Spotlight on France - Podcast: Notre Dame fallout, bears in the Pyrenees, and when France colonised New Caledonia

Loading player...
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 massive building site in their backyard.

Also, former French president Jacques Chirac died on Thursday. We talk about his legacy, both internationally and at home, as a man who loved his food and whose passing marks the end of era for the Gaullist tradition in France.

Plus, sheep farmers in the Pyrenees are faced with growing numbers of brown bears and are having to choose how to farm, as traditional pastoralism runs into a major predator.

And the history of France in New Caledonia, which is now a French territory. France colonised the island in 1853 and turned it into a penal colony. Today, the indigenous Kanak people are pushing for independence. 

 

In this episode:

- Michel Mathieu, treasurer of the Association des commerçants de Notre Dame

- Sophie and Jean-Pierre Alzieu, farmers, Ariege

- Mario Barbosa, shepherd, Ariege

 

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau

Subscribe to the Spotlight on France podcast on iTunes (link here) or Google podcasts (link here).

For more stories about France and beyond, visit www.rfienglish.com.
26 Sep 2019 English South Africa News

Other recent episodes

Podcast: Eco-anger, France in space, world's first photograph

A climate expert experiences eco-anxiety firsthand after living through France's hottest summer on record. France tries to find its place in the new space race. And the story of the earliest known photograph still visible today. Eco-anxiety is on the rise in France after a summer of unprecedented heatwaves led to…
10 Sep 33 min

Podcast: Adapting to heat, France's fitness boom, Paris Mosque at 100

As France's record-breaking heatwave last week raises questions about how the country will have to adapt to a warming climate, we look at what that could mean for French culture. We also explore the country's growing interest in fitness – driven in part by its most popular YouTuber – and…
2 Jul 27 min

Podcast: Grappling with legacies of slavery, French film industry crisis

How two people in the French port city of Nantes – one descended from slave owners, the other from enslaved people – are working together to "repair" the country's troubled history. The slave money that built the Élysée Palace, the French president's official residence. And turmoil in the French film industry…
21 May 32 min