French, One Curiosity at a Time
There's no shortage of podcasts about France, but the smaller details rarely get their own spotlight. French, One Curiosity at a Time looks at French culture and language through the eyes of someone discovering it from the outside, exploring the little stories that make it so distinctive. Each episode follows a single question, idea, or cultural detail, from films and food to language, history, and everyday life, one curiosity at a time.
All Episodes
The French Snail Pastry With No Snail in It
In Paris you ask for a pain au chocolat. Drive down to Toulouse and the exact same pastry is a chocolatine, and people there have real feelings about the difference. In this episode I talk about the names’ differences and origin, and how I ended up eating a snail pastry.
Why Do the French Still Smoke So Much?
Every time I'm in France I notice it. Smoke on every terrace, smoke coming through the restaurant window, a lot more than I'm used to in the US. This episode I finally looked into it. Why?
A Small Curiosity About Red Nails
My French coworker basically never did her nails. Then she came back from a trip to France with red ones, and I quietly decided this meant something about France.It probably didn't mean anything. I got curious about the red anyway... and one of the first things I found was a 1929 French newspaper explaining that red fingernails look like amputated fingers.
Trop Camus: How a Dead Philosopher Became an Adjective
In a French novel, a nervous guy rehearses excuses for cancelling a date. He rejects one for being "trop Camus"... too Camus. Too Camus? I had to find out what a dead philosopher sounds like.
How French Is Montreal, Really?
Midnight, Montreal airport. I ask the guy at the INFO booth a simple question in English... and the conversation just quietly dies in the air between us. Everyone in this city speaks English, so what exactly happened? That little silence turned out to have a couple of centuries of history packed inside it.