Colleen's Paris

French radio plays a big part in my everyday life. The radio is turned to a variety of stations during the course of the day. For the French, radio listening is such a habit that often choosing a mobile phone revolves around radio accessibility. In the morning while in the kitchen preparing my breakfast, I am tuned in to news and interviews. During the day, I listen to world music on the music and traffic station. In the evening during dinner preparations, we listen to the jazz station. For my husband the bathroom radio is tuned to his favorite business station while getting ready for work. While on the bus to and from work, his phone is tuned to the same programming. It is our source of weather (very important in France) information, news, and traffic. If I get an iPhone, I will have to rely on podcasts! Before I hit that crisis situation, I will continue to carry around an MP3 player and my telephone.


Here are a few links to check out for streaming and podcasts. Listening to the radio could improve your French.

BFM A private radio business and financial station; good for vocabulary and live interviews.
France Inter- You can sign up for podcasts of different shows.
This is the station for interviews and history (archives) and in the summer, music history (Zapzik de l’Eté).

For history, I found the one about Jeanne d’Arc very fascinating. It is believed that she and the king, Charles

VII may have been related since they could speak to each other in the same language — she was not a peasant girl — who FranceInterwas she really? and was it really her that burned at the stake? Intriguing!

FIP – One of my most favorite radio stations for music and traffic information — it is radio-france-logoworld music (lots of variety)

Radio France this is the home page for all of the public radio stations.

TSF Jazz – private jazz radio station.
For more entertainment visit Colleen’s Paris.