So French!

Once every while debate rages in France about Muslim veils. This week another high-point was reached: the topic was discussed in no less than 85 (!) TV programmes, with 286 talking heads, not one of them being a veil wearing muslim woman... In the country that has 'Liberty' and 'Equality' in its publicity slogan, many people would like to see restrictions on the way people dress. And by 'people',...

Hosts Sara and Stefan are baffled by this week's media frenzy following former President Jacques Chirac's death. Why did French media go bananas with their coverage? They also discuss the fire at the chemical plant in Rouen. The aftermath showed once again that French citizens have very little trust in government institutions. And to a certain extent, that distrust is justified by the way French a...

The schools have started again, the Rentrée is almost forgotten, yet the debate on how to reform the old fashioned and underperforming French education system is still raging. The OECD published a report comparing school systems around the World, and the French are not the best pupils. We go into detail of these findings with our special guest Juliette Buisson, Middle School Teacher in Saint-Germa...

The crazy hot Europan Summer is over and that means we're back with So French! It is our fifth Season already. And we are recording in a brand new studio not far from the Eiffel Tower. In this week's episode: France is getting serious about violence against women, while Brazil is insulting Macron. Also: the families of the victims of Air France flight 447 were shocked to learn that the investigati...

A special guest: Lindsey Tramuta, from Lost in Cheesland

Three French 'B’s' are competing for a spot on the World Cultural Heritage List. Will it be​ the baguette, the bistro or Paris’s bouquinistes that gets the official heritage stamp from Unesco's much-coveted seal of approval? We’ll try to make up our mind of what we think is the most important French tradition to preserve! France’s top political power couple since almost four decades goes on trial!...

President Emmanuel Macron gave his first press conference since his election almost two years ago. We were there and give you a summary. The Notre-Dame trauma, turning into a Notre-Dame drama, with controversy regarding everything from the funds donated for its reconstruction, the state of the French heritage sites and WHAT the new Notre-Dame should look like French drug dealers taking on new meth...

This week: While trying to fight fake news, Emmanuel Macron fell on his own sword. Facebook and Twitter resued a European election campaign made by the French government because of breaking the new French Fake News law. Our guest Jackson Webster, a cybersecurity expert of Legalcluster in Paris, talks to us about the difficult relationship between social media and governments. Would you like to buy...

This week we try to find an answer to essential life questions like should we keep Summer Time or Winter Time? And do we say 'pain au chocolat' or 'chocolatine'? We also discuss the start of the conviction of the Cardinal of Lyon in a child's abuse case and Emmanuel Macron's start of the campaign for the European Elections. Recorded in Paris, March 7, 2019.

This week we talk about the controversy regarding French police’s non-leathal flash-ball weapons, about food and about France's entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

To satisfy the yellow vests, Emmanuel Macron launched his Grand National Debate. But will it be enough to calm down the profound anger in French society? In the mean time, Renault's CEO Carlos Ghosn is still in a Japanese prison, are the French smoking less and less and was the country eating a lot of galette des rois... Recorded in Paris, 12 January 2019

We are having a coffee with author Agnès Poirier in the fancy Café de Flore. She is a journalist and writer of “Left Bank”, a lively account of the intellectual and artistic life in post-war Paris.

Yellow vest protests have disrupted more or less everything in France's everyday life. What happens now? Will the anger be back after Christmas? And in the middle of this, the environment weems to be the collateral damage. Over a million French now want to sue the government to force them to take action to save our planet.

The mystery of the babies born without arms. A new health scandal, and a possible cover-up by authorities? We’ll talk you through the story that’s grappling France. Emmanuel Macron took some rest, he was allegedly very tired. Yet, making fun of the President, is a lucrative business. Tens of thousands of euros to migrants and homeless people thanks to Macron’s best - or worst - quotes.

At least ten people said 'non' to Macron, but after two weeks of looking for candidates, the French President finally managed to reshuffle his government. Police raided the offices of Les Insoumises, the left-wing party, and that didn’t go down very well with its leader Jean Luc Mélenchon... Will a new measure to improve air conditions in France’s major cities: will car tolls save it’ inhabitants...

This week two (former) interior ministers dominated the news. One of them resigning… twice! Triggering a new crisis in the already fragilized government The other one, taking off towards new horizons, in the south: Manuel Valls switched Paris for Barcelona Of course, we'll talk about the entertainer of the century, Charles Aznavour. The great singer passed away this week career that lasted over ha...

While his former close aid Alexandre Benalla was being heard by the Senate, the French president came under fire (once again) for “his contempt towards the working class and unemployed”. No worries, it’s just “straight talk”, say his defenders. We also discuss the thriller-like case of the killing of the richest woman in Monaco, Hélène Pastor. The trial started  in a French court this week. This t...

Your favourite podcast is back for a fourth season. We're back from the holidays and so is France. But getting up from the pool and back to school will come with some novelties for the country’s students. The typical French rentrée is not looking sunny for President Macron. He has had a rough summer and his approval ratings have hit a record low. We also discuss the hip hop brawl that took Booba a...

  In our third and last Summer Special, we sit down with Pamela Druckerman. She is a Franco-American writer living in Paris and the author of the international bestseller French Children Don't Throw Food. In her latest book, There are no grown-ups, she investigates life in her forties, and wonders whether her mind will ever catch up with her face. Since the presenters this podcast are also parents...

For our Summer Series we sat down with Sophie Pedder, the Paris Bureau Chief of The Economist. Over the last couple of years, she interviewed Macron several times. Her new book is called Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation. We had a very interesting and entertaining conversation with Sophie on President Macron, but also about the challenges of living in France...

It's Quatorze Juillet, France's national holiday! Reason for us to take the metro to Saint-Dénis, where all former French kings were buried. We are visiting this Paris suburb with our special guest, the excellent and funny writer Stephen Clarke, who knows a lot about the Revolution, about French history and about many other things. Recorded in Saint-Denis, July 13, 2018

Emmanuel Macron went to the Vatican, while French butchers were under fire. They ask for police protection because they fear vegan attacks. French police uncovered another terrorist plot. But this time one of the suspects is a former… police officer And the immigration has been has been dominating European headlines and scaring European politicians for almost three weeks now. What's going on? Reco...

France and Italy have traded insults, and that's not the first time this year. We’ll also talk about how Autolib, Paris’ famous car sharing programme, could end up being an expensive affair for the tax payer, and maybe seen scrapped all together… Speaking of tax money: a lot of presidential candidates have been throwing money out the window during their campaign last year. And we’ll try to sort ou...

This week everybody around the world was talking about Spiderman, the new hero who saved a kid in Paris. And how are things going with Macron’s dream of France as a Start-up nation? We have a special guest, Abby Klein, host of the cool podcst Radical Departures. She will guide us through the world of French tech. Recorded in Paris, May 31, 2018  

In our regular cheese update, we talk about the great French Camembert war! No cheesefire in sight, as purists defend a smelly national treasure. Our guest Charles Wente (Senior Producer, France 24) will give us his insightful perspective on this week’s topics. And if you thought Emmanuel Macron was good looking, take a good look again. We’ll tell you why. Recorded in Paris, 18 May 2018