In 897 C.E. the corpse of the recently deceased Pope Formosus was unearthed, propped on a throne and tried for heresy in Rome. The motives had less to do with theology than naked secular politics, writes Paul Collins as he

 A young girl trains to be a courtesan in France at the turn of the 20th century. She falls in love and gets married. A thoroughly unremarkable story—it's probably the type of thing that happened quite a lot back then. There's

David Barnett Gallery's “Toulouse-Lautrec and the Paris Art Scene” (through Oct. 13) is a must-see exhibition for anyone interested in French political and artistic history...

The port of Marseille has always been a magnet for many nations, and like New York nowadays, it's also become a high-speed cultural blender. The French Mediterranean city is home to Kabbalah, whose new CD often sounds like an Orthodox...

Award-winning artist Amanda Aquino talks animatedly about her recent 60-by- 20-foot mural for the newly built patio in the back of Chez Jacques (1022 S. First St.). With a French flag on the right side of the mural and an American flag on the left, Aquino’s artwork illustrates the personal story of restaurant owner Jacques Chaumet traveling from France to Milwaukee.

In the course of robbing Yaakov Kanelsky’s apart ment in Brooklyn, N.Y., in July, Victor Marin, 20, accidentally left his wallet— which contained his ID, credit cards and photos—on the bed. After Kanelsky arrived home and called 911, Marin returned and knocked on the front door. From the hallway, he begged for his billfold...

America may have had its differences with the French—think freedom fries—but we must give credit where credit is due: The French really know how to enjoy the delicacies of life. This year’s Bastille Days will give the rest of us four days to do the same. Milwaukee has one of the largest Bastille Days celebrations in the country...

French may be the language of love, but tonight, it’s also the language of choice for scorned lovers. Gabrielle, the 2006 Patrice Chereau film screening at 7 p.m. tonight in the UWM Union Theatre as part of its Festival of Films in French, depicts the tumultuous dissolution of a loveless marriage. Based on Joseph . . .

The UWM Union Theatre’s 2008 Festival of Films in French and its ongoing Experimental Tuesdays series converge tonight for a 7 p.m. screening of Corpora Luminum: The Body in New French Experimental Cinema, a collection of bold shorts by contemporary French auteurs exploring the human body and physiological processes . . .