Bringing some terrific Francophile entertainment and education, the new podcast Garlic & Pearls features a tour of French and British culture in 1,000 things, ideas and scents.
“What makes the French so French and the British so British? Which of the two nations is the weirder? Garlic & Pearls brings you the answers,” say the hosts and longtime friends, French cultural journalist Muriel Zagha and British geopolitics expert Suzanne Raine.
Via everyday objects, foods, iconic design, film, landscape, games, folklore and poetry, as well as eccentric personalities and quirky anecdotes, they take it in turns to astonish and entertain each other and the listeners with insights into their respective cultures.
Available to listen free on Spotify, Apple podcasts and podchaser.
2. Pétanque in the picture
Summer is the perfect time to enjoy a unique exhibition devoted to that most estival of village square pastimes, the popular game of pétanque – with the added bonus of some welcome cool inside a modern museum.
Taking place at the Musée d’histoire in the pétanque heartland of Marseille, an exhibition on this historical and sociological impact of the game will focus in part on photographic works by Hans Silvester (born in 1938, in Lörrach, southern Germany), a photojournalist and member of the Rapho photographic agency known for its humanist editorial line.
Between 1960 and 1970, Silvester compiled a large body of photographs devoted to the game.
Mounted in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the summer exhibition at the Musée de Pont-Aven (Finistère), – celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – explores the figure of the witch in the 19th Century.
Bringing together some 200 works from all artistic disciplines – painting, sculpture, photography, cinema, music, dance and literature – the exhibition examines how witches induced both repulsion and attraction, and how they were associated (by the male artists who depicted them) with the supernatural, with dark, disturbing and unmanageable forces. Yet how, after the publication in 1862 of Jules Michelet’s seminal book La Sorcière, witches became the embodiment of rebellion, but also of knowledge and harmony with the natural elements.
The journey unfolds in three large sections that form a circle, with the first section joining the last: night, the body, knowledge.
Explore the renowned works of Impressionist artist Claude Monet like never before with the immersive exhibition that opened at Toulouse’s EDF Bazacle in early July. Since 2019, it has been seen by over a million people after visiting major cities including London and Barcelona.
Monet's gardens in GivernyChris WM Willemsen/Shutterstock
The show was created by Belgian company Exhibition Hub, which specialises in video mapping, a technology that enables works of art to be projected in gigantic, floor-to-ceiling dimensions.
Visitors can admire Monet’s most legendary works in an immersive 360-degree room, where every detail comes to life. The grandiose sound and light show is magnified by a screen height equivalent to two stories. It follows the hugely successful M.C. Escher show, which attracted over 500,000 visitors between December and June.
Open every day except Tuesdays, prices from €15.90.
