Spotlight on France
An in-depth look at what makes this country tick.
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's youngest mayor, billionaires' relationship to power, and banning the green fairy
France's youngest mayor on breathing fresh air into old, local politics. French billionaires and their relationship to power and politics. And when France banned absinthe during the First World War. Mayors are by far the most popular elected officials in France, particularly in small towns where people know them personally. In…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: French farmers beef up against agro-bashing, the 15-minute city and origins of nylon stockings
French farmers take to Twitter and Youtube to show a different side to their profession, the case for Paris becoming a 15-minute city, and how the nylon stocking helped the rise of planned obsolescence . Farmers in France are in the spotight at the annual agricultural fair in Paris, where urban and rural…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Police violence, labelling wine and France's first feminist comic-book author
A look at the use of force by French police, as weekly Yellow Vest protests continue. The legacy of feminist cartoonist Claire Bretécher in the male-dominated world of French BD. And how, in the wake of US tariffs, getting a label can help you stand out in France's competitive wine…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's Space Cowboys, citizens weigh in on climate change, and the minimum wage turns 70
Finding work in France when you're over 60 is tough, but a team of "senior" Space Cowboys is proving they can be an added value. Also, how the new Citizen Climate Assembly is putting participative democracy into action. And 70 years of the minimum wage in France which protects people from…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Brexit blues for Brits in France, wild horses, Michelin stars and Camus' Algerian legacy
British ex-pats in France feeling insecure as Brexit finally happens, raising horses to be wild in one of France's most desolate areas, how the Michelin star was born, and would rebel writer Camus be out protesting pension reform? France has the second largest British community in Europe after Spain, with…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Jihadism in French prisons, and De Gaulle's double resignation
As a French priest goes on trial for sexually abusing minors, one activist says the problem is widespread in France, and addressing it is a feminist issue. Also, how French prisons became laboratories for home-grown jihadism, which lead to the 2015/16 terrorist attacks. And, when Charles de Gaulle resigned from…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France resists pension reform, Charlie Hebdo 5 years on and the child who invented braille
Why many French people continue to support strikes against changes to the pension system, freedom of expression in France five years after the Charlie Hebdo killings, and the blind teenager who invented braille. France is in the throes of its longest continuous transport stoppage for decades, forcing commuters in Paris and…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Strikes, chasing franglais, code-breaking in Brittany and Nostradamus' predictions
Why the pension reform in France has everyone on edge and is blocking train travel through the holidays. Also, why keeping English out of the French language is more than a matter of words. And the search to unravel a mysterious inscription on a rock in Brittany. The Academie Française, founded in…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's alcohol dilemma, gender-neutral toys and the day secularism became law
Alcohol consumption is a problem in France, but the wine industry doesn't want people to know. We look at the paradox of having to address alcoholism in a country whose second biggest industry is wine and spirits. Also, a store in Strasbourg is trying to break gender stereotypes by offering…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Fighting domestic violence, egg freezing, and the day Napoleon took the throne
The French government has announced new measures to tackle domestic violence and femicide. What will it actually change for victims? Also, how women in France will be able to freeze their eggs and take more control over their fertility. And the day Napoleon crowned himself emperor. The French government announced a…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Eco funerals, snooty Parisians, and putting out the trash with Monsieur Poubelle
When you die in France you have only two choices: burial or cremation. Neither is particularly green, but you can cut down your carbon footprint by reposing in a eco-cemetery. Paris has just opened its first one, but we travel to the pioneering natural cemetery in Niort to see how…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: music as medicine in French hospitals, mental load in pictures, Rimbaud mania
How do you get your point across when no one listens to you? Draw it. From Asterix, to Tintin to Agrippine, comics and graphic novels are an integral part of French culture. We meet Emma: an illustrator whose knack for explaining complex social issues like 'mental load' has earned her a big…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Saffron on the rooftops, Paris climate resilience, how French Catholic Church lost its property
On the roofs of Paris, surrounded by concrete, a special kind of harvest is taking place. Saffron, the world's most expensive spice, was widely grown in France before WW1 but the entirely manual production methods became too onerous and it almost died out altogether. Four French sisters are now boosting…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: the tweeting diplomat, eco-friendly pigs, remembering Algerians massacred in Paris
Sauccison, charcuterie: France loves pork. Most pig farms are in Brittany, but the nitrates in the pigs' manure is creating havoc, feeding killer seaweed that has proven fatal on the beaches. We report from an farm that's found a way of reducing nitrates. But spreading greener-farming methods won't be easy…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Migrants settle into rural life, local French politics on screen and Montgolfière's maiden flight
France has welcomed more than 8,000 refugees from Syria and sub-Saharan Africa so far this year. Where have they gone? As immigration is (again) becoming a hot-button political issue, we go to a small town in central France that has taken in 20 refugees to see how the situation is playing…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's gig economy, menstruation taboos and 130 years of the Moulin Rouge
French food culture has been profoundly changed by food delivery apps like Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Take-out is now a thing. It has brought a lot of new, part-time work for young bike courriers, who have started to organise to get better working conditions. We hear from a courrier about how…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Notre Dame fallout, bears in the Pyrenees, and when France colonised New Caledonia
Seven months after the Notre Dame cathedral went up in flames, the focus has shifted to reconstruction and tackling lead contamination in the area. But there's human fallout too. With tourists unable to visit the Gothic wonder, local businesses have taken a hit. We hear how they're surviving with a…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Scorched grapes, paying family caregivers, and France's love affair with McDonald's
The Languedoc Roussillon region produces good quality, reasonably-priced wine, but for how long? In June winegrowers were hard hit when temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius, literally scorching the grapes on the vines. Extreme weather used to be the exception, now it's becoming the norm. We report from a village near Montpellier…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: French Communism is not dead, making a baby in Spain, and the dog who discovered Lascaux
Despite its association with Stalin and gulags, Communism is alive and kicking in France. The youth movement of the French Communist Party has 10,000 card-carrying members. Why does the party continue to charm, three decades after the fall of the Berlin wall? A young member tells us what lit the spark…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: sheep-shearing, spanking ban and France's obsession with spelling
Football gives way to sheep as France hosts the world sheep-shearing championships, a first in mainland Europe. Men and women share with us their passion for the sport. Also, French winegrowers become the latest victims of climate change, losing vineyards in last week's heatwave. And parliament bans spanking children, but…