France Culture

France’s most famous icon is the Eiffel Tower. This tower in Paris is the height of an 81-story building and ranks as the most visited monument in the world! This book introduces children to the classic beauty, revolutionary people, and fine foods of a country known for the arts.

An alphabetical exploration of the people, geography, animals, plants, history, and culture of France.

Can a two-career couple really pick up stakes and move to Provence? Keith and Val had a dream - to live in Provence, the land of brilliant sunlight, charming hilltop villages, and the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean. But there were two problems: they weren't French speakers and they had full-time jobs. So they came up with a plan....

Sous le regard émerveillé de leur fils, ils dansent sur "Mr. Bojangles" de Nina Simone. Leur amour est magique, vertigineux, une fête perpétuelle. Chez eux, il n'y a de place que pour le plaisir, la fantaisie et les amis. Celle qui donne le ton, qui mène le bal, c'est la mère, feu follet imprévisible et extravagant. C'est elle qui a adopté le quatrième membre de la famille, Mademoiselle Superfétatoire, un grand oiseau exotique qui déambule dans l'appartement.

A little over 10 years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband gave up their careers in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of the locals, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In this book, Janine regales us with the delights and dramas of a year attempting to live the rural idyll.

"Le cœur de Simon migrait dans un autre endroit du pays, ses reins, son foie et ses poumons gagnaient d'autres provinces, ils filaient vers d'autres corps." "Réparer les vivants" est le roman d'une transplantation cardiaque. Telle une chanson de gestes, il tisse les présences et les espaces, les voix et les actes qui vont se relayer en vingt-quatre heures exactement. Roman de tension et de patience, d'accélérations paniques et de pauses méditatives, il trace une aventure métaphysique, à la fois collective et intime, où le cœur, au-delà de sa fonction organique, demeure le siège des affects et le symbole de l'amour.

Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison - a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder - unless he paid a one million euro ransom.

What would it be like to live in France? How is France's culture unique? Explore the sights, traditions, and daily lives of the French!

When Stanley Lambchop is asked to help catch an art thief in Paris, he's thrilled! Posing as a painting in the Louvre museum on a wall across from the famous Mona Lisa? - c'est magnifique! But Stanley soon grows bored - until he meets Etoile, an art student who shows him around the City of Light. Then when Stanley goes back to the museum, he soon realizes that the Mona Lisa looks…different. It's been switched for a fake!

"Ça raconte Sarah", sa beauté mystérieuse, son nez cassant de doux rapace, ses yeux comme des cailloux, verts, mais non, pas verts, ses yeux d'une couleur insolite, ses yeux de serpent aux paupières tombantes. "Ça raconte Sarah" la fougue, Sarah la passion, Sarah le soufre, ça raconte le moment précis où l'allumette craque, le moment précis où le bout de bois devient feu, où l'étincelle illumine la nuit, où du néant jaillit la brûlure. Ce moment précis et minuscule, un basculement d'une seconde à peine.

A humiliating military defeat by Bismarck's Germany, a brutal siege, and a bloody uprising - Paris in 1871 was in shambles, and the question loomed, "Could this extraordinary city even survive?" Mary McAuliffe takes the listener back to these perilous years following the abrupt collapse of the Second Empire and France's uncertain venture into the Third Republic. By 1900, Paris had recovered, and the Belle Epoque was in full flower, but the decades between were difficult, marked by struggles.

Learn French with Short Stories is your passport to mastering French while enjoying the adventures of Clara. This book is not just a language guide; it's a gateway to experiencing the vibrancy of French culture and language through enthralling narratives.

C'est en 1919 que paraît "La Symphonie pastorale". André Gide, en ce début du XXème siècle, est l'une des figures les plus importantes de la littérature. Malgré une enfance protestante et rigide, ainsi qu'une vie personnelle difficile, il est de ces écrivains révolutionnaires et géniaux qui bouleversent une époque par la force de leur seul Verbe.

Alan Riding introduces a pageant of 20th-century artists who lived and worked under the Nazis and explores the decisions each made about whether to stay or flee, collaborate or resist. We see Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf singing before French and German audiences; Picasso painting and occasionally selling his work from his Left Bank apartment; and Marcel Carné and Henri-Georges Clouzot, among others, directing movies....

Washed up on a foreign shore, Tristan is lucky to be alive. As before, it seems to be a miracle - the Holy Grail the young Templar squire is protecting has saved his life yet again. But now he is lost in a strange land, and he doesn't know if his friends, the fiery archer Robard Hode and the Saracen assassin maid Maryam, still survive. Tristan's knack for getting into trouble is alive and well, though.

This audiobook details the rise and fall of New France, describing the role of the Seven Years’ War, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Louisiana Purchase. Though French colonization ended more than 200 years ago, it left behind a distinct French flair and unique Creole culture that lives on in Louisiana today.

"Obéissance et irresponsabilité, voilà les deux Mots Magiques qui ouvriront demain le Paradis de la Civilisation des Machines. La civilisation française, héritière de la civilisation hellénique, a travaillé pendant des siècles pour former des hommes libres, c'est-à-dire pleinement responsables de leurs actes : la France refuse d'entrer dans le Paradis des Robots."

Ce livre est le récit d’une rencontre avec un pays, avec la saisissante diversité géographique et humaine de la France, avec des lieux qui disent : ce que nous sommes, notre héritage, ce qui nous lie et nous relie.

Seventeen-year-old Nicole dreams of spending the rest of her life with her boyfriend, Nate. So when she finds herself on her way to Paris to study abroad without him, she’s less than thrilled. Paris is filled with cars that move at the speed of light, edible snails, and a language Nicole can’t speak or read. Worst of all, Nicole feels lost without Nate. She’s not sure she’s capable of finding joie de vivre on her own, but with the help of some new friends - and a certain handsome Frenchman - Nicole might find Paris as sweet as a café au lait after all.

A possible genius, a smidgen of madness, a twist of science, and an invention that very nearly changed the world - all collide in a giddy, unbelievably true mystery set in turn-of-the-century Paris.