Fourteen Fun French Facts

 Many unique, strange and downright bizarre things have happened in the long history of France. In this episode we’ll look at fourteen odd and obscure facts from French history.

            Number 1: Did you know potatoes were once banned in France?

In 1748 the parliament of Paris declared it was illegal to grow or consume the vegetable from South America, a ban which lasted for 24 years when it was lifted in 1772. The Parliament’s justification was that they believed that eating potatoes would poison them or even give them leprosy.

            This bizarre view by people hundreds of years ago is the sort of weird thing that we in the present might discount as being primitive and superstitious. To be fair, there was some superstitious thinking involved: Europeans believed that there was a hierarchy of plants, with those growing from trees, closer to Heaven, were safer, while those growing in the ground, closer to Hell, were more dangerous. Furthermore, potatoes are not in the Bible, leading the more religiously-minded to conclude that these plants were not designed by the Almighty for consumption. Yet, if we understand our ancestors’ perspective their reasoning is quite reasonable.

            Ground-based plants, like shrubs and herbs, are far more likely to be poisonous than fruits or berries. Over millions of years many of the former types of plants developed poisonous genes as a defense against predators. Since fruits and berries grow higher up there are fewer animals who consume them, making poisonous fruits rarer.

            When potatoes are exposed to light they produce solanine, a chemical poisonous to many species. Ingestion of solanine in humans can cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, burning of the throat, cardiac dysrhythmia, nightmares, headache, dizziness, itching, eczema, thyroid problems, and inflammation and pain in the joints. In severe cases, humans can experience dilated pupils, loss of sensation, jaundice, hallucinations, paralysis, fever, hypothermia, and even death.

            Since many Europeans did not know how to properly grow and consume potatoes, this odd vegetable was in fact, quite dangerous to them, especially since the pre-modern potato had higher solanine content. Furthermore, potatoes have some physical similarities with deadly nightshade, a highly-dangerous plant with which Europeans were well-acquainted. Contemporary thinking held that a plant’s shape portended what maladies it caused or cured. Some held that the lumpy potato resembled the stumpy hands of a leper, leading many to conclude that the potato caused leprosy.

            One final thing that turned Europeans against the potato was its association with Incan religion. The Inca revered the potato. This ingenious South American people cultivated thousands of different kinds of potatoes, which formed a staple part of their diet, alongside corn and quinoa. They even had a potato deity named Axomamma, one of the many daughters of Pachamama, who is Mother Earth herself. Incan villages made shrines to Axomamma, depicting her as a woman emerging from a potato. Incans valued this crop so much that they even buried their dead with potatoes.

To the Inca, potatoes were a symbol of life, much as wheat was to Europeans. Yet, Europeans believed that everything indigenous Americans did was either superstition or devil-worship. Due to the potato’s association with a pagan deity, Europeans saw the potato as an evil plant used in black magic. For all these reasons, Europeans feared and hated the simple potato.

While most Europeans had an antagonistic relationship to the lumpy brown vegetable, botanists quickly realized how valuable this crop was. In the 1660s a committee of the Royal Society in Britain detailed how potatoes grew even during times when wheat harvests failed. Furthermore, potatoes are one of the most adaptable crops, capable of growing in almost any type of soil. Potatoes also grow in three to four months, compared to 10 for cereal grains. Finally, a potato field produces two to four times as many calories as one dedicated to cereals. While educated elites recognized the value of potatoes they still had to overcome intense superstition amongst the populace.

            The potato’s reputation started to change in the 18th century. This period was a particularly violent time for Europeans, with numerous bloody wars such as the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War. As early as the 1740s Frederick II the Great ordered his people to start growing potatoes to make up for the failure of wheat crops. Yet, Prussians resisted growing the lumpy vegetable, even when authorities threatened to execute them for not growing them. According to legend, Frederick II then tried a different tactic: rather than force his people to grow it, he decreed that the potato was a royal vegetable that only his family could consume, and had potatoes planted in his estates. These fields were then guarded by armed soldiers with secret instructions to wander around and fall asleep on the job; much like today’s Louvre security. Prussian peasants decided that they wanted this elusive vegetable, which they stole and then grew in their own fields. The King of Prussia’s brilliant rebranding of the potato would eventually impact his western neighbors.

On 12 August 1737, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was born in Montdidier. Parmentier was the youngest of five, in a family of petty bourgeois. His family was just wealthy enough to pay for his schooling, where he learned to become a pharmacist. Yet, without sufficient funds to start his own business, Parmentier joined the army in 1757. At some point, the French pharmacist was captured by the Prussians and confined to a jail cell. While confined, Parmentier was fed almost exclusively potatoes. Shockingly, he did not contract leprosy or die horribly. When Parmentier was released and returned to his home country he had a whole new mission in life: to spread the good news about the potato to his people.

            When famine struck Besançon in 1769 and 1770, Parmentier wrote a paper advocating for growing potatoes to solve the hunger crisis. The local academy of sciences awarded his paper for its bold suggestion. In 1772 the medical staff of the University of Paris declared the potato safe to eat, at which point the parliament of Paris lifted the ban. However, common people still did not want to give the potato a chance. For decades, the agronomist published books promoting the potato and recipes detailing how best to use it. On 24 August 1786, Parmentier presented Louis XVI a bouquet of potatoes. The king placed a potato flower on his shirt while queen Marie Antoinette placed one in her hair. King Louis XVI thanked Parmentier, who he praised for developing the ‘bread of the poor.’ As one of Louis XVI’s last major acts before the Revolution, he normalized the potato in France.

            Number 2: Did you know that the first hospital exclusively for children was created in Paris under Napoleon Bonaparte?

The Hôpital des Enfants Malades, that is “Hospital for Sick Children,” was founded in 1802 while Napoleon was then consul and de facto ruler of France, though he probably doesn’t deserve the credit for its founding.

            The scholarly journal Pediatrics tells the story of the orphanage which later housed the children’s hospital. This orphanage, “was originally known as the Maison Royale de l'Enfant-Jésus founded in 1722 by Abbé Languet de Gregy as a work shelter for 100 poor Parisian women. These women were employed in the spinning of flax and cotton, an effort that soon became a financially profitable venture.

During the French Revolution the Maison Royale de l'Enfant-Jésus was taken over by the civil authorities to be used for the storage of coal and as a garage for carriages. Soon afterward, in July 1795, the building was refurbished by a decree of the Revolutionary Public Health Commission to serve as a central orphan asylum (Maison Nationale des Orphelins) for 436 children and was so used until April 29, 1802. On that date, by a decree of the Conseil Général des Hôpitaux, the orphans were to be moved to another institution in Paris and the building was then to become the Hôpital des Enfants-Malades to be used exclusively for the care of sick children of both sexes under 15 years of age.”

The Hôpital des Enfants Malades became a highly influential institution, which set the standard for pediatrics throughout the world. It greatly influenced Britain’s first children’s hospital, the Great Ormond Street Hospital which opened in London in 1852. Three years later the United States opened The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Then, in 1875 the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, became the first children’s hospital in Canada. Starting in Paris, physicians recognized the need to offer specialized care for children, and pioneered pediatric care. The Hôpital des Enfants Malades still operates to this day, though it is now part of the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, another hospital which was founded by Suzanne Necker, wife of the famous Jacques Necker and mother of anti-Napoleon writer Germaine de Staël.

            While Napoleon Bonaparte had little influence on the founding of the children’s hospital he does deserve credit for founding one of the largest hospitals in the world at the time, Les Invalides, a hospital meant to care for the many veterans of his wars.

            Number three: the places where it’s illegal to die.

Since the year 2000, three separate French communes have declared that it is illegal to die in their territory. The first was the small village of Le Lavandou. In September 2000, the mayor decreed that dying there was illegal and anyone found dead in the village would receive a severe punishment. The reason behind this purposefully absurd declaration was that the mayor was protesting against a recent court ruling. The people of Le Lavandou wanted to build a new cemetery since the old one was full. However, a court in Nice decreed that a new cemetery would mar the beautiful landscape in the small, picturesque village. Since the commune had nowhere to bury their dead, the mayor simply declared that dying was illegal.

            In 2007 the commune of Cugnaux also banned dying, for similar reasons. In short order, the commune won the right to expand their existing cemetery and subsequently overturned the law. The following year, a court in Pau denied the commune of Sarpourenx the right to expand their cemetery. Sure enough, the commune’s mayor decided to try out the hot new political tactic and decreed that dying was forbidden until further notice.

            These prohibitions on dying are a funny but fascinating bit of French culture as they demonstrate the tension between the big cities and the small communes. These villages, with their cobblestone streets and old wooden houses, are a living embodiment of an idealized France. It’s no wonder that modern cities with their steel edifices, asphalt roads and American fast food chains would want to preserve this older French culture. However, the city’s demands on the countryside make it hard for villagers to live, so hard that they can’t even die.

            Number four: A dog once fought a duel and won.

            We all know that dogs are man’s best friend, but one very good dog avenged its master’s murder. According to folklore, a courtier named Aubry de Montdidier was brutally betrayed and murdered by his friend, a man named Robert Macaire. In the woods near Bondy, Macaire assassinated Montdidier and buried his body. None were around to witness the murder, save for Montdidier’s greyhound. The unnamed dog was suddenly alone and without means of food. After a time, it wandered to Paris where one of Montdidier’s old friends, the knight Ardilliers, saw the dog and cared for it. The dog then dragged Ardilliers out to Bondy, took him to the disturbed earth that marked its dead master’s grave and dug up poor Montdidier.

            Ardilliers recognized that foul play was at hand but did not know what to do, so the two returned to Paris. At some point, the dog spotted Macaire and lunged at him with all of its fury. Ardilliers realized that the normally-peaceful dog must have spotted its master’s killer. He brought Macaire to court and relayed everything that had transpired. According to legend, King Charles V ‘The Wise’ heard about this and personally decided to weigh in on the remarkable case. Since the dog could not provide adequate testimony, the king decreed that the only way to solve this was through trial by combat, in which Macaire would only be allowed a stick for a weapon.

            To everyone’s shock, in the ensuing battle, the dog defeated the trained knight. Every time Macaire tried to defend himself, the speedy animal lunged for his throat. The exhausted Macaire recognized that if he did not end the fight, the dog would soon bite through his neck and so he confessed to the crime. As punishment, the murderous knight was hanged.

            This relatively obscure legend briefly reentered the public consciousness on 18 June 1814 when theater director René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt debuted his play Le Chien de Montargis. Theater companies in London and Berlin adapted the play for their own stages and for a brief moment the heroic French dog was celebrated across Europe. While we do not know the dog’s name, Robert Macaire has since become infamous in France. French playwright Frédérick Lemaître liked the simple, rhyming name ‘Robert Macaire’ and used that name for a stock character of an unscrupulous villain.

            Number five: The longest and shortest reigns.

            France’s kings and their downfall are famous around the world. Two monarchs, both named ‘Louis,’ hold the records for longest and shortest reigns of any monarch in world history.

            Louis XIV was one of the most important kings in European history. Known as the Sun King, Louis XIV successfully brought the aristocracy to heel, allowing him to dominate internal politics. Furthermore, France was the great power of the age and Louis XIV launched many wars against coalitions of other states, expanding his country’s power and prestige abroad. At the heart of it all, Louis XIV constructed the opulent pleasure palace of Versailles, which became the model for decadence across the world. Louis XIV officially ruled for 72 years and 110 days. By the time the Sun King passed away his son Louis the Dauphin and grandson Louis the Duke of Burgundy were already dead. Instead, his great grandson inherited the throne and became Louis XV.

            In marked contrast to Louis XIV was Louis XIX. The whole story starts in 1815. That year, Louis XIX’s uncle, Louis XVIII, assumed the French throne when the Bourbon monarchy was restored, following Napoleon’s final exile. Louis XVIII ruled for 9 years as a fairly moderate king, who decided not to piss off his subjects too much, given that they had executed his older brother, Louis XVI. Yes, France has lots of Louis’s. When Louis XVIII died the throne passed to his younger brother, Charles X. Charles X was an arch-royalist, who never forgave the French people for revolting. He cracked down on freedoms, which only led to another revolution. In the face of popular revolt, Charles X abdicated. With the monarch giving up his power, the title of king officially passed to his son, Louis XIX. However, Louis XIX recognized that the people did not accept him, and after 20 minutes he signed his own abdication notice and went into exile.

While Louis XIX officially reigned for 20 minutes, the Legitimists considered him the rightful king from the moment his father died until his own death. Speaking of royalists, they have not completely died out as a small number of French people still hold the Bourbon family as the rightful rulers in France. In fact, on 13 October 2025, a member of House Bourbon who styles himself Louis XX, publicly offered to take over the country from President Emmanuel Macron. So far, there’s been no response from the Élysée Palace.

Number six: Necrogamy.

France is the only country on Earth where it is legal to marry a dead person. That’s right; a living person can marry someone who has passed away, and it has been legal for over two centuries. This practice sounds bizarre and gross until you realize why it exists.

Like so many French things, this originated under Napoleon. In 1803, then-Consul Bonaparte led France in its 9th year of war against foreign enemies since Europeans attacked France over its execution of Louis XVI. By then, hundreds of thousands of French people had died in the conflicts, which meant that many fiancées were suddenly left without their loved ones.

Bonaparte’s government allowed women to file an appeal to marry a dead person for multiple reasons. First, the marriage ceremony acted as a form of bereavement as women and entire communities came together to celebrate love and hope after the loss of a beloved son of France. Second, women who married deceased soldiers acquired their pensions, saving them from poverty. Women appreciated the money, as did the soldiers who could take some comfort in knowing that even if they died their love would be cared for. Finally, in Catholic France a child born out of wedlock was considered illegitimate. By completing a marriage, even to a deceased person, that child would be a rightful inheritor of their parent’s property.

            This law gained renewed significance due to a disaster that occurred over a century later. On 2 December, 1959 the Malpasset dam in southern France cracked, unleashing a wall of water 40 meters high that destroyed two villages and killed 423 people. In the wake of the tragedy, a pregnant woman named Irène Jobar appealed to President Charles de Gaulle to grant her the right to marry her deceased partner for her own benefit and that of their unborn child. The appeal quickly became national news and the old general granted her request. Furthermore, the French parliament updated the law due to the tragedy.

            In case you were wondering, there is a process behind marrying a deceased person that involves two big requirements. First, the living applicant has to prove that the deceased intended to marry them. Proof can include wedding rings, a pre-nuptial agreement, notices placed in local newspapers or other documents that confirm intent to marry. The second requirement is that the applicant must explain why their situation justifies a posthumous marriage. Applicants have to make an appeal to the president of France directly. So, if you had been hoping to marry Napoleon, or Madame Curie, I’m sorry to say that’s not happening. You can’t just marry any dead person, you have to prove that they loved you in their life.

            Today, posthumous marriage in France is rare but not uncommon. An estimated 60 to 100 people apply for a posthumous marriage every year with around half or more of those being granted. One famous posthumous marriage occurred in 2017 when Etienne Cardiles married the fallen Xavier Jugelé. Jugelé was a policeman who went above and beyond his call to duty. He was well-respected in his own position and even volunteered to help migrants in Greece during the 2015 migrant crisis. He was also an activist who fought for queer rights.

            On 13 November 2015, ISIS terrorists enacted the largest terrorist attack in French history when they opened fire inside the crowded Bataclan theater. Jugelé was one of the first responders and was killed trying to save lives. For his bravery, he was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award. His death devastated his civil partner Etienne Cardiles. Marriage equality only became legal two years prior and the two had not yet held a marriage ceremony. After an appeal by Cardiles, president François Hollande approved of the marriage. The wedding was held in 2017. Among those in attendance were the president and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. This was widely believed to be the first legal same-sex posthumous marriage in history.

            Every few years a high-profile posthumous marriage occurs, usually when a grieving partner weds a fallen soldier or victim of a terrorist attack or tragedy. Connexion France reported that in 2021, “Alexandra S. married Maxime Blasco, a master corporal who died in service in Mali.” Later, “Amandine Sorriaux married Steven Greblac, a policeman who was killed during an accident in Villeneuve-d’Ascq in 2023.”

            One important caveat to this law is that it is only available to French citizens marrying their fellows. While there are other cultures that practice posthumous marriage, none of these are legal. The Chinese ghost marriage was banned by the CCP in 1949 as a relic of superstition. Likewise, Okinawan spirit marriages are a ritual that does not have legal force in Japan. Even though marriage to the deceased is practiced across the world, France is the only country where it is recognized by law and regularly practiced.

            Number seven: Putting animals on trial.

In France, particularly the north, it was not uncommon for a court to hear cases against pigs, dogs, roosters and all sorts of animals. These trials were not ‘about’ the animals, as you might expect in ‘normal’ court proceedings; in these trials the animals were defendants who were accused of heinous crimes against the community. There are surviving records of at least 100 animal trials that were held between the 10th and 18th centuries; given how many local court documents have been destroyed through wars, fires, floods and the ravages of time we can only imagine how many French fauna have been brought before a judge.

            One of the most frequently-prosecuted animals were pigs, who were often charged with the murder of children. HistoryToday recounts that, “In December 1457 a sow and her six piglets were arrested in Savigny for the ‘murder’ of a five-year-old boy. Together with their owner, Jehan Bailly, they were dragged off to jail; and a month later, they were put on trial before the local judge. According to the court records, three lawyers were present: two for the prosecution; one (perhaps) for the pigs’ defence. Nine witnesses were called by name, in addition to several others whose identities have been lost. Based on their testimony, the judge decided that, while Bailly should have kept a much more careful eye on his animals, responsibility for the boy’s murder lay squarely with the pigs…After consulting with experts in local customary law, the judge solemnly sentenced her to death, stipulating that she should be hanged from a tree by her hind legs. The piglets were a different matter, though. Since there was no direct evidence that they had participated in the murder, the judge decided to let them off on the ‘promise’ of good behaviour.”

            These cases were taken very seriously. When an animal was sentenced to death, they had to be executed the proper way, by a professional executioner. In towns that were too small to have their own, villagers appealed to the cities to send them a professional to dispose of the guilty animals. In one case in 1403, “a hangman travelled over 50km from Paris to Meullant to ‘do justice’ to a sow which had killed and eaten an infant.” [HistoryToday].

            Why did French villagers bring livestock and wild fare to court? That is a question that historians still debate. Perhaps the most likely reason is that by condemning an animal for a crime, this absolved another member of the community of guilt. If a child wandered into a pigsty and was killed, the pig owners would likely blame the parents for not watching their child more carefully, while the parents would blame the farmer for not keeping their pigs secure. Violence was far more common in the medieval period. Historians estimate that European murder rates were roughly 50 per 100,000, which is almost 40 times higher than the current French homicide rate. Revenge was far more accepted and disputes such as these led people to enact ‘eye for an eye’ justice. By placing guilt on the animal, communities might prevent bloodshed between families that might otherwise tear apart their village.

            Another reason is that by trying animals, villagers reasserted order in the world. The medieval and early modern period was filled with chaos and uncertainty. At any given time a bad harvest, a flood, disease outbreak or war might kill off most members of a community. When nothing is guaranteed but work and suffering, animal trials were one way that villagers reasserted their power over an uncaring universe.

            For centuries, city-based judges scoffed at these superstitious practices. Elite scholars had adopted Roman law, which did not hold animals accountable for crimes given that they did not possess the ability to reason. Perhaps one reason why these animal trials started in Normandy was because Roman law had not penetrated the area. From the north, animal trials spread across France and even into Germany and Italy. While we cannot say for sure when the last trial was held, trying animals in France definitively ended with Napoleon’s Code Civil, which became the basis for law in France and across much of Europe. This Enlightenment-inspired rationalization of law divided humans and animals. One major foundation of this new law was that only humans were capable of crimes.

            Number eight: The travelling heart of Louis XVII.

            Louis XVII is a tragic figure in history. The son of king Louis XVI and Austrian royal Marie Antoinette, Louis XVII was only 4 years old when the Revolution began. Following the failed Flight to Varennes, the royals were held against their will in Paris. While his mother and father went to the guillotine, Louis XVII suffered poor care, contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 10. Surgeon Philippe-Jean Pelletan performed the autopsy on the boy who never became king. In the process he secretly removed the small heart. Pelletan then placed the heart in a jar filled with wine to preserve it. From there, the heart went on a wild journey across Western Europe.

            After Napoleon’s fall, Louis XVIII assumed the throne. Dr. Pelletan appealed to the king, offering him his nephew’s heart, though the Bourbon monarch refused. There had already been a number of pretenders claiming to be the deceased prince, and the king dismissed Pelletan as another charlatan looking to gain wealth or fame by giving him a pig’s heart or some nonsense. Since the monarch would not accept it, Pelletan turned to the Archbishop of Paris, who kept the shriveled heart in a crystal jar in his palace.

            Between 26-29 July 1830, France underwent another Revolution, one which overthrew the Bourbon monarchy, replacing Charles X with constitutional monarch Louis-Philippe. Even after the initial settlement, tensions between the people and conservative Legitimist elements remained high. On 14 February 1831 the Catholic Church held a mass to commemorate the eleven-year anniversary of the assassination of Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois. While the church wanted to honor the murdered Bourbon, the Parisian people remembered him as a potential heir to a regime that brutally cracked down on their freedoms. Outraged by this celebration of a family of tyrants, a crowd of Parisians ransacked the Archbishop’s palace. Pelletan’s son arrived at the ruined building and found the heart.

            The Pelletan family gave the object to another Frenchman who in 1895 gave it to Carlos, Duke of Madrid, pretender to the thrones of France and Spain, who was living in exile at Schloss Frohsdorf, near Vienna. The heart entombed in crystal passed from one Spanish Bourbon figure to another, until Maria della Neve gifted it to the Basilica of Saint Denis in Paris, the resting place of the kings of France. In the year 2000 the caretakers of Saint Denis cut out a piece of the heart and sent it to a laboratory to be tested. Scientists performed a DNA test on the heart, comparing it to a lock of hair from Marie Antoinette and remains from other members of the Bourbon family. The tests proved that this was in fact, the heart of Louis XVII.

            In June 2004 an official ceremony was held for the internment of the heart. There, the 12-year old Amaury de Bourbon de Parme, a distant relative of Louis XVII, carried the urn in a ceremony also attended by other members of the Bourbon family. The ceremony attracted hundreds of royalists who gathered to support House Bourbon. After 209 years and after traveling thousands of miles across Europe from one owner to the next, the heart made it to the traditional resting place of French kings in Saint-Denis which you can still see today.

            Number nine: A crocodile was found in the Paris sewers.

            In the first few months of 1984, Parisian sewer workers in the 1st arrondisement noticed that there were far fewer rats than usual in the underground. Sanitation experts shrugged off this curiosity until one day they spotted a scaly creature near the Pont-Neuf. On 7 March 1984, firefighters entered the sewers where they encountered a meter-long, juvenile Nile crocodile. Using brooms and shovels the firefighters corralled and eventually captured the reptile, which they transferred to a menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes.

            Shocked workers nursed the crocodile, who they named Eleanore, before transferring her to a newly-built aquarium in Vannes on the southern coast of Brittany. Eleanore’s habitat was decorated to look like the Parisian sewers and she quickly became a local legend. There she grew to be 3 meters long and weighed 200kg or 440lbs, and lived to the age of 28, passing away in May 2022.

            How did a crocodile end up in the Paris sewers? Well, as it turns out, France is a wilder place than you might think. In France a citizen can own virtually any pet they want, including lions, alligators and other dangerous creatures. While most other countries have banned ownership of certain animals, national law in France does not prohibit their ownership. As long as a citizen undergoes 70 hours of training in care of an animal they can apply for a certificat de capacité. Arnauld L’homme of Action Protection Animale commented that, “We are one of the weirdest countries [on animal-rights]. We try to cover up laws with certificat de capacités.”

            If you watched the show Tiger King and thought that America was the only country that let people own wild and dangerous animals, you’re wrong. While animal rights groups have increased pressure on the government to prohibit owning dangerous or endangered animals, French law remains some of the most lax in the world in this area. Eleonore the crocodile was likely legally purchased in a Paris pet store and then simply abandoned by her owner once they decided they did not want to care for it.

            Eleonore is hardly the only strange animal that French authorities have had to deal with. On 18 September 2019 a wild panther meandered across the roofs of the small village of Armentières. The panther, named Louise, had escaped from her owner’s apartment and began appearing outside people’s windows. Authorities monitored her until she went back inside, at which point they struck her with sleeping darts, allowing them to safely confine her. A court found the couple who owned Louise had kept this wild animal unlawfully. The owners disagreed, claiming that Louise was not just a panther but their child, saying, “She was like a big, affectionate baby who just wanted to be cuddled.” [CBS News]. The owner had previously been arrested for theft, drug trafficking and illegally owning a monkey. Louise has since been relocated to Stichting Leeuw big cat sanctuary in the Netherlands, where she is beloved by her new caretakers.

            Number ten: The longest book in history.

            The average full-length novel is about 300-400 pages long, with a wordcount of roughly 80,000-100,000. As attention spans decrease, so has novel’s length. A 2022 study found that the average length of a New York Times bestseller dropped by about 51.5 pages between 2011 and 2021, from 437.5 to 386 pages. How shocking is it then, to know that the longest novel ever written is about ten times as long as today’s works. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is the longest novel in history at almost 1.2 million words.

            In Search of Lost Time is considered Proust’s magnum opus, and one of the greatest works of fiction ever written in the French language. This book, which has since been split into seven volumes, is an autobiographical work by Proust that depicts his life as a member of the wealthy elite. Proust began writing the book in 1909 and continued working on it until his death in 1922. The book remained unfinished, though his relatives stitched together the draft pages of his latter years and published the completed work.

Upon publication, it has been regarded by authors as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century and of all time. Many aspects of the book have made it into popular culture, such as the famous anecdote of the madeleine. When Proust’s narrator bites into a madeleine he is mentally transported back in time to his youth, an experience which was adapted as the finale of the Pixar film Ratatouille.

            Despite being a classic work of fiction, In Search of Lost Time has its detractors. Ironically enough, one of them was even a character in Proust’s book…sort of. Many literary critics suspect that Proust’s fictional literary idol Bergotte was modeled on the writer Anatole France. France went on to win the 1921 Nobel Prize in literature and was one of the most respected writers in his time. Despite being an inspiration for Proust, he never read In Search of Lost Time, and is quoted as saying, “Life is too short and Proust is too long,” though this pithy quote may have been an invention by fellow writer Maurice Sachs.

            Number eleven: Making alcohol in the Paris Catacombs.

            The Paris Catacombs is one of the spookiest places on Earth. Imagine miles upon miles of tunnels forming a labyrinth whose walls are composed of human bones. Thousands of femurs form walls. Piled skulls surround pillars. Bones from over six million people line the tunnels of the catacombs.

            The catacombs were never intended to house the dead. These passages were originally a series of hundreds of tunnels dug out by masonry workers extracting Lutetian limestone from outside Paris proper. This distinctive creamy-grey limestone has since become the hallmark color of Parisian buildings. By the 18th century the bustling city of Paris had run out of room for all those who had died within its walls. In 1785, King Louis XVI passed a law to remove most of the city’s corpses from their resting place and into the mines.

            Today, the catacombs are a huge tourist draw, attracting half a million visitors who want a macabre experience. One thing most people don’t know is that a lot is happening in those tunnels. One man has chosen to make it his workstation for brewing mead.

Audric de Campeau is a history enthusiast who spent a decade cultivating honey in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Speaking to the BBC, de Campeau claims that, “Despite popular assumption, the honey in Paris is far less polluted than in the countryside due to the lack of pesticides…Because of the diversity of trees in Paris, the honey has notes of berries, lychees, blackcurrants, cherries, mint and citrus.”

Since then, de Campeau has expanded his operation to distilling mead, the oldest alcoholic beverage in history. Having struck a deal with the catacomb’s caretakers, de Campeau makes his mead in a secret underground tunnel connected to the halls of the dead. He claims that, “It's the perfect place for mead. Unlike in a normal Parisian cellar, the temperature is always at 14C, there's no vibrations, no odours, complete darkness and the humidity is at 90%.”

            Number twelve: France isn’t French.

            The word ‘France’ isn’t originally a French word, or even in the Romance language family. France comes from ‘Frank.’ The Franks were a Germanic people who invaded the Western Roman Empire in the centuries leading to its collapse. The Franks took over the country, which they named after themselves.

            Likewise, ‘Paris’ is also not a French word. The word Paris comes from a Gallic tribe who inhabited the area, known as the Parisii. When the Romans conquered Gaul they renamed the city ‘Lutetia Parisiorum’ or ‘Lutetia’ for short. Eventually people stopped referring to the city as ‘Lutetia’ and just called it Paris or some form of the word.

            Lutetia hasn’t completely disappeared though. During the 1860s Paris underwent massive renovations to modernize it and clean it up. In the 5th arrondissement, workers discovered a large Roman arena. Today you can visit Les Arènes de Lutèce for free, though it may be hard to get a photo there as the last time I was there children were playing football on its grounds.

            Number thirteen: France without French.

            Did you know that for most of its history, most French people did not speak French? When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 only 12-13% of French people spoke French fluently and 50% did not speak French at all!

            Throughout its history, France has been one of the largest countries in Europe and fairly powerful, incorporating many territories. While we may look at these as all ‘French’ today, for a long time regions maintained distinct cultures and identities. In Brittany the people spoke Breton, which is a Celtic language that survived the Germanic invasions. In the north were Flemish communities. In the east, most people spoke a German dialect known as Alsatian, as France conquered the areas of Elsaß-Lothringen, turning it into Alsace and Lorraine.

The single-largest language was Occitan, a Romance language spread across the southern half of France. Perhaps the most unique language group in France is Basque. While most Basques live in northern Spain, their territory stretches into southwestern France. These people speak a language that predates the arrival of Indo-Europeans around 4000 BCE! As France expanded southeastward it incorporated Italian-speaking territories, namely around Nice, which was called Nizza. Finally, when France took control of Corsica they incorporated a people who spoke their own language, but which is related to Italian.

            Since the Revolution, statesmen tried to impose French on the various localities of France. During the Third Republic, politicians in the 1880s reformed the education system. Teachers across the country would instruct in French. Students were punished for speaking their own language. In the south, signs were posted saying, “No spitting, no speaking Occitan.” These reforms succeeded, and around World War I most French people could speak French.

            Number fourteen: Mayday and m’aidez.

            If you’ve ever watched a movie with a helicopter pilot who loses control of the aircraft, you’ve no doubt heard them shout ‘Mayday’ into the radio. This common call for help for aircraft was developed by Frederick Stanley Mockford, the officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport in England. When his superiors asked him to come up with a word signaling distress he suggested the French word ‘m’aidez.’ ‘Aider’ means ‘help’ and by putting an ‘m’ in front of it, it becomes ‘m’aidez’ which means ‘help me.’ However, the English Anglicized the word and ‘m’aidez’ became ‘Mayday,’ though it has nothing to do with that holiday.

            France is a fascinating place with a long history. To learn more about this incredible country, listen to our other episodes which cover its history from Asterix and Obelix to LaFayette and La Révolution.

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L'HÔPITAL DES ENFANTS-MALADES, THE WORLD'S FIRST CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, FOUNDED IN PARIS IN 1802 Available to Purchase

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