Because of its striking cinematographic effects (black and white film, dramatic close-ups, soundtrack…) and engaging storyline, Patrice Leconte’s La fille sur le pont (1999) offers a rich source of material to analyse in an assignment on writing a compte rendu…
Have you noticed that something as quotidien as handwriting can vary dramatically between those schooled in France and in the U.S., even though we use the same characters? It seems so trivial, but a font can immediately remind you of…
Raymond Queneau’s Exercices de Style (1947) is a useful and engaging text to use in an intermediate language or writing classes. Students at both levels seem to enjoy delving into Queneau’s project – that is, to tell the same story in…
I’m teaching a summer course at the moment, and while the students are quite interested in Rodenbach’s dark novel, sometimes the sun and heat call for a quick break from the novel’s grey and foreboding atmosphere. Charles Trenet’s “La Mer”…
Literature from outside of metropolitan France is finding an expanding presence in undergraduate French courses, freeing students from the idea that the great works of French literature must only come from France (or Paris). The incorporation of francophone literature into…
Le Cadavre exquis is a surrealist game the group invented in the 1920s. To play, one person writes a word or sentence on a piece of paper and then folds the paper to hide his contribution and then passes it…
Many instructors of French shy away from literary analysis in elementary and intermediate language classes. To be sure, discussion of literary theory can be difficult even in advanced courses. It can be daunting to aim to read texts and analyse…
Most students will recognize the melody of “Comme d’habitude” because it is that of “My Way,” but few will know that the song made famous by Sinatra is actually a remake of the French song by Claude François. The original…
Need a quick activity idea to get students speaking to each other? Bonus if the activity is a quick review of some grammatical terms? Enter Mad Libs, that fill-in-the-blanks game that most students will be familiar with from their childhood.…
The rich and tumultuous history of Paris can be told in part by a vast series of photographs, lithographs, and other images now available to anyone with an internet connection. The Paris en Images collection is an excellent database with…