Speak the Culture: France

Overview

A guidebook can show you where to go, a language guide what to say when you get there. But only Speak the Culture: France will lead you to the nation’s soul. This easy to use cultural companion considers how it feels to have grown up with Camus, Cézanne, De Gaulle and Bardot; it captures the spirit of France and delves deep into the Gallic psyche.

Through exploring the people, the movements and the lifestyles that have shaped the French experience, you will come to an intimate understanding of France and the French.

This is not a travel guide or a manual on living in France. It’s a superbly designed, informed and engaging insight into French life and culture and who the French really are.

Who should buy this book?

Residents in France and those thinking of living there, second home owners, business travellers, holidaymakers, students of French and French culture and Francophiles everywhere.

Future titles in the series

USA, UK, Italy, China

Content

1 Identity: the foundations of French culture
2 Literature and philosophy
3 Art and architecture
4 Performing arts
5 Arbiters of style: cinema, photography and fashion
6 Media and communications
7 Consuming culture: food and drink
8 Living culture: the state of the nation

Reviews

Telegraph July 2011

Rob Jerrard 2009

thisfrenchlifestyle.com

Telegraph.co.uk Monday 22nd March

‘This is a comprehensive and erudite cultural guide to France and the French. Beginning with a survey of the geography and major historical events that have shaped France, what follows is a highly informative and entertaining look at all aspects of French life and culture. Areas examined include literature and philosophy, art, architecture and design, the performing arts, cinema, photography and fashion, media and communications, food and drink and the state of the nation. A veritable cultural kaleidoscope of famous, influential and significant activities, events, places and people that add up to France. With a format and written style that allows for easy digestion of facts and information, this is a book that all Francophiles will find hard to put down._’

French Property News

‘Speak the culture, France is an absolutely indispensable guide to every aspect of French culture, from the country’s great musicians and artists, to the television viewing habits of its population. Everything you could possibly hope to know about French lifestyle – from what the newspapers and magazines on French newsstands are about, to the historic French architecture – is explained in clear detail.’

Complicated subject matter such as France’s artistic and philosophical movements is clearly summarised and simple to understand. Practical information about French law, wine, food and politics is also given in the book, to give a complete picture of la vie francaise.

Speak the Culture, France answers any questions you may have had about why there is no Big Brother on French television, or what exactly is in a glass of kir. The book will also help you evade embarrassing faux pas by clarifying social dilemmas such as who should pay if you invite someone out to dinner and how to avoid pouring an impolite amount if wine into somebody’s glass.

The book begins with a historical explanation as to how France gained its cultural identity the details France’s heroes and villains, explains how language evolved in France and looks at who the French language is protected today. *For anybody living in France, visiting the country on holiday or simply interested in French life, Speak the Culture, France is essential reading, giving its readers access to information normally gained through years of cultural observation.

Living France

‘Even as Eurostar relocates to a gloriously refurbished St Pancras station and the journey time between London and Paris is shaved even closer, more and more people on both sides of the Channel are taking advantage of the extra opportunities this highly cherishable link offers us. And for those already in love with France (not to mention the ever-increasing legions of converts), Speak the Culture: France will be an invaluable aid and companion. Actually, no publisher has attempted anything quite like this, and the publishers Thorogood are to be much applauded for their ingenuity and achievement. The subtitle is Be fluent in French Life and Culture, and that facility is just what this remarkable volume offers, cramming an amazing mass of information into its well-designed pages. Everything is here, from French art and literature, architecture, media, sport, fashion and (of course) food and drink. But while not being in the slightest dumbed down, the information here (while often dealing with such weighty subjects as Proust and French existential philosophers) is delivered in a concise and highly accessible style (and aided considerably by the clever graphics which have a nicely self-mocking subtext — when was that last seen in a book on a foreign country?). So, you’re sitting on Eurostar, and a fresh espresso is to hand. Don’t reach for the glossy magazine the train company provides — crack open Speak the Culture: France and you’ll be thoroughly tooled up for your visit to the City of Light.

Barry Forshaw, Author and travel journalist

‘It is an engaging Foible of the French to believe that they are the most cultured race on God’s earth. The authors of this mainly excellent handbook seem happy to indulge in them. On page 77, they write “…nearly every strataa of (French) society, from farm labourers to government minisers, enjoys its capacity for abstract thought”. I am not sure that “strata” should be ‘stratum”, but the words that really catch the attention here are “farm labourers”. By stroke of luck, I know lots of French farm labourers, and splendid chaps they are, too. But structuralism and the naturalistic fallacy are rarely the mainstraysof our conversation.’

‘Then again – and here is the point – if such subjects were raised, I would bet that my farming friends would be interested. For the truth is the French are not more cultured than the rest of us, but are infinitely more respectful of culture and learning, There is no French equivalent of the idiot phrase “too clever by half.’

‘The two results of this are (a) an insane admiration for writers, artists and, Gold help us, journalists and (b) an awful lot of bluffing. Middle-class people, especially, cannot admit to ignorance of post-Impressionism or the works of Erik Satie. Which is where this book comes in. If the French are bluffing, then the outsider must bluff along with them – and this is a terrific bluffer’s guide to French Culture.’

‘In intelligent tabloid style, it gallops through history (from Cro- Magnon to Sarkozy in 14 pages:brilliant), art, literature, music, food, and more besides. Overlooking hardly anything of importance, it’s a miracle of compression spiced with good trivia. I didn’t know that Verlaine and Rimbaud were lovers or that Charles Worth, who apparently invented Parisian haute couture, was English.’

‘…Read the book carefully and you will have the skeleton of French culture. It will then be up to you to put the flesh on the bones and really dominate those conversations.’

Anthony Peregrine, Daily Telegraph

‘All facinating stuff. If you take only one book to france with you in the summer, take this one.’

Dominique’s France Magazine

Living France

The author

Andrew Whittaker is a successful journalist and writer who has travelled widely, and written extensively on France and the Mediterranean countries.

Links

France Guide

Official website of the French Government Tourist Office

This French Life

Dominique’s Villas

Alliance Francaise

Institut Francais

Executive Traveller

A luxury travel magazine for the business traveler focusing on corporate retreats, client entertainment, and luxury destinations