Sophie explains in greater detail how she makes lamps out of old jam jars. She has some blue ones that make great night-lights, and some brighter ones that are perfect for reading.

Come to Cocoa Beach to surf great waves and enjoy the white sandy beaches of Martinique. Souleymane and Maxence can't believe how lucky they are to live in such an idyllic spot.

Suzy Le Blanc is a poet, novelist, and short story writer who sets much of her work in the French region of Lorraine. In this video, she talks to us about some of her books and her passion for storytelling.

The original lyricism, the striking rhythms, and the fragile melodies of up-and-coming singer-songwriter Buridane have made her career take off. She’s now launching a tour all over France and has been asked to perform at several big music festivals.

Take a look behind the scenes in Lyon as members of the women’s fencing organization “Le Masque de Fer” compete for a spot in the upcoming World Cup. Club leader Corinne Maitrejean is sure to get one.

The members of the Lyon-based group Instinct Lyrical are into “intergenerational” rap—rap they hope will have a message for their neighbors of all ages.

"Un Petit Noir" (or "A Small Black," a slang term for a small black coffee) is the bookstore café in Lyon specializing not only in gourmet coffees, but also in detective novels and thrillers. Besides crime fiction and caffeine, the store also serves some great jazz concerts to add to the "noir" ambiance.

If you're a comic book lover, you might want to hop on a plane to Lyon, which has held a huge comic book festival for the past ten years. This year, they're even launching a monthly comics magazine called "The Streets of Lyon."

The "Doubles" exhibition at the Dini Museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône explores the role of the double in art history in all its forms—from mirror effects, to diptychs, to self-portraits—through works spanning from the Renaissance to the present day.

Zombies from many different eras have invaded Lyon! That is, zombie enthusiasts with impressive makeup and costumes have invaded. The ninth-annual Zombie Walk has attracted around a thousand of the undead to roam across the city under the theme "a return to the past."

Audrey is a practitioner of yarn bombing, a street art movement originating from the United States. You'll find her art all over the city of Lyon. She crochets colorful pieces that she uses to cover anything that takes her fancy, from bicycle seats to lamp posts and a few statues.

Why not bring the orchestra to the people instead of the people going to the orchestra? That's exactly what the Lyon Villeurbanne Symphony Orchestra did. They brought the opera Carmen to the bowling alley in the town of Mornant so that people would not have to travel hundreds of miles to enjoy the show.

This nursery offers various species of Christmas trees to suit every taste and every budget. The traditional spruce tree of many French people's childhoods is still going strong, but the Nordmann fir has gained popularity. Species of trees with a bluish tinge or a nice pine tree fragrance are also available.

Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden is no light fare, detailing the horrors of both violence and military dictatorship. It is partly based on Schubert’s famous string quartet of the same name.

The Musée des Abattoirs (Slaughterhouse Museum) in Toulouse devoted an entire exhibition to dub music, a subgenre of reggae. The exhibition featured a selection of Jamaican-style sound systems and culminated in a big dub concert.