Best shows and podcasts to learn French

Short lessons built around one useful thing at a time, with a learner in the room asking the questions you'd want to ask yourself.

Nelly teaches French to foreigners in Paris and uses her episodes to unpack the language and the culture behind it, one short lesson at a time.

Nagisa holds relaxed conversations in deliberately slow French, built purely to train your listening ear.

The week's news read at a pace you can actually keep up with, and every episode comes with a transcript to read along.

Street interviews in Paris and around the French-speaking world, subtitled in French and English, so authentic speech stays followable.

Ordinary people answering questions on the street, with French and English subtitles running, so you hear how the language sounds outside a classroom.

Elsa talks about everyday life in France slowly and clearly, with subtitles, so you pick up the French people really use instead of textbook lines.

Elsa slows her French to a pace you can hold on to, and spends it on everyday life in France rather than textbook situations.

Omar Sy's gentleman-thief thriller, plotted tightly enough that you keep following the story even when the French runs ahead of you.

A Paris friendship comedy carried by fast, slangy dialogue, the register you'd hear from friends your own age rather than on the news.

Johan explains everything in French and never falls back on English, which trains you to stay in the language instead of translating.

RFI's daily world-news bulletin, read in slow, simple French and published with a full transcript you can read along with.

Laura paints her days in watercolour and narrates them softly, calm and unhurried French that's easy to follow while you watch her sketch.

Elisabeth teaches French the way it's actually spoken, the fast, swallowed version you hear in conversation but never in a course book.

A French couple living as digital nomads, talking ethical fashion and more conscious everyday choices in casual, conversational French.

Camille and Illiès travel the world filming short documentaries about people building something meaningful, with narration in clear, well-paced French.

Reflective vlogs on nature, slow living and consuming less, filmed in the French countryside at a gentle, thoughtful pace.

Marie is one of France's best-known wellness creators: recipes, skincare and slow-living vlogs in relaxed, natural French.