Spotlight on France

The two presidential candidates faced off in a three-hour debate Wednesday in which they tried to convince undecided voters. Did it work? Leftist Mélenchon voters on what to do in the second round. And the first woman elected to office in France in 1925. In the last leg of France's 2022 presidential election, incumbant Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen finally fac...

Yellow Vest militants hope to vote Macron out of office. How younger generations are shifting their relationship to voting. And the WWI spy who lobbied successfully to shut down France's brothels in 1946. Candidates running in the first round of presidential elections this Sunday have made the rising cost of living and loss of purchasing power a key campaign issue. Prices are going up, driven...

France's presidential candidates court the hunting vote; how France is welcoming Ukrainian refugees; and Roland Barthes – ahead of his time in thinking about non-binary identity and language. Hunting is France's third most popular pastime, after fishing and football, and the country's 1.1 million licence holders see themselves as a political force. Presidential candidates have been...

Dissecting the nationalist and racist language of presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, France's push to label nuclear energy as green. And the origins of family aid policies that have supported France's high birth rate for over 90 years. One of France's 12 presidential candidates is the unashamedly xenophobic, anti-Islam writer and political pundit Eric Zemmour, whose popularity partiall...

Imams-in-training learn about the roots of their religion, and the specific French context of an 'Islam of France'. Breaking the glass ceiling as women entrepreneurs push for more startup funding. And the journalist who called on Parisians to rise up for democracy during the French Revolution. The French government has innagurated the first Forum of the Islam of France to figure out how to structu...

Does French work culture tolerate bullshit jobs for the sake of work/life balance? Developing a vegan egg in a country with no strong vegan culture but an egg-heavy cuisine. How Moulinex helped free French women from their culinary shackles. When American anthropologist David Graeber coined the term 'bullshit jobs' in a 2018 book, his definition rested on self-reporting: if someone feels...

France's biggest-ever court case continues with dramatic interventions from witnesses and defendents. A bill to criminalise bullying at school and university raises questions. The 19th century roots of growing anti-intellectualism in France. The trial of 14 men accused of taking part and planning the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks is now at the halfway point. RFI journalist Micha...

Which Macron vowed to "piss off" the unvaccinated and why? The 17th century female playwrights around Molière, as France marks his 400th anniversary with pomp and circumstance. The African kingdom that made France tremble in the 19th century, until its king surrendered. President Emmanuel Macron shocked France when he used a curse word to describe his Covid strategy to put pressur...

Inclusive writing and gender-neutral language divide France. The merits of homesharing across generations. And the trial that started the Dreyfus affair, kicking off a left-right split that's still felt today. The recent addition of the gender-neutral pronoun 'iel', a contraction of  "il" (he) and "elle" (she), into the Petit Robert's online dictionary became a national drama, fuelling very v...

A visit to the world's first green hydrogen production plant, in western France. Major delays in IVF for all women, months after legalisation. And the Canut revolt of 1831 – the first workers' protests of the industrial revolution. Is hydrogen the energy of the future? Some say the future is now. Lhyfe, a startup in Brittany in western France, has opened what it says is the wo...

An experimental centre near Bordeaux offers Alzheimer's sufferers more freedom and less medication; debate over whether a translator's identity matters following the Amanda Gorman controversy, and France honours Josephine Baker – performer, Resistance hero and civil rights activist – with a place in the Pantheon. The Covid pandemic showed the limits of caring f...

How France is dragging its feet in returning African art and artefacts housed in its museums. An advocate of euthanasia talks about fighting for the right to die when and how she wants. And Georges Brassens, the "French Woodie Guthrie", continues to thrill with his free-spirited songs, full of word play, 100 years after his birth. The France-Africa summit, held regularly since the e...

A historic vote in parliament as French MPs unanimously approve a bill criminalising conversion therapy for LGBT+ people; no quick fix for Paris's growing crack cocaine problem; and the changing face of elite school ENA, founded 76 years ago this week. France made history this week when MPs from every political party voted to ban conversion therapy for gay and transgendered people, a pra...

How journalists are covering the 2015 terror attacks trial. The artists who have an important role in bringing French courtrooms alive. And France recognises Harkis' suffering, offering hope for reparations, nearly six decades after the end of the Algerian war of independence. Jihadists who planned and carried out the 2015 Paris attacks are being tried in France's biggest ever court case. Twe...

Why are people protesting the Covid health pass in France? Challenging terroir by growing lavender outside of Provence. The birth of Le Canard Enchainé, the weekly that has brought down politicians and holds power to account. Spotlight on France is back! During the summer break the Covid health pass became an integral part of French daily life. The government argues...

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 amongst supporters of the hard-right National Rally, which had been predicted to win at le...

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 from Paris, using substantial budgets to run high schools, universities and contribute to public hea...

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 marijuana, to see how distributing and prescribing it could work, ...

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 of Meroe: the capital of one of the ear...

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 up a year ago by Guillaume Rozier, a you...

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 century of La Vache qui rit cheese. The fire that destroyed the roof and spire of...

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 1 April 1921; no joke. France has been mostly spared the massiv...

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 people in France have been hard hit by Covid restrictions. Forc...

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 unit marks its 190th anniversary.  The French movie industry i...

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 of the first French Revolution in the Middle Ages. France's ski industry is a big...