Sakado (a play on sac à dos, “backpack”) is an organization that helps the homeless of France by collecting backpacks filled with all of life’s essentials, from hygienic products to books. As this article reports, homelessness is one of France’s biggest domestic problems.

You might already know that the euro looks slightly different from country to country. But France has also released a series of limited edition euro coins for each of its twenty-six regions. Remember when collecting state quarters was all the rage? Now you can move on to regional French euros!

In the wake of a deadly terrorist attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt on New Year’s Day, many Coptic Christians are worried about celebrating Christmas (observed on January 6) as openly as they would like. Here is how a gorgeous Coptic church in Marseille is handling the situation.

The town of Nîmes goes all out for Christmas, with thousands of lights and giant candy canes all along the streets. It might just be the most festive city in France!

Talk about service: a hospital in Nantes has devoted an entire department to making sure deaf patients receive the same medical attention as everyone else. Of course, all of its medical workers are fully proficient in French Sign Language. Did you know that most languages of the world also have their own sign language?

The French lumber market sees a long-awaited recovery, after “the storm of the century.” Time to heat up that new log cabin with a crackling fire in the fireplace.

A blade fell off a wind turbine, causing a bit of alarm amongst nearby residents. Perhaps it’s time for an upgrade?

The beached ship in Sables d’Olonne is still stuck in the sand. In fact, it’s becoming quite the local attraction!

Residents of the seaside town Sables d’Olonne have a sizable problem on their hands: a beached ship that they can’t seem to get unstuck. Looks like they’ll have to try again tomorrow.

These brief interviews on the streets of Lille were conducted in order to test the waters of the tricky dispute over the banning of burqa-wearing in public.

Arlette Grosskost, UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) representative and member of the Parliamentary task force on the burqa in France, advocates a law aiming to ban the wearing of the full-body veil in public. What’s your take on this controversial issue? Is it a question of women’s rights? Of religious freedom? Are arguments against the burqa perhaps another type of veil—to cover up underlying racism?

High school teacher Karen Montet-Toutain was the victim of one of the worst recent cases of school-related violence when she was stabbed by a student in her classroom. She has written a book about her struggles, and hopes for rehabilitation of her attacker.

A group has designed a new tool to bring sex education into the digital age. It’s “Neutros”: an informative and fun online video game designed to teach young people about sexuality, contraception, and other adolescent issues.

Whether heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, “jouets intimes”-sexual, or sexagenarian, women affirm that sexuality is not just for men.

After the devastating earthquake, three French volunteer aid workers—a doctor, a nurse, and a rescue crew worker—spent two weeks in Haiti helping the country’s effort to begin to sort through the chaos. We hear the impressions of one of the workers upon his return to France.