In this talk, I will give a brief overview of ongoing spectroscopic investigations of the radioactive element francium. The experiments are done in an international collaboration at the production facility for radioactive ions ISOLDE at CERN, on the border between Switzerland and France. Francium is a heavy alkali atom, meaning its spectrum is greatly influenced by relativistic effects and quantum electrodynamics. This makes the atom a promising candidate for studies of fundamental physics, beyond the standard model, including phenomena such as, for example, parity non-conservation. However, for the most part, the energy spectrum of Fr is unexplored. The reason for this is that the element does not appear naturally, with the most long-lived isotope having a half-life of around 20 minutes. This means that studies of such an element have to be done at a large facility, where radioactive isotopes can be produced. The difficulty in obtaining real samples of Fr, coupled with the complexity of theoretical calculation for heavy elements, makes the atom most attractive for a curious spectroscopist.