Greek and Roman colonization Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, “Meet the Aborigines” France’s territorial evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8UMwI7z0A Influences of the Gauls and Celts The Chauvet and Lascaux caves: A TIME magazine article with splendid images and back history on these … Continue reading
Who is Charlemagne? An important character, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor (after the Roman Empire was technically ended) , Charlemagne remains as a prominent figure in world history. https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/ study/module/charlemagne/ What accomplishments of Charlemagne affect France today? … Continue reading
The Loire Valley The construction of these palaces signified a change in the culture during the Renaissance–no longer fortresses, these palaces were built for pleasure. USA Today talks about three of the most popular castles in the Loire Valley, as … Continue reading
Versailles Rick Steve’s tour of Versailles in 6 minutes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=194CDlsFpQA&t=26s Interested in the development of Versailles? It wasn’t always massive and ornate, but these two videos detail the construction of the palace pre and post revolution Pre-revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X235vpOToVU (3 min) Post-revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjsmqmSNnHU … Continue reading
The French Revolution A 53-minute PBS episode from the show, Filthy Cities. In this episode, you see the squalor that both the common people and the aristocrats lived in at the time of the revolution. http://www.pbs.org/video/2365650660/ One of the most … Continue reading
This 12 minute video is great for having a simplified understanding of the event which caused the end of aristocracy in France, and thus commenced the beginning of the modern French government.
While John Green doesn’t start talking about socialism until 7:50, he makes a good case for understanding capitalism–and France is a capitalist country, and the concept is applicable to both historical and modern France. At 7:50, he talks about the … Continue reading
Paris Commune of 1871 An article by the New Yorker, detailing why this 150+ year-old rebellion is still modernly applicable to our world today. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/22/fires-paris A video which humorously describes and explains the events which passed during the “revolution” of … Continue reading
World War I The Guardian explores a little bit about Paris in 1900–or, “la belle époque” before the first World War broke out. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/15/paris-1900-belle-epoque-exhibition-petit-palais A timeline and World War I by the numbers. http://www.france-pub.com/world-war-1.php How do these numbers compare to … Continue reading
In addition to this video, reading the PDF of “World War II: The Unforgotten War” in Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong would be an excellent complement. While this video gives amazing details and logistics of the war overall, the … Continue reading
The Marshall Plan This PDF gives the historical and societal relevance of the Marshall Plan, which was enacted by the USA in 1948, until 1951. Inspired by Secretary of State George Marshall, this plan was created to help Europe rebuild … Continue reading
France as a Colonizer France has been colonizing for a long time–however, its colonies have been declaring their independence since as recently as 1980. http://libguides.und.edu/french/FormerFrenchColonies Colonialism is a way of stripping power from a native people, and it can rob … Continue reading
The Events of May 1968 Is this “revolution” justifiable? Did these protests actually impact French society, or is it the memory of the protests? New York Times ponders on the topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/europe/11iht-paris.4.12777919.html Which was more impactful–the memory or the reality? … Continue reading
Oil crisis and alternative energies Super great, comprehensive website and timeline about the history of energy development in France! Complete with infographs! http://www.planete-energies.com/en/medias/saga-energies/history-energy-france The Guardian 2011, “Background: What caused the 1970s oil shock?” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/03/1970s-oil-price-shock European Union Timeline of the formation … Continue reading
Cuisine French cuisine is iconic, one of the biggest images which represent French culture. However, French cuisine hadn’t really started developing until after the French Revolution, because of accessibility of ingredients to the aristocrats versus to the common people was … Continue reading
Laïcité French Connection, explaining what laïcité really means, and how it plays into education and life in France. https://www.yout ube.com/watch? v=D0TZYUilj_U NPR, “French Law Laïcité Restricts Muslim Religious Expression” http://www.npr.org/2015/03/04/390757722/french-law-laicite-restricts-muslim-religious-expression The Independent, wrote this article, “Why France thinks the burkini … Continue reading
Sports in France What do you notice about the types of sports which are popular in France? What do you think this says about French culture? A Brief History of the Olympics PDF In this excellent 10 minute video, the … Continue reading
Interpersonal While this 7 minute video is entirely in French, the creator of the video made her own English subtitles. She and her sister are talking about what is considered to be polite or impolite in French culture–such as how … Continue reading
Candidates In this BBC article, a rundown of why this election is so controversial is given. The key issues–such as participation in the European Union, national security, and economic recovery–are explained, as well as Le Pen and Macron’s position on … Continue reading