Have you been watching Engrenages, Spiral in English? We had been left on a cliff hanger ( laissé en suspens) at the end of season 5 with Laure Berthaud (le commandant), several months pregnant, in hospital with a stab wound in her tummy. Fortunately, the baby has survived! Laure can’t wait to get back to work with her team, the two lieutenants, Gilles Escoffier, Gilou and Luc Fromentin, Tintin.

If you haven’t watch the season, I don’t want to spoil it for you so I won’t tell the story but you may like to know who is who in the police and justice French system, so here we go:

Laure, Gilou and Tintin work for la DPJ, Direction de la police judiciaire in charge of any criminal offence whereas la Crim, la Criminelle deals with homicides, rapes and terrorism. The line between the two is sometimes rather fine as we find out in this season.

The justice system is represented by le procureur Machard, his role is to decide whether there is a case for a police enquiry and if so, to choose a juge d’instruction. As we can see he knows that he is a very important man!

The juge d’instruction Roban is in charge of the enquiry and liaise with the police, the victims, the witnesses and the suspect with his/ her lawyer, l’avocat.

L’avocat ou l’avocate here is Joséphine, avocate en droit pénal (criminal lawyer) whereas Jean-Etienne Vern, her boss, is avocat des affaires (business lawyer).

Any wiser? In any case, enjoy this season if you haven’t yet, and let’s wait with trepidation for season 7……. Attendons la 7ème saison avec impatience!!!

Learning French with Alliance Française de Bristol et Bath is about language but also culture. Join us for our free café scientifique or cinéclub  – you can join our classes at any point in the year, just contact us below.