pen's strategy, French quinoa, birth of the Paris fire brigade
Is Marine Le Pen's 'softening' of the hard-right National Rally the right strategy to win the presidency? The American who pioneered quinoa farming in France. How a tragic blaze pushed Napoleon to launch the Paris fire brigade. Turnout was massively low in both rounds of last month's regional elections, even…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Regional elections, France's local languages, first paid holidays
The hijacking of France's regional election campaign, the fight to keep local languages alive and the first paid vacations for all in 1936. French people head to the polls on Sunday to decide what the country’s 18 regional councils will look like. The regions are intended to spread power away…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Medical cannabis, a refugee 'at home' with PSG, Haiti's superhero
A sufferer of chronic pain hopes to get relief using cannabis, as part of France's first ever experiment with medical marijuana. PSG striker Nadia Nadim on the thrills of playing to the crowds again. And Toussaint Louverture, the "black superhero" who defied Napoleon. France has embarked on an experiment with medical…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: exploring Sudan's pyramids, philanthropy 'a la française', Sophie the giraffe
How France is helping Sudan unearth its ancient kingdoms; the changing face of philanthropy in France; and Sophie la girafe, the iconic rubber teething companion, turns 60. For more than 50 years now, French archaeologists have been working with the Sudanese antiquities division to help excavate and preserve remarkable sites like the city…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's Covid trackers, flowers go local, Perrault the fairy godfather
The young geeks revolutionising health data in France with Covidtracker. How the pandemic has boosted demand for home-grown flowers. And Charles Perrault, father of the fairy tale genre. Some ten million people a day visit Covidtracker, which takes the government's official Covid data and presents it in an engaging and easy-to-digest way. Set…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Notre-Dame revisited, Napoleon on Saint Helena, laughing cow turns 100
Two years after a fire destroyed the roof of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, archaeologists are digging through rubble to find clues to its history, and its restoration. On one of the most remote places on earth, preparations are underway for a virtual commemoration of the bicentennial of Napoleon's death. A…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Covid in France's prisons, sports journalists say MeToo, flying over the Andes
A call for prisoner releases as French prisons, already overcrowded, face extreme restrictions to try and stop the spread of Covid-19 behind bars. Women sports journalists set their #MeToo ball rolling, denouncing sexual harassment in and out of the workplace. And Adrienne Bolland, the first woman to fly across the Andes, on…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's lost Covid generation, 'islamo-gauchisme', the Paris Commune
Young people are struggling with France's Covid restrictions, but some are pitching in to help. A sociologist talks about accusations of 'islamo-gauchisme' in universities, and why it is important for France to embrace the academic study of race and racism. And the complicated legacy of the Paris Commune, 150 years on. Young…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Filming under a Covid cloud, surveying the French, the Foreign Legion
Why is France's Covid vaccination drive lagging behind other countries? Also, French film and TV productions are booming, despite new restrictions on set to stop the virus spreading. A large-scale health survey of tens of thousands of French people yields troves of information. And Foreign Legion recruitment woes as the elite…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Covid on the slopes, why France has no Black History Month
With ski lifts shuttered because of Covid, French ski resorts are taking a hit, along with the tens of thousands of seasonal workers they employ. A conversation about race in France and why a US-style Black History Month is needed, but difficult to put in place. And the story of Etienne Marcel, leader…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Homeschooling in France, banlieues talk for themselves, birth of André Citroën
The French government wants to limit homeschooling in a bid to reign in radicalisation, but not all such families pose a threat to the Republic. Also, a look at the shift in the French media's relationship with the banlieues, thanks to the Bondy Blog, founded during the 2005 riots. And the…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Baker shortage in France, Covid dubbing woes, the first winter Olympics
A visit to a bakery where migrant apprentices learn a trade that is increasingly being shunned by French youngsters. A voiceover actress talks about the effects of Covid on the French dubbing industry. The Michelin Guide awards a star to a vegan restaurant for the first time. The first-ever winter Olympics…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Vaccinating the elderly, citizen voices on climate, India's "French" city
Why are France's elderly, and most vulnerable to Covid, not queueing up to get vaccinated? Frustrations with the slow pace of democracy after the Citizen's convention on climate. And France's presence in India: when it lost (and won back) Puducherry from Britain. France has decided to start its Covid vaccination…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Actors want Covid curtain lifted, coping with lockdown #2, Enlightened Emilie
French actors, directors and culture workers are chafing against Covid restrictions and calling out the government's double standards in keeping shops open but theatres closed. Researchers check in on people's well-being during France's second lockdown and find more negativity than the first one. And Emelie du Châtelet, the first woman to devote her life…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: French restaurants turn to takeaway, police-bashing, climate history
The Covid-19 lockdowns in France have drastically affected restaurants, forcing some to reinvent themselves to stay afloat. As mistrust in the police grows following recent cases of police brutality, an officer talks about dealing with police-bashing. And five years after the Paris climate accord, France, like most countries, is still…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Learning to work from home, QAnon spreads to France, when church and state split
Most French companies were not set up for employees to work from home, but the Covid epidemic forced the change and managers and employees have had to adapt. The American conspiracy theory QAnon has caught on with some in France looking for answers. And the history of the 1905 law separating church…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's colonial legacy, lesbian genius, commemoration under Covid
How can addressing France's colonial past make sense of today? A historian argues that recognising the country's colonial history will help with issues like inequality, immigration and France's relationship to Islam. A lesbian feminist activist, accused of being anti-men, talks about surviving in a patriarchal society. And five years after…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Teaching French values, Covid in the Pyrenees and the Plague in Marseille
As France reels from the brutal murder of teacher Samuel Paty, teachers weigh in on their role in transmitting French values, notably laïcité. A visit to a town in the Pyrenees Orientales, which until recently was something of a Covid-free haven. And the fateful day in November 1347 when the…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: The battle to breastfeed in France, Emily in Paris and Mata Hari the spy
New mothers in France are being forced to wear masks during labour to protect medical teams from Covid-19, and some are calling it out as violence. Also, why France has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world. Netflix's Emily in Paris offends with a clichéd portrayal of city…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: gay poet polemic, French touch for The Witches, & Roland Garros the man
Catching up on the Covid-19 situation in France. The controversy around a petition to bring Rimbaud and Verlaine to the Panthéon. A French comics writer takes on a bastion of British children's literature. And the story of Roland Garros. A recent petition to have 19th century French poets Paul Verlaine…