French Language Blog

France is a country to love as no matter what you are looking for: mountains, beaches, rivers…you will find it all in France.

The entire country is roughly 80% the size of Texas, so you have so much available geographically and you can can get to it all in very little time.  It is bordered by Italy, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium which means it is a great base for European travel.  Two-thirds of France is covered with mountains and hills including the famous Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, the Pyrenees and the Massif Central.  As far as beaches, there’s the English Channel to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Bay of Biscay to the southwest and the Mediterranean to the southeast. 

Mainland France, also known as the Hexagon due to its shape, is administratively divided into 22 regions: Alsace, Aquitane, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Burgundy, Brittany, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corsica, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Île-de-France (where the largest city and capital Paris is located), Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardy, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Rhône-Alpes.  It also has four overseas departments: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion.  Its overseas countries and territories include New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna Islands and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories among others.

Côte d’Azur is well-known as the French Riviera and its hot, dry summers and mild winters make it a very popular beach area that attracts people from all over the world.  The mountains tend to be colder with a lot of rain and snow which means there are some great ski resorts.

Besides Paris, its largest cities as far as population are Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, Nice, Bordeaux, Nantes, Strasbourg, Toulon, Douai-Lens, Rennes, Rouen, Grenoble and Montpellier.  All of these cities have rich histories and customs and we’ll take virtual tours of them in later blogs.

Here is a 1980 song by Renaud entitled Hexagone that makes various satirical references to French society and geography.

You can read the lyrics here.

And here is a heated French discussion on the song.

‘Être né sous l’signe de l’hexagone’ ça veut dire quoi pour vous?

The United States is famous in Europe for being prohibitive despite its status as a nation of freedom.  I have tried again and again to explain to my French and other European friends that one’s freedom in the United States ends when their acts fringe upon another’s freedom.  In any case, the French version of freedom is very liberal as compared to American standards.  So, let’s discuss a verb that can be used to explain in French the differences in these freedoms…in other words what ‘is necessary’ and what ‘must/mustn’t be done’.  This would be the verb falloir.

Here is how you conjugate this verb:

Il faut insister.  (You must insist.)
Il ne faut pas insister.  (You must not insist.)

Hmm…you are thinking, ‘where are the other conjugations???’  Well, falloir is an impersonal verb so it is only conjugated in the 3rd person singular.

So, here are some typical ‘must nots’ in the United States that my French friends ‘complain’ about:
Il ne faut pas fumer. (You must not smoke.)
Il ne faut pas faire du topless à la plage.  (You must not go topless on the beach.) 

And here is a typical ‘must’ in the United States:
Il faut avoir 21 ans pour pouvoir boire de l’alcool.  (You must be 21 to drink alcohol.) 

Conversely, here are some cultural ‘must nots’ in France:
Il ne faut pas parler à voix haute en public.  (You must not speak loudly in public.)
Il ne faut pas demander des questions personnelles.  (You must not ask personal questions.)

And some cultural ‘musts’ in France:
Il faut couper le fromage en parts égales.  (You must cut cheese in equal parts.)
Il faut donner le bonjour à tout le monde.  (You must say ‘good day’ to everyone.)

And finally, here are some more useful expressions with falloir.

Un homme comme il faut (the right kind of man)
Il fallait le dire (you should have said so!)
Il faut deux heures (it takes two hours)
Il leur a fallu quatre heures (it took them four hours)
Il te faut du repos (you need some rest)
Il ne faut pas se fier à cette fille (you must not trust this girl)
Il s’en faut de cent euros (there’s a shortage of a hundred euros)

Est-ce que vous pensez qu’il faut étudier la grammaire pour bien apprendre le français?

According to a March 2008 Gallup poll, Americans have a more positive attitude towards France than a few years back.  69% of Americans say they have a favorable view of France as opposed to only 57% in February 2007.  Well, I for one, have always had a favorable view of France and I’ll give you some reasons why (not in any particular order and certainly not an exhaustive list as I could go on and on)…

1 – The country gave me two wonderful, intelligent boyfriends (wonderful when I was dating them at least) who helped me immensely with learning the language.
2-  Some of my favorite singers include Jean-Jacques Goldman and Francis Cabrel.
3-  I love French wine, especially the reds from Bordeaux.
4-  I love Mumm champagne…just not the same as plain old sparkling wine and after all, they let me taste several when I toured their cellars in Rheims.
5-  French food…from crepes to Dijon mustard to foie gras, I love it all!
6- Fondue parties.
7- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
8- Disneyland Paris
9- For providing me with places like the palaces of Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly to stroll about and dream away…
10- Many of their museums are free on the 1st Sunday of the month and for budget students, that’s a big plus!

Now, here are my top ten reasons why I think Americans in general should have a favorable view of France:

#10 Where do you think the idea of the ‘French kiss’ came from?
#9 The origins of one of our most cherished Sunday breakfasts -French toast- lie in pain perdu .
#8 The French flag incorporates the same colors as ours (red, white and blue).
#7 How many of you out there have ever used L’Oréal products?
#6 Besides the American embassy, there are several other American buildings in Paris including the American Library of Paris and the American Hospital of Paris.
#5 About 11.8 million U.S. residents are of French origin.
#4 Many treaties have been negotiated and signed in Paris including the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ending the American Revolutionary War or the American War for Independence, the Treaty of Paris of 1898 ending the Spanish-American War and the 1973 Paris Peace Accords which formally ended American involvement in Vietnam.
#3 After the September 11th terrorist attack on the United States, French President Jacques Chirac said, “Today, we are all Americans” as he gave his sincere condolences and expressed his country’s solidarity with Americans.
#2 France has reserved part of its territory to honor the Americans who died in World War II and thus, that land (the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial) is officially considered American territory.

and the #1 reason Americans should have a favorable view of France:

They gave us the Statue of Liberty as an international gift of friendship.

Est-ce que vous avez des raisons pour aimer la France ? Partagez-les avec nous !