A special edition of TV5Monde's music show Acoustic this week, with artists paying homage to French chanteuse and singer-songwriter Barbara.
The show marks the 20th anniversary of her death.
The focus is on classical pianist Alexandre Tharaud, whose recently released homage double album entitled Barbara saw him interpret some of her work alongside Albin de la Simone, Hindi Zahra and Tim Dup who feature on this broadcast, as well as others including Jane Birkin, Vanessa Paradis, Dominique A, Juliette Binoche and Radio Elvis.
It's a mark of the respect and affection that Barbara is held in that a cast like this was assembled to pay tribute.
Songs featuring in the session are Pierre – Valse de Franz, La dame brune, C’est trop tard, Pierre and Say, when you will return?
May 10 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the election of François Mitterand as president of France.
It's an anniversary that is being marked by many in France, with Mitterand being regarded by many with a fondness and respect that he did not always get during his tenure as president.
Although the only Socialist Party president during the Fifth Republic, his actions with regard Rwanda, nuclear testing and the subsequent bombing of the Rainbow Warrior as well as his historical links to Vichy regime made him a controversial figure.
However, his policies with regard co-operation with Germany and other changes introduced under his presidency including the abolition of the death penalty, normalisation of the status of thousands of illegal immigrants and the liberalisation of the media were more welcome.
Few people have had a bigger influence on the shape of modern France than Mitterrand.
In the 80s, singer Barbara was a strong backer of François Mitterand, with the song "Regarde" was written to celebrate the 1981 election victory.
The song, composed just days after the election, appeared on her 1981 album Pantin.
Mitterand decorated her with the Légion d'Honneur after he was re-elected in 1988.
A change in the law of France sees Absinthe - a drink long associated with the country - finally legalised.
Absinthe, La Fée verte, was banned in France in 1914.
Until the ban it had been hugely popular in France, in 1910 the French were drinking 36 million litres of absinthe a year, a far higher consumption than the amount of wine that was being drunk in the country.
It was cheap and its popularity cut across social class, and had a long association with the artistic and literary scene in the late 19th-early 20th century Paris.
The ban came about on account of numerous scare stories linking the drink with madness and criminality.
Pernod, which had been one of the most widely consumed brands of Absinthe until the ban, started to manufacture a "pastiche" of the drink - one that retained the aniseed taste but did not contain the wormwood - once it was made illegal. That too proved to be a rather popular drink in France.
The Absinthe revival really got under way in the UK in the 1990s, when Czech-manufactured Absinth was imported into the country, where it had never been banned unlike in most of mainland Europe.
Manufacture began again in France in 2000, with La Fée Absinthe, although essentially for export only as despite the EU lifing the ban on Absinthe in 1998, France passed a law banning products labelled as "Absinthe" and controlled the permitted ingredients. Manufacturers got round this by labelling their drinks as "Spiritueux à base de plantes d'absinthe".
The legislation was eventually repealed in 2009 following a legal challenge by the manufacturers, and the Senate have finally voted to legalize Absinthe again.
