The SNCF have a very sweet selection of podcasts littéraires on their site, all of them book chapters from recent French novels, for both children and adults. SNCF podcasts are freely available to download.
Wonderfully, the site also features a “Bibliothèque” search function in the top bar, which can search the SNCF podcast archives for authors, titiles and genres. Enjoy!
French Club are seeking contributions for our online recipe collection!
Do you have your own favourite French or French-inspired recipe? Then write it up and send it in with a photo of yourself with your creation to be published on the website! Recipes will be published both in traditional web-form and a pdf booklet.
Your write-up should include:
the recipe (ingredients and methodology broken into steps)
a short introductory paragraph about the recipe (how you discovered it, fell in love with it, etc.)
a short paragraph about yourself (what you’re studying, where you’ve travelled in the francophone world, etc.)
Write-ups can be in either English or French (or both) and photos should be high-resolution. If you would like to send multiple photos (e.g. showing the recipe step-by-step or showing your creation with multiple stylings) that would be magnifique!
Please send to Mia at mbrks8 at gmail dot com. We await your entries with baited breath!
French Club are delighted to be taking part in La Trobe’s Multicultural Week! We will have a crêpe stand in the Agora resplendent with Nutella and jam at lunchtime Wednesday 7 September. There will be an abundance of other multicultural activity on the day too, inlcuding performances and a free BBQ for all!
Multicultural Week will encompass a host of events, including a Free Movie Night on Thursday 8 September at 7pm in ELT1 and Trivia Night on Friday 9 September at 6.30pm in Radfall Hall of Chisholm College.
What? Crêpes! When? From midday onwards Wednesday 7 September (Week 7) Where? The Agora. How much? $2 per crêpe.
Fun fact: actress Jodie Foster (star of Silence of the Lambs and Taxi Driver) is mind-blowingly fluent in French. As she tells in this French TV interview, she learnt at the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, where she graduated in 1980 as valedictorian. She has dubbed herself in French-language versions of most of her films. Find more French Jodie Foster videos at ina.fr!
Last night’s episode featured a peek into the inner working of France’s Maison du Chocolat and a recipe for by Pierrick Boyer (pictured) from Le Petit Gâteau on Little Collins Street.
Next week, the show visits one of Paris’ most famous wood-fired bread maker, Poilâne, whose oven has been creating great sourdough for decades.
L’Immortel (2010)
Charly Matteï (Jean Reno) has turned his back on his life as an outlaw. For the last three years, he’s led a peaceful life devoting himself to his wife and two children. Then, one winter morning, he’s left for dead in the parking garage in Marseille’s Old Port, with 22 bullets in his body. Against all the odds, he doesn’t die.
$39.95 at Foreign Language Bookshop
Michel Sardou compte, depuis les années 1970, parmi les chanteurs français les plus populaires. Fils des comédiens Fernand Sardou et Jackie Sardou, est l’héritier d’une longue tradition familiale de spectacle.
Il a enregistré 23 albums studio, plus de 300 chansons et vendu près de 90 millions de disques. “J’habite en France”, sur le ton de l’humour, l’esprit goguenard et chauvin, évoque “la douceur de vivre à la française” et vante au passage quelques qualités “made in France” telles que: l’amour, le bon vin, les jolies femmes, les cafés et autres chansons à boire.
Dans cette émission, Christophe Mallet parle à Alexandre Muller, le directeur de TV5 Monde en Asie. Ensemble, ils discutent de l’histoire de la chaîne, son rôle dans la région et parlent du futur pour le réseau francophone.
About.com’s French Language site offers a bounty of language learning aids, from quizzes to grammar lessons to audio exercises. The site’s front-page blog (to which you can also subsribe) includes “Mot du jour”, French expression and “Today in Francophone History” entries.
This morning at the State Library of Victoria, Francis Verber, director of Le Dîner de Cons, La Cage aux Folles, Le Placard and Tais-toi!, gave an enchanting and hilarious lecture in French as part of this year’s MIFF.
Recalling his childhood during the Second World War, Verber described his life with his pulp novel-writing Armenian mother and Jewish father who spent the war hidden in their apartment and thus evaded Nazi detection. He also regaled the audience with endless filmmaking anecdotes and impressions of Gerard Depardieu.
Verber on the set of Le Dîner de Cons
En plus, Verber n’a pas du tout caché son dégoût pour Dinner for Schmucks, le remake américain du film Le Dîner de Cons qu’il a écrit et réalisé.
Il a expliqué que Paul Rand, qui a joué le rôle de Pierre Brochant, avait peur de jouer un rôle antipathique, donc l’histoire a été changé afin que le personnage de Rand ait dû participer au dîner de cons contre son gré. Par conséquent, il y a eu deux victimes, et l’humour est tombé par terre. En fait, Verber a décrit le film comme “une honte”.
An immensely engaging and charismatic figure, Verber finished by saying how happy he was to be speaking French in a community so far from France. He will be appearing tomorrow at the Forum Theatre with Steve Kaplan (in English).
Un blog au service du FLE — Français Langue Étrangère — destiné aux apprenants de la langue française qui pourront découvrir, s’informer et échanger, ainsi qu’aux enseignants de FLE qui pourront visiter et travailler ce blog avec leurs classes.
Au Fil du Fle vous propose de venir pratiquer le français tout en enrichissant vos connaissances sur des sujets d’intérêt comme voyage et francophonie, environnement et écocitoyenneté, histoire et culture, société et traditions.
Trailblazing French philosopher, public intellectual, novelist and lover, Simone de Beauvoir stands at the centre of the Western feminist tradition. This groundbreaking new play focuses on the conflicts and passions of Beauvoir as she endeavors to live a life of freedom.
Playwright and novelist, Judith Armstrong, Principal Fellow, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, and writer of the acclaimed adaptation of Crime & Punishment, will explore the nature of this flawed genius.
When? August 5 to 28, Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm. Where?Alliance Française, 51 Grey Street, St Kilda. How much? $29 full, $27 seniors and concession, $19 full-time students under 25.
An amusing and beautifully produced animation about popular French cultural stereotypes, en français, by Cédric Villain. Visit his website to download the film and watch extracts of his other stunning animations!
