If you had difficulty learning your history lessons, perhaps now is the time to get back to it in a fun way thanks to “Bigre!” a podcast created by Clémence de Moulins-Vaute, a history and geography professor from Toulouse. Aimed at children aged 7 to 12, it can also appeal to older children, as the style is so original.
After a first season devoted to Prehistory, the author is already in the middle of recording a second season on Antiquity in a studio in Toulon, with actors lending their voices.
“As a mother of four children myself, I often tell them stories, and they also listen to a lot of podcasts, but that didn’t necessarily correspond to the way I wanted them to approach French History.” explains the Toulonnaise.
She then has the idea of “Bigre!”. It’s very lively, very varied, punctuated by appropriate music, the listener is immersed in the adventure of a character, or he can follow him from afar. “I try to bring proximity to history, something concrete. We retrace the major dates, but not only that. Above all, I want children to be able to imagine the past. I appeal to their imagination. I try that by closing their eyes, children can have a panorama of what France was like at different periods of history, and also the characters, the people. And not systematically the great characters “continues the author.
For example, Clémence invents characters based on the research she carries out. The work is colossal and took more than two years of preparation to offer these 6 to 11 minute episodes, calibrated to the attention of young listeners.
The approach is also different because Clémence gives the woman the possibility ofhave a place in history. ” I give him the opportunity to appear. For example, for prehistory, until now we only talked about prehistoric man. For an episode on Homosapiens, I chose to have a young girl speak. It is she who says that her father will teach her to hunt, that her uncle will accept that she paints with him in the caves. There is no evidence that they painted. But we also have no proof that they did not paint. Exactly ! Leave this possibility, this opening in the place of women” explains Clémence de Moulins-Vaute.
The first season of “Hold off !” on Prehistory is already online on several platforms such as Amazon , Apple or Deezer.
