Wallen was born to a family of Moroccan immigrants in Bobigny. In “Donna,” she sings about the life of teenage girls struggling to handle family, love, and school.

Jeronimo is the musical alias of Belgian singer-songwriter Jérôme Mardaga. “Les mains qui tremblent” is a solemn song about the sadness that comes from a break up.

This musical adaptation of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s poem “La Sincère,” performed by Karin Clercq, is a touching and troubling song — themes the video captures well with its New York setting. You can hear tracks from her brand new album, La Vie Buissonnière, here.

Debout Sur Le Zinc is a seven-member group that plays a unique fusion of rock and traditional French, Irish, and Gypsy folk music. The band’s name (which means “standing on the zinc,” as in the zinc countertop of a bar) comes from the Jacques Prévert poem “Et la fête continue”—and indeed DSLZ is the perfect music for a fête!

Ina-Ich, singer, songwriter, composer, and instrumentalist: this rockin’ babe has it all! Her song “Âme armée” shows off her many talents, blending elements of screamo, metal, rock, electronica, and even classical music into a passionate, intense ballad about the battle scars of war.

Celebrated French rapper Disiz La Peste (Dis Is The Plague) began his acting career in Dans tes rêves (In Your Dreams), a film that relates the story of a young rapper trying to make his way in the music industry.

Amadou and Mariam reference a number of West African musical instruments, like djembes, dununs, balans, and tamas, in “Beaux dimanches”—a song about Sundays in Bamako.

Amadou and Mariam share singing duties with co-producer Manu Chao on a song with themes of migration and dislocation.

Born and raised in the Pyrenees region of southern France, Cali was an aspiring rugby player before attending a U2 concert at the age of 17.

The number of French students interested in studying Chinese has soared in French high schools in the last ten years. Though it is currently offered mostly by elite schools, the French government hopes to make it more accessible to all schools in years to come.

Twenty-eight years ago, Frenchman Michel Garcia fell in love with Easter Island, home of clear blue water and the breathtaking moai. Since then he’s kept busy as a diving instructor and doting father, and he even found time to discover a new species of shellfish!

Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia are joined together by their love for music and each other. The pair met at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako, the capital of Mali.

Cyril Kamar, who later appeared on the music scene as K-Maro, was born in Lebanon. While still a child, he and his family fled to Paris, but finally settled in Quebec.

The Vendée Globe single-handed around-the-world race is one of the most grueling tests of man’s endurance against nature, with a little help from technology. The race starts, and ends, in the Bay of Sables d’Olonne.

In 1985, ten million meals were served by Restos du Cœur. By 2004, that number had skyrocketed to sixty million.