Tag Archives: alexandre dumas
Des livres au cinema* Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 20, 2016
J’adore lire. (I love to read.) Et pour entretenir mon français, je lis beaucoup en français. (And to maintain my French, I read a lot in French.) I especially love classic novels about the royal era of French history. Unfortunately, I don’t always have the time to read as much as I would like. BREAKING…
Google Puts the “€” in French “€-Books” Posted by Hichem on Jun 12, 2012
Not too long ago, several French literati organizations seemed to heroically wage an “uphill crusade” against the Internet search Goliath Google, accusing it of outright book piracy. Today, the paramount motivation of these organizations appears to be more mercantile than virtuously academic. Everything else, of course, “n’est que littérature” (“nothing but literature”). Internet search giant Google…
L’Homme au Masque de Fer: The Man in the Iron Mask Posted by Hichem on Sep 30, 2011
Today’s article is about une énigme (an engima) of l’histoire de France. But don’t get too excited while reading the title above: It’s got nothing to do with any comics fictional character—Fans of “Iron Man“, really désolé, but stick around nevertheless! Usually, les secrets d’états (state secrets) take a few decades before they are divulgués (divulged) to le public, but it seems that some secrets are…
Le passé composé in French Posted by Hichem on Sep 29, 2011
“Passé composé“… Two distinct words when coupled together can saw a bit of confusion in the minds of many, many, helpless new French learners! Qu’à cela ne tienne (nevermind), we’ll try in today’s post to shed some light on the different uses of this type of grammatical tense – so you won’t feel too “tense”…
All For One, And One For Al…exandre Dumas! Posted by Hichem on Jul 1, 2011
If you take the Paris metro these days, you’ll notice a mini-story of Alexandre Dumas, who lent his name to a station de métro ! Born in 1802, a year before the outburst of the Napoleonic Wars, the same year as Victor Hugo was born, he was the son, just like Hugo, of a Général d’Empire…
When France was “Diagnosed” with The “Folies d’Espagne” (Spanish Folia) Posted by Hichem on May 17, 2011
Instead of the litany of “follies” that thrashed France from le nord (the North), especially by way of la Manche (the English Channel), from the London-inspired “Folies Bergère” to the outbreak of la vache folle (mad cow) disease (a British bovine concoction of highly “symptomatic” character), consider, for a refreshing change, this passionate form of pure esprit musical (musical…
Outdated French Expressions to Avoid Posted by Hichem on Oct 26, 2010
Il y a quelques années (A few years ago), one of my very good old American friends, who by the way will have no hard time recognizing herself when reading this, went to France for the first time of her life, only to discover there that whenever she used the interjections she had painstakingly learned at her French class back in the States -expressions like sacrebleu…