The French History Podcast · Evergreen Podcasts

Fourteen Fun French Facts

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

In 1748, the Parliament of Paris made it illegal to grow or eat potatoes for 24 years.

1. The French History Podcast episode “Fourteen Fun French Facts” strings together odd moments from French history, starting with potatoes and ending with laws, animals, and royal records. 2. The host identified as Ken Harbaugh says he is a host for Evergreen Podcasts and that he interviews political leaders and figures like Soledad O'Brien and Bill Kristol. 3. The core hook is a list of 14 unusual French facts, including bans, legal curiosities, and historical episodes that sound improbable at first glance. 4. The first fact says the Parliament of Paris banned potatoes in 1748 and lifted the ban in 1772 after fears of poisoning and leprosy. 5. The potato section explains that some Europeans thought ground-growing plants were more dangerous than fruits, and that potatoes were associated with the Inca deity Axomama. 6. Antoine-Augustin Parmentier appears as the French pharmacist who advocated potatoes after being fed them as a prisoner and later wrote a paper during the Besançon famine of 1769 and 1770. 7. Parmentier’s campaign culminated on 24 August 1786, when Louis XVI received a bouquet of potatoes and Marie Antoinette wore a potato flower in her hair. 8. The second fact says the Hôpital des Enfants Malades in Paris opened in 1802 as the first hospital exclusively for children under 15. 9. The hospital section traces the site back to the Maison Royale de l'Enfant Jésus, founded in 1722 by Abbé Linger de Crégy as a work shelter for 100 poor Parisian women. 10. The episode says the pediatric hospital influenced Great Ormond Street Hospital in London in 1852, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1875. 11. A later segment says three French communes declared that it was illegal to die, beginning with Le Lavandou in September 2000. 12. The dying-ban story explains that the mayor was protesting a court ruling that blocked a new cemetery because it would mar the village landscape. 13. The animal-trial section says at least 100 trials survive in records from the 10th to the 18th centuries, with pigs often accused of killing children. 14. One recorded case from Savigny in December 1457 involved a sow and six piglets, three lawyers, and nine named witnesses. 15. The episode also describes a legend in which a greyhound associated with Aubry de Montdidier identified Robert Maquerre and won a trial by combat before King Charles V. 16. The Louis sections contrast Louis XIV’s 72 years and 110 days with Louis XIX’s 20-minute reign after Charles X abdicated. 17. The tone is list-based and explanatory, with frequent detours into legal history, medical history, and royal anecdotes. 18. The delivery mixes odd fact presentation with occasional long explanations about why a practice arose, such as potato fear or animal trials. 19. Listeners interested in French legal oddities, royal history, and strange civic laws would likely enjoy it. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly focused single-topic episode may skip it.

As heard by us

French history, arranged as a run of odd but telling facts.

The episode frames French history as a cabinet of curiosities, moving from the 1748 potato ban to the legal marriage of a dead person, then on to monarchy, language, and wartime law.

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Why you'd press play

You want a brisk tour of 14 French oddities, from a potato ban to a legal path for marrying the dead and a few royal surprises.

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