DREAMING OF FRANCE
CULTURE
Dreaming of France is a cultural commentary series where Michelle Delf explores how pop culture, fashion, and everyday life reflect deeper social and economic issues. It’s a space to reflect, observe, and unapologetically yap about the way culture and structure shape each other.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
Across France, protests are still a familiar sight. But a new generation is changing what they look and sound like. From online organizing to street marches filled with humor, music, and creativity, Gen Z is reshaping how activism happens in 2025.
This episode of Dreaming of France takes a closer look at who’s out there, what they’re standing for, and how protests have evolved into something merging both traditional aspects and completely new elements.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
In this episode of Dreaming of France, host Michelle Delf explore cultural pluralism through the small but powerful differences in everyday life — how we speak, keep time, and show politeness.
From German punctuality to French conversation styles, from Japanese respect for timing to African flexibility, discover how diverse habits can clash, enrich, and reshape each other in a city like Paris. A reminder that cultural differences aren’t barriers, but invitations to see the world through new perspectives.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
Parisian ‘café culture’ has a hidden side. This episode of Dreaming of France explores the iceberg of Parisian “café culture.”
From historical layers like the Enlightenment debates at Café Procope and the 19th-century hashish clubs, to what host Michelle Delf has personally witnessed in modern cafés late at night, we look at how these spaces carry both tradition and transformation.
Through a sociological lens, Michelle reflects on what it means to be inside, outside, shocked, or excluded from this hidden layer. This is a report — not promotion — on the other side of Parisian “café culture.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
Napoleon fangirled over Goethe, begged him to move to Paris… and got friendzoned.
Beethoven: once a Napoleon stan, then went full rage mode and literally ripped his name out of a symphony.
And over in Germany? The Cologne Cathedral. Napoleon and Goethe both saw it — but all they saw was the infamous crane on top, a landmark so legendary it even made it into Moby Dick.
This episode of Dreaming of France is pure historical rage: emperors with ego problems, musicians snapping, and a cathedral that spent 600+ years “under construction.”
Hosted by Michelle Delf
The first part of this episode of Dreaming of France is a reflection on gentrification in Paris — how rising rents, closed shops, and a maze of bureaucracy impact immigrant communities.
The second part is a fictional story, inspired by many first-generation children, showing the human cost of these pressures: lost homes, lost work, and young kids forced to carry adult fears.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
This episode of Dreaming of France is a short dive into the night lives of Paris and Berlin — looking at how young people live, party, and create their own respective rituals. From Späti beers to Parisian apéros, techno marathons to hip hop shows, it’s about the similarities, the contrasts, and how our surroundings shape the way we grow up.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
This episode of Dreaming of France is a study on the unspoken pressure to “show up” in Paris — why people feel they have to look their best just to walk the streets, and the struggles that comes with trying to keep up appearances every day.
Hosted by Michelle Delf
This episode of Dreaming of France is a reflection on the reasons why it is so difficult to find housing in Paris at an affordable cost.