Lionel is in the Place des Vosges in Paris on a chilly June day. The square is busier than previous years due to a recent flood along the Seine. Parisians like to go out in the fresh air, bring a picnic, a bottle of wine, or simply work on their laptop in the many parks scattered around the city.

Madame Monsieur sings "Mercy," a song based on the true story of a baby girl who was born on board a Nigerian refugee ship. Her mother went into labor on her way to a refugee camp in Sicily.

Patricia sheds a new light on the renowned fable by Jean de La Fontaine, "The Cicada and the Ant." Maybe the cicada isn't such a bad character after all....

Patricia recites one of Jean de La Fontaine's most famous fables, "La Cigale et la Fourmi" (The Cicada and the Ant). After spending the entire summer singing instead of storing food, the cicada is starving come winter. She hopes her neighbor the ant can help her....

Lionel shows us some ephemeral art in Paris, including an anamorphic installation on the Louvre Pyramid and a large steel sculpture with a cardboard "cave" inside. Check them out before they're gone!

The town of Richelieu, named for the famous cardinal, organized a Chinese film festival. Already twinned with the Chinese town of Wuzhen, the town took an opportunity to celebrate both classic and newly released films from that country. The famous French director Claude Lelouch was the "godfather" of this initiative.

A theatrical spectacle called "Je t'aime, un peu, beaucoup, aveuglément" revisited the Oedipus myth, incorporating works on the same theme from twentieth-century French playwrights. The event took place in the Château du Grand-Pressigny, and the public was encouraged to wander around the castle as part of the show.

At the Balzac Museum in the Château de Saché, exclusive period furniture was brought in to illustrate Honoré de Balzac's famous collection of novels, La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy). Balzac was famous for his lengthy, detailed descriptions of interiors in his novels.

In the wake of the recent tragedy on the Promenade des Anglais, Nice remains a beautiful and diverse city. In this video, Patricia talks about what makes the city such a great place to live and visit.

Lionel stays in Verdun for part two of this series. You will see the remains of the famous Battle of Verdun, which took place in 1916 and lasted ten months. The French soldiers were called poilus or "hairy men" because of their unshaven faces. Verdun also has a magnificent cathedral with stained glass windows.