Will French Singers Dominate at Eurovision?

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

This coming Saturday, May 22, could be a red-letter date for the French language, because that’s when the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest will be announced.

Two of the favorites — France and Switzerland — are both represented by acts singing in French. Another favorite, Malta, has a song with a French title. Is French having a moment?

For those of you not familiar with Eurovision, it’s a continent-wide song contest that goes back to the 1950s. Each country selects an act, which performs an original song, and the winner is chosen via a complicated voting system. Hundreds of millions of viewers tune in to the Eurovision Finals, making it the Olympic Games of music.

Besides normal songs performed by normal singers, Eurovision has a long tradition of kitsch. Who can forget the Bearded Lady? Or the dancing gorilla? Or my favorite, the man running inside a hamster wheel?

Learn more about this year’s Eurovision and see videos of some of the best acts in France Today!

Who are the 10 Greatest French People of All Time?

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

Picking a list of “greatest French people” is impossible. How do you define greatness? How do you compare a king to a scientist to a philosopher?

This hasn’t stopped people from trying. In 2005, a French television survey asked viewers this question, with dubious results — Charlemagne was ranked behind a soccer player! A study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology identified the best known French people, but fame is not the same as greatness. And then there are the lists of top French monarchs, French inventors, French writers, etc.

I decided to create my own list, based on who has had the greatest influence on France—usually positive, but sometimes negative. I combined the resources above with an informal survey of French friends, including business people, professors, scientists, and artists.

Check out my Top 10 in France Today!

10 Surprising Anglophones Who Speak French

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

Parlez-vous français? (“do you speak French?”) For most of us the answer is non, but there are more people who have mastered the language than you might expect.

Some you might already know about, like Jodie Foster and Serena Williams. But how about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II? Or her Prime Minister, Boris Johnson?

Check out this list of surprising French speakers in France Today. And be sure to watch the funny video of a famous actor speaking French…and then being graded by a group of French teachers!

Finding That Perfect French Novel

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

Are you looking for a great new book to read? Then consider trying a French novel. Books that have won the prestigious Prix Goncourt (Goncourt Prize) are a good place to start because most have been translated into English. Some have even become movies, like The Perfect Nanny and The Life Ahead, recently made into a Netflix film starring Sophia Loren.

What’s not to like about the Goncourt? It’s got class! (winners include Simone de Beauvoir and Marcel Proust.) It’s got controversy! (non-winners include Albert Camus and Colette.) And sometimes the prize committee gets hoodwinked, like the time they awarded the Goncourt to an author that didn’t exist.

Find your next great read at France Today!

Legends of Provence

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

The world is rich with legends. We still dream of Camelot and King Arthur’s court. We hope to one day find El Dorado and its streets paved with gold. And who wouldn’t love to take a dip in the Fountain of Youth?

Provence, too, has its legends.

Is it true that a terrible monster once lived in the depths of the Rhône River? Did a saint poke his finger in a rock and cause wine to pour forth? And what’s this about Mary Magdalene living out her days in Provence?

Read about these and other legends in My French Life!

Popular French Baby Names

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

When you think of classic French monikers, names like Brigitte and Jacques come to mind. But do French parents still give their kids those names?

Some of today’s most popular names are what you’d expect, like Chloë and Jules—it doesn’t get more French than that! Others, like Noah and Adam, reflect the country’s long Catholic heritage. Mohamed makes the list in a nod to French citizens with North African ancestors.

But there are some big surprises, like the number one girl’s name. Wonder what it is? Check it out in France Today!

The Queen of Wine

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

If you look at a list of the most expensive wines in the world you’ll see it stuffed with beauties from France. Look closer and you’ll see one name pop up over and over—Leroy. You think to yourself, I don’t know who this Monsieur Leroy is but he must be quite the winemaker.

Surprise! It’s not Monsieur Leroy, it’s Madame: Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy. Another surprise: she’s in her 9^th decade and still at the top of her game. You might not have heard of her but she’s famous among the cognoscenti, and for good reason.

Lalou Bize-Leroy is the fourth generation of her family to run Maison Leroy, founded by her great-grandfather in 1868. She was perhaps destined for a life in wine after her father Henri placed a few drops of Burgundy on the lips of his newborn daughter.

Read all about this fascinating lady in The Good Life France!

Carrières de Lumières—Only in Provence

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Keith Van Sickle

Imagine walking into a massive cavern inside a mountain. The walls shoot straight up and the ceiling is high above your head. Here and there are side chambers, and rough-hewn benches are carved into the walls. The whole place looks drab in the dim light—you wonder why your friends keep saying “You can’t miss it!”

Even after having looked at the photos and having viewed the promotional video, the actual experience of the Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light) is almost impossible to describe. But once the lights go out and the magic starts, you just know you have to tell your friends, “You can’t miss it!”

Read all about this unique Provencal spot in My French Life. It’s part of my “Only in Provence” series and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

The Surprising History of Jewish Provence

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Keith Van Sickle

People are often surprised to learn that France has the third-largest Jewish population in the world, after Israel and the United States.

And they are even more surprised to learn that for centuries the center of Jewish life in France wasn’t Paris, it was Provence… thanks to the Pope!

How did this happen?

Jews have long been subject to persecution in France, as in many places.

In the Middle Ages, French Jews were the victims of murders, riots, and outright expulsions. There were few places where they were allowed to live, even fewer jobs they were allowed to hold, and many were forced to wear a yellow star.

Life was intolerable… but hope beckoned in the south.

Learn all about the surprising history of Jewish Provence in My French Life!

Light and Magic in France

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Keith Van Sickle

What do you do with a giant cavern?

That was the question that vexed the Provençal village of Les Baux-de-Provence. For centuries, giant blocks of white limestone had been extracted from a nearby mountain to build the town and its towering château. But by 1935, competition had forced the limestone quarry to close, leaving behind a massive, ghostly chamber. There it sat for decades, cold and silent, waiting for someone to restore it to glory.

That someone was Albert Plécy, a photographer and filmmaker, who arrived in 1975 with the idea of a “total image.” He installed a few giant projectors that flooded the cavern with color, projecting images that he coordinated with music. For viewers inside the cavern, it was a kind of total immersion that he called the Cathedral d’Images–the Cathedral of Images.

From this modest beginning, the program has slowly become more sophisticated and today it uses hundreds of cutting-edge projectors and complex computer control. Now called the Carrières de Lumières (Quarries of Light), the site is run by Culturespaces, France’s leading private manager of museums and art centers. Carrières de Lumières has become one of Provence’s leading tourist attractions and has led to the creation of “siblings” in Paris, Bordeaux, and South Korea.

Read about these magical siblings in France Today!

Life in Provence

Keith Van Sickle

Tag Archives: Culture