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.

A large group of yogis met near the Eiffel Tower to celebrate Paris's International Day of Yoga. For the second year in a row, people gathered in the same spirit of unity to relax, stretch, and bring a little peace to the world.

A terrible tragedy struck Nice on what should have been a celebration of Bastille Day, France's national holiday. A driver crashed his truck into a crowd of people who came to watch the fireworks on the famous Promenade des Anglais. The city is in mourning, but the people of Nice are determined not to be defeated by this tragedy.