The French History Podcast

Agnès Souret called the most beautiful woman in France, 1920

A protestor depicts President Macron and a guillotine matching on Tinder while standing in front of a burning building, Lyon 17 October 2026.

A new study finds that it is impossible for the world to meet the Paris Climate Accords goal of 1.5C above pre-industrial warming. No country on Earth has complied with the agreement & many countries have actually gotten worse on polluting.

A student protestor says "Lock up the r*pists, not the minors!" October 2026

Napoleonic Wars in a nutshell.

Student protests in 2026 and 1968, Paris.

Gendarmes at the May Strikes in Paris, 1968. The May 1968 strikes were the largest in french history with 1/6th of all French people taking to the streets. The strikes brought down de Gaulle's presidency though afterwards a conservative backlash resulted in the right-wing growing its lead

#OTD 22 October 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor.

The world is better without AI. Only a human being could write that the "the Quackers brought religious tolerance to America" in an exam.

Our host Dr. Gary Girod talked art, humanity, life & all things France on the Immortal Art Podcast. Check it out on Youtube! youtu.be/-SCiOx0CWUM?...

Great travel opportunity by our friends at Pontifacts! Travel across Italy searching for the pope's historic past with the best guides possible. celeste.wetravel.com/i/69fc95965e...

Christmas is coming up! Have you been good this year?

#OTD 20 October 1803 The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

Medics rescuing a wounded victim during student riots in Paris, 1968

Protest is a way of life in France. French people do not allow societal collapse to get in the way of late dinners & fitness sessions.

"The Vote changes nothing the fight continues," poster from May 1968

32 people have been killed in school shootings in the US this year. The only death related to the French protests is someone had a heart attack while protesting. You are safer in a French riot than an American school. French people don't need to sit down, Americans need to stand up.

Your complacency is not better than their civic participation

Fun exercise: find any US-based account condemning the protesters in France. Look up if they have said anything about school shootings (52 so far in the US in 2026). You won't find anything. The people hating on France only value property and power, not people.

#OTD 18 October 1963 Félicette, a black and white female Parisian stray cat, becomes the first cat launched into space.

#OTD 17 October 1781 Lord Cornwallis asks to surrender at the Battle of Yorktown, which formally occurs two days later. The American-French victory was the last great battle of the American Revolutionary War.

#OTD 17 October 1961 The Paris police, under the leadership of Maurice Papon, violently attacks peacefully demonstrating Algerians in Paris, killing over 100. The victims were brutalized, mutilated & thrown into the Seine to prevent their identification.

New episode! The troubadours revolutionize music, art and humanity itself. With music provided by the Unicorn Ensemble! www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/the-troubado...

#OTD 16 October 2020 Chechan refugee Abdoullakh Abouyezidovich Anzorov beheaded history teacher Samuel Paty after learning Paty had shown an image of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom of expression.

#OTD 16 October 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette was executed.

Metal ships...tight.

#OTD 15 October 1926 Michel Foucault was born. He became one of the most influential philosophers & historians of the 20th cent., developing ideas about structuralism, & the nature of knowledge & power. He was the first high-profile French public figure to die of AIDs.

#OTD 15 October 1917 Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by France for espionage.

#OTD 15 October 1815 Napoleon began his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean

Same. I had 126k followers including historians, dignitaries and French embassies. After Elon started posting white supremacist stuff I was done.

#OTD 15 October 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette of France was tried and convicted of treason.

#OTD 14 October 1066 Duke Guillaume of Normandy defeats Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, leading to the Norman Conquest of England.

#OTD 13 October 1307 Hundreds of the Knights Templar in France are arrested at dawn by King Philippe the Fair, and later confess under torture to heresy. Philippe later burned the last grandmaster of the Templars alive.

Popularity of US President Donald Trump in European countries. He currently has the highest approval rating in France with a -67, compared to the lowest in Denmark with -91. The latter is not surprising given his continual threats to invade Greenland (a part of Denmark).

Paris 1891 pictoral map

#OTD 10 October 732 Charles Martel's forces defeat an Umayyad army at the Battle of Poitiers. This further weakened the Iberian Umayyads, while solidifying Charles Martel's control of Francia. Learn all about it in our epic episode www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/47-the-battl...

#OTD 9 October 1981 President François Mitterrand abolishes capital punishment in France.