French Culture

A 2025 Audie Award winner for Best Fiction Narrator! "Kristin Hannah’s potent storytelling skills are brilliantly served by narrator Julia Whelan, whose limber, low-pitched voice moves nimbly from person to person, capturing personality and mood, her empathy palpable." —The Washington Post...

Every year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas-filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?

From the cassoulet that won a war to the crêpe that doomed Napoleon, from the rebellions sparked by bread and salt to the new cuisines forged by empire, the history of France is intimately entwined with its gastronomic pursuits. A witty exploration of the facts and legends surrounding some of the most popular French foods and wines by a French cheesemonger and an American academic, A Bite-Sized History of France tells the compelling and often surprising story of France from the Roman era to modern times.

Are you learning French? Knowing more words is one of the BEST ways to speak and understand more French. And, if you want to sound like a native speaker, you'll need vocab that's relevant to French culture and daily life and that is actually used by French people. With Learn French: Discover French Culture & Traditions by FrenchPod101.com, you learn the must-know vocab and French cultural insights that you won't find in a textbook.

This short book considers a short (about thirty-seven page) speech given by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) in 1945. In this speech, "Existentialism is a Humanism," Sartre defended existentialism against its critics. I consider what lessons of wisdom we can take from Sartre's speech. But I do that in a critical way--not in the sense of being hostile or negative but in the sense of examining and weighing what Sartre says to see where I agree and where I disagree. Like him or not, Sartre is a great thinker who is worth considering even if you may reject some or all...

The inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris—a true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way “An engaging, multilayered story of a woman navigating innumerable cultural differences to...

Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow spent a decade traveling back and forth to Paris as well as living there. Yet one important lesson never seemed to sink in: how to communicate comfortably with the French, even when you speak their language. In The Bonjour Effect, Jean-Benoît and Julie chronicle the lessons they learned after they returned to France to live, for a year, with their twin daughters. They offer up all the lessons they learned and explain the most important aspect of all: the French don't communicate, they converse.

The memoir of a young diplomat’s wife who must reinvent her dream of living in Paris—one dish at a time When journalist Ann Mah’s diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic...

Le manuel de référence incontournable : l'essentiel, tout l'essentiel, rien que l'essentiel ! Un exposé à la fois riche et clair de tout ce que vous souhaitez connaître pour enrichir votre culture générale, et, si vous préparez examens et concours, de tout ce que vous devez connaître. Le stoïcisme, l'art étrusque, le jansénisme, le choc des civilisations, le pop art, la crise pétrolière, l'œuvre de Sartre ou encore la vie de Confucius n'auront plus de secrets pour vous.

The author of the bestselling French Women Don't Get Fat shares the secrets and strategies of aging with attitude, joy, and no surgery. With her signature blend of wit, no-nonsense advice, and storytelling flair, Mireille Guiliano returns with a delightful, encouraging take on beauty and aging...

Vietnam: From Battlefield to Billion-Dollar Economy How did a nation ravaged by centuries of foreign rule and divided by a brutal war become one of the world’s fastest-growing economic powerhouses and a top US trade partner? For generations, Vietnam stood as a symbol of conflict, a Cold War flashpoint, a nation defined by occupation, division, and the devastating legacy of the Vietnam War. Today, it’s a story of triumphant transformation, a one-party communist state driving global capitalism. This book takes you on a journey through Vietnam’s tumultuous past to answer the central ...

Listen to everyday words and phrases in French, then repeat, practise and refine! A relaxing way to pick up the language. Follow the words using the free booklet, also available at: collinsdictionary.com/resources Covers the words you need for modern life in France with topics on home life, work...

Can a bookshop bring two hearts together? 'The perfect holiday read, romantic and so fun' Reader Review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beth loves everything about living in Venice. The meandering canals and the cobbled streets have captured her heart, so when she loses her job and fears she’ll have to return...

More than 40,000 listeners have enjoyed this story on cassette. Now anyone who's ever dreamed of getting away from it all can enjoy the charms and challenges of A Year in Provence on CD! Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, gray...

This volume in a series of world history case studies explores the life and relationships of Julie de Lespinasse, a thirty-four-year old woman who broke with convention and opened her own salon in Paris in 1764. What she created was a place where both established and nascent intellectuals were free to express themselves candidly. The novelty of that atmosphere regularly allowed Lespinasse to attract the leading figures of the Enlightenment to her salon, including d'Alembert, Diderot, Hume, and Rousseau. What emerges from these interactions and Lespinasse’s biography is a new perspective ...

This New York Times bestseller intimately depicts urban life in a gripping book that slips behind cold statistics and sensationalism to reveal the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour. One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century In her extraordinary...

Discover the Origins of New Orleans: From Prehistory to Creole Society Explore the untold story of New Orleans in this comprehensive two-volume history, tracing the city’s evolution from its prehistoric roots to the vibrant Creole society of the mid-18th century. Volume I delves into the Mississippi Valley before European settlement, revealing the complex lives of Indigenous peoples, their trade networks, cultural practices, and stewardship of the land that would later become the Crescent City. Volume II chronicles New Orleans’ founding under French rule (1718–1763), a time of ...

Dans Une histoire de l'Économie, Bob Kowalski entraîne le lecteur dans un voyage fascinant à travers les méandres complexes de l'activité humaine organisée : l'économie. De l'époque des chasseurs-cueilleurs aux défis contemporains de l'économie numérique et de la durabilité, l'auteur propose un récit clair, captivant et profond sur la manière dont les sociétés ont produit, distribué et valorisé les ressources au fil des millénaires. Le livre explore les grands jalons historiques : la révolution agricole qui a engendré les premiers surplus et inégalités, l'émergence ...

The international bestselling novel sold in 21 countries, about grief, mourning, and the joy of survival, inspired by a real phone booth in Japan with its disconnected “wind” phone, a place of pilgrimage and solace since the 2011 tsunami When Yui loses both her mother and her daughter in the...

Le banquet du savoir est ouvert ! Il est temps pour vous de fréquenter les plus grands : Socrate, De Vinci, Louis XIV, Einstein, Marilyn ou Pelé ! " La culture, disait Edouard Herriot, homme d'Etat et fin lettré, c'est ce qui reste quand on a tout oublié. " Exemples et chiffres à l'appui, ce livre vous permettra d'assouvir votre appétit de connaissance et d'assimiler des milliers de faits sur les sujets les plus divers : Histoire et géographie, Arts et littérature, Sciences, techniques et vie quotidienne, Sports loisirs et divertissements, Religion, Philosophie et société...