“It's about keeping our patrimony,” says Christophe Lesoin, owner of the Beaufils cheese shop in Paris, about the chees aeging process.

“We need to keep doing this kind of maturing in our shops; otherwise we'll end up with only big companies making things that taste the same.”

Store manager Emmanuel Carbonne says that working with cheese producers gives a sense of the entire food chain: "You can understand the whole global system with cheese. It gives you a picture of what’s happening, about globalisation and everything. For me it’s a way of resisting by working with traditional, real things."

“With the French bassoon you have a clearer, more precise sound. With the German system you have a bigger, more intense sound,” says musician Antoine Pecqueur.

“I think it’s important to keep the French bassoon, because there is a bit of a risk for the world of classical music: it's the standardisation of the sound. It's like globalisation in politics. I think it's better if they are specific sounds in each country.”

The split came in the 19th century when Germany woodwind makers started making instruments that could play louder, to be heard in bigger concert halls. Today French bassoonists tend to play their own but some musicians play both, choosing the right instrument for the right piece of music.

French notaries have a monopoly on property transactions, which notary Jérôme Le Breton says keeps a lot of disagreements out of court.

“Unless they have to face litigation, we don’t go to court," he explains. "Notaries are trying to prevent that sort of thing. And it's quite efficient. If you ask judges, they would probably say that there is a large reduction of court cases in France, as compared to a country such as England.”

Notaries are lawyers by training but they must take over a licence from someone else. This used to be done unofficially from father to son, though things are changing. More women are joining the profession, which has been open to women since 1948, although Paris’ first female notary was only licensed in 1977.

A branch of the French armed forces, the Paris Fire Brigade started accepting women in 2002. Today the 8,500-member brigade counts 400 active-duty female firefighters, including Lucille Morel. She does the same jobs as her male counterparts. She is up for the physical challenges, but is aware that she needs to adapt herself to what remains a very male world.

"If I could still have the same kids, I would have waited. But- I love my kids.I wouldn't give 'em up for the world. No matter how hard it is." Cathy is 16. She loves listening to Outkast. She wanted to be a lawyer, but now she thinks she wants to be an accountant. Cathy is also still a freshman in high school because she is the mother of two little boys, the oldest, James, is two years old. She attends a high school for teen mothers which is where she gets the most support from anyone all day. This is a non-narrated, first-person glimpse into the chaotic life of a very young mother. It is not a story of regret and moralizing about early sexuality. Instead, Cathy reflects on her need to be grown-up, as a mother to her two boys, while also wanting to be just a teenager. This piece was produced at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

Walk into any pastry shop in Paris in August (if you can find one open!), and you will see fresh summer fruit tarts. But behind the scenes, the chefs are thinking ahead to the busy Christmas season. This piece explores the pastry kitchens of the Grande Epicerie de Paris in August, where - with the help of giant industrial freezers - pastry chefs prepare Christmas pastries in the heat of summer.

Most professional oboe players (and bassoonists, and English horn players) carve their own reeds. This is a fact that few people realize, even musicians. The process is never-ending. A single reed takes days to make and perfect. An amazing reed might last several weeks; most are at their peak for about two weeks. Oboists carve their reeds by hand out of pieces of cane, because no one has come up with a plastic reed or a reed-making machine. This piece explores the process of making oboe reeds and delves into the minds of the tenacious musicians who spend hours and hours carving away at pieces of wood that are smaller than their pinky fingers.