Podcast: Le Pen's strategy, French quinoa, birth of the Paris fire brigade

Is Marine Le Pen's 'softening' of the hard-right National Rally the right strategy to win the presidency? The American who pioneered quinoa farming in France. How a tragic blaze pushed Napoleon to launch the Paris fire brigade.

Spotlight on France episode 58 © RFI

Turnout was massively low in both rounds of last month's regional elections, even amongst supporters of the hard-right National Rally, which had been predicted to win at least one region. Only thirty percent of RN voters showed up. When Marine Le Pen took the National Front from her father in 2011, she renamed it and rebranded it as a less radical party to try to broaden the support base. But it's a risky game. Political scientist Jean-Yves Camus (@jeanyvescamus1), a specialist of the hard right, says Le Pen's strategy could be backfiring, alienating some of the party's followers. (Listen @0'00'')

Quinoa, a seed that is eaten like a grain, has been grown in the Andean region of South America for hundreds of years. The rest of the world "discovered" quinoa in the early 2000s, and global demand went through the roof, putting a strain on producers in Peru and Bolivia. Farmers around the world started thinking about how they could grow quinoa, and over the past decade France has developed a local production, becoming Europe’s largest producer. The bulk is grown in the Anjou, or Maine-et-Loire region in the west of the country, thanks to one man from Tennessee, Jason Abbott.(Listen @13'10'')

The 8,500 firefighers in Paris' fire brigade, the sapeurs pompiers, are professional soldiers, part of military corps put in place by Napoleon after a tragic fire on 1 July 1810. (Listen @9'30'')

This episode was mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, iTunes (link here), Google podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here), or your favourite podcast app.