The lacerating Catalan separatist conflict, which has been developing for several years now and taking an increasingly worrying turn, has become from the end of 2017, at least, a hot topic of European and international current affairs, thus exceeding the mere Spanish domestic scenario. Said conflict unequivocally questions the perception that we European citizens in general and French citizens in particular have about the current reality of Spain and Catalonia as well as its history and deep being. We intend to analyze this representation (which is usually quite stereotyped) based on the brief development proposed in this regard by a famous essayist and thinker of our country, Emmanuel Todd, in the context of a radio interview.