Podcasts to immerse into 3 French places
29 Jul '20 by Pauline Boucherie
Travel plans have been canceled this Summer, but fortunately, the Internet is full of resources to help you discover far away places in
various ways, such as through podcasts and videos. You don’t need to spend hours looking for them, here are some we found for
you…
The hidden monuments of Montpellier
For adults
Montpellier is a city of the Occitanie region, in the South-West of France, not far from Marseille. 280,000 inhabitants live in this dynamic
medieval city.
You can visit the French city of Montpellier through 7 videos about different historical places. Each video is a new 1 to 3-minute visit in
French with a guide from the city’s tourism office, available on Youtube. Discover monuments such as the Mikvé (a traditional Jewish
bath), St. Roch district, private mansions, etc. The virtual visit of the medical school is even available in English and Spanish. The
videos are quite easy to understand for French learners, because the French is spoken slowly. This is a perfect way to learn about monuments
that the “montpelliérains” or the tourists may not even visit themselves!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRFfs9FpI1M&list=PLF0ZgdkNS6ppzDlexxiuxpsExvuU0aYKV
Paris subway art
For teens and adults
You may have already been to Paris, the capital city of France and city of the Île de France region, hosting 2,200,000 inhabitants. If not,
you may have seen many photographs of its emblematic monuments. But do you know the secrets of the Paris subway? The following two resources
are about an aspect of Paris that is a little off the beaten path: the graffiti art in the subway.
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“5 MINUTES in: Paris” video
This video is part of the German series “Graffiti in Motion” and was published in 2019 by the French-German media Arte.
It is a virtual tour in Paris with no dialogue, and only music. It focuses on the railway and subway stations that, in a way, have become
open graffiti galleries since 2018.
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/085941-002-A/5-minutes-in-paris/
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“Nasty, Paris sous les bombes”, video
If you want to learn more about the life of a graffiti artist, watch this documentary. This is a very interesting 11-minute video about
Nasty, a graffiti legend in Paris. The video was published on March 28th 2020 on Youtube, as part of the series “Démasqués”
about street art. Meet him on the streets of Paris, at his studio, and in Roubaix (North of France) during preparation for one of his
exhibitions. Learn about his origins, his art and his working condition. The second part of the video shows the making of Nasty’s
graffiti prints.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_jPs7wes_c&list=PLOcOkVVCi3Fd9GluqmJ_jjJvlzaabMeCa&index=4&t=0s
The Cheverny castle
For children and adults
This castle is one of the châteaux of the Loire Valley, in France. It is located in the town of Cheverny. Its current version is from the
17th century.
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“Le Château de Cheverny devient le château de Moulinsart chez Tintin”, video
This is a resource aimed at teenagers, and is available on the French educational platform Lumni. Watch this 4-minute video in
French and learn about this castle of the Loire valley which inspired the Belgian author Hergé’s famous comic book Tintin.
Indeed, Moulinsart castle architecture was inspired by Cheverny!
https://www.lumni.fr/video/le-chateau-de-cheverny-devient-le-chateau-de-moulinsart-chez-tintin
Interested in Tintin stories? To listen to 4 stories through an audiobook in French, check out our
blog article.
Interested in the French castles ? Don’t miss our virtual
trip in France in the Loire valley!