'Rigolboche' was the stage name of a 2nd Empire dancer from the beginnings of the infamous cancan. One can almost hear her voice, but only via a memoir in fact written by a man under her name. #frenchpodcast in a series on the voices of the invisible. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

The plague struck Paris in... 1920. A dramatic #frenchpodcast with rag-and-bone pickers, rodents, state cover-ups and, inevitably, antisemitism 1920s-style. #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

Really interesting exhibition on Hawaii at the British Museum. Many extraordinary things - gods, capes, crested helmets - made with feathers and plant fibre, an art that is still alive and evolving today.

A selection of ‘livres d’artiste’ from a temporary exhibition at the Taylorian.

A discussion of French attitudes to travel in the 19thC that begins with Baudelaire and ends with Rimbaud, but covers a great deal of mileage in between, with the always excellent Sylvain Venayre. #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

‘Kneel’, by Dorothy Cross, from the marvelous sculpture trail in Worcester College gardens.

18thC Paris was fascinated by two sisters, exoticised as 'Lappons', who were actually members of the Finnish Protestant bourgeoisie. Comment peut-on être lapon? In Voltaire's hands they became a running joke aimed at Maupertuis. #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

On how Mme de Sévigné narrowly escaped the convent as an infant, eventually becoming a witty widow and letter-writer extraordinaire, and would not have called herself a 'précieuse', or 'ridicule'; a #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

On Michel Houellebecq's most recent volume of poetry, sub-Baudelairean depression put in jingoistic rhymes and full of ambiguously-worded references to the end times and the need to massacre 'apes', a short #frenchpodcast 😱. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Podcast (in English!) on Christine de Pizan, perhaps the first female writer to make a living from her pen, and her active participation in contemporary debates on whether women were to blame for everything and needed to be kept safely in their places. #FrHistory podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Was the legal concept of 'pure blood' invented in 1449 in Toledo, taking religious identity one step (or possibly several generations) further? #frenchpodcast in a series on the history of racism. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Je sommes des autres? All writers project an alternate self, but some definitely engage in more imposture/posturing than others. #frenchpodcast with Marie-Ève Thérenty and Pierre Bayard. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Zoonation performing a hip-hop Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Oxford’s new Centre for the Humanities.

Is it possible to simplify French spelling, which sometimes appears mainly designed to create problems? On some (failed) attempts to do so, an interesting if frustrating #frenchpodcast, broadcast most appropriately on April Fool's day. www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

I read two of these Wikipedia AI detection test articles and guessed both correctly, somewhat to my amazement - but it is a very disconcerting exercise. In the current climate I must say I cherish Wikipedia.

On the Commune de Paris as a civil war reflecting France's (ongoing?) social, economic and geographical fault lines: Michel Winock discusses the topic of his latest book in this #frenchpodcast. shows.acast.com/storiavoce/e...

I'm delighted that my latest article, on French colonial novels, is published open access. First-cousin marriage, anxiety about racial purity, femmes fatales, unhappy endings... and Propp-inspired analysis of character and function. @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Is this really the oldest bookshop in the world ? The Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon.

The traditional spring tulip pilgrimage to the Botanic Gardens.

Within the Louvre there were once multiple smaller museums linked to France’s colonial past. On this and the origins of some other museums - Quai Branly and Guimet - a #frenchpodcast with Pierre Singaravélou www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Well this is nice: www.topuniversities.com/university-s...

What are the different scenarios for massive societal collapse, how likely are they, and what does societal collapse actually mean for ordinary people? Four podcasts from @ppfideas.bsky.social with Luke Kemp, author of Goliath's Curse. www.ppfideas.com/episodes/whe...

On the figure of the ‘jeune fille’ in fairy tales; it seems her awakening from sleep was once told as a paternal rape. #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

#frenchpodcast on Antonio Gramsci’s writing in prison, his non-Stalinist communism and the rise of Italian fascism. www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

Turns out Balzac not only had a sense of humour but also a liking for dirty wordplay. Qui l’eût cru? #frenchpodcast with Laelia Véron www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

The unicorn has an ancient and varied history, appearing in the Bible, in scenes of courtly love, and occasionally in cameo appearances in travellers’ tales, as told in this #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Green policies seem to have paid off in Paris 🌱🚴🏽‍♀️Source: POLITICO

A wonderful little exhibition at the Ashmolean, ‘In Bloom’, turns out to include some rather extravagant sexual organs, here represented in watercolour and in an enlarged papier mâché teaching model.

King Death, in this painting , appears to have his foot roughly in the vicinity of Greenland. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Hubertine Auclert, feminist of the early Third Republic, wanted the vote, payment for domestic labour, feminine job titles and recognition of intersectional oppression of Algerian women. #frenchpodcast #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Le Petit Prince 80 years on: a children’s book for adults or an existential drama? #frenchpodcast with cool expressions such as ‘cucul la praline’ and ‘ tarte à la crème ‘. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Faced with the looting of the Sudanese national museum, the project to create a virtual version is underway. Short #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

A brutal invasion by a small number of men with superior military technology (iron, horses, gunpowder) - a grim story with a distinct lack of any pleasant or 'relatable' characters on either side - a 6-part series on the fall of the Incas. therestishistory.com/episodes/emp...

The French word 'sirène' is much more open in meaning than 'mermaid'; #Frenchpodcast from which I learned that the first sirens were women-bird hybrids (of course I should have remembered this from Homer). 🧜‍♀️ www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

The 'writer's house' museum was, like so much else, a 19thC invention with - an important role in the definition (sometimes invention) of local identity. #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who believed colonialism was a force for good, led a mission to the French Congo to investigate rumours of abuse in rubber harvesting. He died on the way back and... his report was not published. Gripping #frenchpodcast #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

Tile, Safavid dynasty, Persia, 17thC (British Museum)

Should brothels be illegal, or do they protect women? Lively 6-part docudrama #frenchpodcast on the closure of the maisons closes in France after WW2. #FrHistory podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/a...

Needless to say I was completely hooked listening to this 8-part series on the Indian Uprising of 1857 ('Mutiny' would sound like something on a much smaller scale) from @willdalrymple.bsky.social and @anitaanand.bsky.social. Still my favourite podcast. podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/3...

Surprisingly gripping #frenchpodcast on how Bismarck used fake news & media manipulation to get the French to declare war in 1870. But is this really what set the stage for two world wars? High stakes claims. #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

Who has a right to tell someone’s story? Interesting read on Kamel Daoud’s novel Houris and the woman whose lived experience may have been stolen. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

A four-part series on the war between Rome and Carthage, with Hannibal, elephants & massacres; also a disconcerting suggestion that had Scipio Africanus been at Oxford, he would have been at my college. Hard to shake this vision as I cross the Quad to lunch. podcasts.apple.com/tz/podcast/r...

Debates about French national identity date back to the late 18thC. Racial (Thierry) or defined by history (Michelet)? Cameo appearances from Clovis and Vercingetorix, and some hilarious songs, in this #frenchpodcast with the excellent Sylvain Venayre. #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

So did George Sand really play a part in inspiring the figure of Pinocchio? very short and not exactly conclusive #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Mate, it was 1066. Move on.

I binge-listened this 4-part series from @theresthistory.bsky.social on the Iranian revolution, starting in 1979 with the abrupt fall of the Shah, Jimmy Carter's pal. A story of idealism, cronyism, realpolitik, and sheer bungling incompetence. therestishistory.com/episodes/fal...

Amazing Gobelins tapestries in this exhibition we’re currently missing… 😢😍