Terroir Terror: The 1911 Champagne Riots
An environmental crisis and a dispute over regional boundaries sent both rioters and rivers of champagne pouring into the streets of Aube.
Monaco, a Mediterranean Principality Shaped by the Middle Ages
From Grimaldi piracy in the Medieval era to the high-stakes gambling tables of the present, Monaco celebrates its ties to science, religion, and royalty.
Cheesy Terroir-ism: The ABCs of AOCs
Whether it supports the production of wine or cheese, terroir is a “particularly French conception of cultural territory” says historian Tamara L. Whited.
Insects in the Mail
The efficiency of the postal system and generosity of local experts played important roles in the advancement of entomology in eighteenth-century France.
When French Citrus Colonized Algeria
The citrus industry in Algeria honed French imperial apparatuses and provided a means for France to define and shape the behavior of its colonial subjects.
The Flour War
In eighteenth-century France, the scarcity and price of flour was the base ingredient for what would become one of history’s bloodiest revolutions.
Decolonizing the Language of Overseas France
School systems in French Polynesia and New Caledonia are attempting to revitalize vernacular languages that were suppressed under French colonialism.
What Are Colonies For? France and Algeria, 1848
Algeria was a safety valve for the Second Republic: a place to funnel the militant working class to subdue them as colonists and farmers.
Bringing Personal Hygiene to France
France’s notorious disregard for washing gradually changed as military authorities and public schools promoted a modern regime of cleanliness.
Jackie’s French Connection
Jacqueline Kennedy, with her French ancestry and command of the language, was a not-so-secret American weapon in US-France relations in the early 1960s.