Spotlight on France
An in-depth look at what makes this country tick.
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…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: French football fans turn to women, homeopathy under attack, and radicalisation in the public sector
French football fans are getting hooked on the women's game, as the World Cup draws in new audiences, but the gender pay gap is as wide as ever. Also, homeopathy is in the crosshairs, as a medical council questions its efficacy. We hear from a doctor about her holistic approach…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: France's vaccine sceptics, compulsory national service, and Sarkozy to go on trial
France is the world's most vaccine-sceptic nation. How did that happen? Also, a pilot of Macron's Universal National Service to replace the military service: enthusiastic teenagers join, but not everyone shares their excitement. Plus, France prepares to put a former president in the docks, for the first time. And the story of the…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: banlieue Gay Pride, women's football in France, the greening of Macronism
The origins of women's football in France and how the language is trying to keep up with game. Also, the first gay pride march in poorer working-class suburbs known as les banlieues aiming at fighting growing homophobia. Plus, A&E hospital workers at breaking point opt to strike. And can the…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: D-Day civilians speak, wolves in the firing line, football fever
D-Day commemorations have understandably given pride of place to war veterans, but we hear from civilians in Normandy on the receiving end of the Allied bombing. Should nature run its course? France has upped quotas for culling wolves as their numbers increase but striking a balance between protecting farmers' livestock…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Opioid addiction, French youth for climate, press freedom under threat
French health officials are concerned about the increase of the use and abuse of opioid painkillers. Unlike in the US, it's not a crisis - yet. Also, a student of environmental science talks about his conversion to climate activism, and how young French people are embracing the global Youth for…
Spotlight on France - Podcast: Right to die, mental fallout at France Telecom, and rejecting your religion
A growing number of French Catholics are asking to be de-baptised in the wake of sex abuse scandals in the Church. Also, France is not enthusiastic about this weekend's EU elections, which some parties say have become a race between president Emmanuel Macron and the far-right National Rally. And, a…