Rokhaya Diallo draws a parallel between incidents of racial discrimination and police brutality in the United States and similar incidents in French suburbs. She notes that young people are mobilizing and becoming more politically engaged in the aftermath of the infamous Théo case.

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....

Activist, journalist, and documentary filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo talks about racial tensions between the police and young people in French working-class suburbs. She calls for better police training and more accountability to prevent violence against young people of color.

Many residents of Aulnay-sous-Bois have been reporting instances of police hostility in the town. In this segment, journalists show testimonies gathered from residents to a police official, who hopes that both sides will be able to rise above the situation and seek a permanent solution.

In the suburbs of Paris, women have formed an association called "Femmes-Relais" (Women's Relay) to support each other and their children in times of difficulty. Some parents worry their children are being held in police custody whenever they're late coming home. Politicians like Daniel Goldberg are taking an interest in the situation.

Journalists spent a week in Aulnay-sous-Bois interviewing young people about ongoing issues and clashes with the police. In the Cité des Trois Mille district, which includes 3,000 public housing units, cultural and sporting organizations are stepping in to make up for the lack of public services.

In this educational video, you will learn about the powers of the French president, which were redefined at the behest of Charles de Gaulle in 1958.

Cyril Dion, Mélanie Laurent, and their crew set out to discover how people are trying to make the world a better place. They travel to Reunion Island, Finland, Belgium, India, Great Britain, the United States, Switzerland, Sweden, and Iceland for their documentary Demain (Tomorrow).

Lionel discusses the French Academy's latest spelling reform, which includes such modifications as removing the i in oignon (onion) and the circumflex in coût (cost). There's been a fair amount of backlash against the reform, though the changes are only recommended, not mandatory.

In part two of this series, you will learn about the political climate during the 2017 French presidential elections. You will also learn the prerequisites for being able to vote in France.

Patricia takes the opportunity to explain how the French presidential elections work. The vote happens in two stages. In the first round, voters choose from several candidates, and in the second round, they pick the president from the top two scoring candidates of the first round.

In this episode you will learn how Paris officially became the capital in the sixth century under the reign of Clovis. Paris was not built in a day, and in many respects, Paris is still being built today as many significant events, past and present, are still defining the history of the city.

The Bishop of Blois organized an interfaith initiative in the cathedral. Christians and Muslims were invited to share their faith and exchange thoughts in hopes of uniting and promoting peace.

Martine Aubry, the mayor of Lille, is part of a vast citizen mobilization to stop the massacres in Syria. Aubry's deputy director of human rights reflects on the mayor's speech during an official ceremony at the Lille city hall.

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!

After the closing of the Calais Jungle, the Massé Trévidy Foundation has stepped in to take care of refugees in the Finistère region. The foundation works with a group of volunteers to provide administrative, social, and medical assistance to the refugees.

A very unpopular labor law caused Parisians to protest near the Bastille before it was passed in 2015. President François Hollande invoked Article 49-3 of the Constitution to force this law through. The protests continued after the law was successfully enacted in 2016. For more information, you can visit the Nuit Debout and Convergence des Luttes websites.

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.

Lionel gives us the latest updates on France's Nuit Debout protest movement. Though the movement is no longer centered around Paris's Place de la République, it's still gaining traction online.

Lionel shares his opinions on French President François Hollande's first term and on the upcoming presidential elections in 2017. He predicts a "new triangle" of presidential candidates: Hollande, Marine Le Pen, and Nicolas Sarkozy.

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.