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The Marseillaise
Most people know that la Marseillaise is the national anthem of France but did you know that it was actually written in Strasbourg, not Marseille? In 1792, after France declared war on Austria, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle wrote one of the most instantly-recognizable of European anthems. […]
Is It Possible To Buy Reasonably-Priced Champagne?
Absolutely. There’s no law that says you have to pay hundreds of dollars for good Champagne, and no guarantee that cheaper bottles will be rubbish. The fact is that an increasing number of growers are producing their own excellent bubbly, so why not give them a […]
As Popular As The Beatles?
Sometimes referred to as the French Elvis Presley (as well as Cloclo), and described as being as popular as The Beatles, Claude François, despite meeting an untimely end in 1978 – aged just 39 – is still as popular today as he was when he was […]
River Deep, Mountain High
Where Provence and the Alps meet is the Verdon Gorge (Gorges du Verdon). At 15.5 miles long and almost 3,000 feet deep, it’s Europe’s largest canyon. At around 6,700 feet above sea level, the village of Saint-Véran, in the Hautes-Alpes department is the highest municipality in […]
Shrove Tuesday Pancakes
With Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday as the English speakers among us call it) just around the corner on February 17th, we thought a post about crêpes (pancakes) was in order. After all, what else are you going to eat on pancake day? According to historians, people […]
France’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites
In France there are 39 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List: 3 Roman sites (Arles, Orange, Le Gard) 4 cathedrals (Amiens, Bourges, Chartres, Reims) 4 abbeys (Fontenay, Reims, Saint-Savin sur Gartempe, Vezelay) 8 historic city/town centres (Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Strasbourg, le Havre, Mont-Saint-Michel, Provins, Carcassonne) Plus […]
Parenthood in France
Regardless of whether he is the biological father or not, a man who claims a child born to a single mother as his may be legally recognised as such. All he has to do is sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity (Reconnaissance de Paternité). Even if he […]
Paris’ Aquatic Cinema
We’ve all heard of electric cinema but how about aqua cinema? In the heart of the City of Light’s Latin Quarter, not far from Boulevard Saint-Germain, is the spectacular Piscine Pontoise, which the eagle-eyed among us will recognize from Kieslowski’s movie, ‘Trois Couleurs: Bleu’ (Three Colors: […]
Pardon My French!
For some reason, there are various things which are prefaced with the word, ‘French’, and yet they have little or nothing to do with France. Here are a few you may be familiar with but if you know of any others, please let us know in […]
The Mother Tongue?
In 1794, a survey revealed that just 11% of France’s population were native French speakers. By 1880, that number had risen to a mere 20%. Today, 86% of people living in France have French as their first language. Dialects and other languages make up the rest: […]