Henri Griffon, an art enthusiast, puts his passion to work and brings together an amazing collection of contemporary artwork featuring the best artists from the Vendée.

Over thirty French bakeries from the Vendée region show off their skills in a galette des rois (Kings' cake) contest. The lucky judges, whose onerous task is to taste those delicious galettes, go to great lengths to explain their choices and make our mouths water. The galette des rois is traditionally served at Epiphany and is notoriously difficult to make. It comes in two varieties, flaky or brioche, and is available at French bakeries throughout the month of January.

Laurent literally takes sand castles to new heights with his giant sand sculptures, and he's sharing his love of beach art with the next generation. In this video, Laurent teaches a group of kids how to build a giant turtle out of sand.

When a film shoot comes to town, it often brings a lot of jobs along with it, from hiring locals as extras to enlisting the services of caterers, hotels, and other businesses. The numerous film shoots near the town of Saint-Cyr-du-Gault have supported the area's economy and put many people to work.

In the town of Tours, the annual International Decorated Egg Exhibition takes place just before Easter and features some exquisite creations. Artists from all over Europe gather to show and sell their beautifully decorated eggs. Some include traditional designs taught by masters from Ukraine while incorporating their own ideas at the same time.

Nîmes is experiencing a revival thanks to extensive renovations of its main street, Allée Jean Jaurès. People show up en masse for its inauguration despite the rainy weather.

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.

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.

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.