Collaborative Weblink Service
by George Pilling, District Library Media Specialist
For Mme. Senac-Urtecho, Mt. Whitney High School
French Culture and Monuments
French Culture http://www.france.com/culture/index.html Pan of the larger site France.com, this section starts with a Profile of France, with chapters on Social Customs, Modern Politics, Modern Life, and France in Figures. French History 101 is not a detailed history suitable for use in research, but it serves to place events in context and to explain the evolution of French culture. Finally, there is a section on French architecture, with brief descriptions of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical styles, along with an example or two of each. It is worth exploring France.com in depth. In addition to the section on French Gastronomy (see below), there is interesting information on the media, on agriculture, industry, transport, and trade (under the heading Business), and on the top 10 monuments, museums, restaurants, and hotels in Paris (under the heading top 10).
French Culture http://frenchprofessor.org/french-culture.htm "We started this Web site as a fun idea for how to help all of our fellow Francophiles become fluent in French. We were sitting around on bean bag chairs in the student lounge one evening, drinking Perrier and going over some vocabulary words for an upcoming French quiz. The conversation quickly meandered, and we started talking about how we could get more people become involved in enjoying the French language [and culture]."
French Gastronomy http://www.france.com/gastronomy/index.html Food is an important part of life in France. These pages explain when and how the French eat (under the heading Mealtime Traditions) and what to expect in a restaurant. Differences between American and French habits are highlighted, such as the kinds of drinks that accompany meals and the breadth of conversational topics.
Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication http://web.culture.fr France's Ministry of Culture and Communications works to promote awareness of France's talents and technology in these areas and to stimulate use of multimedia and the Internet. Some of the content here is available in English (click on English Version at the bottom of the left-hand column). Under Expositiom Virtue/lei, you'll find a number of quite varied virtual exhibits on French organs, 20th-century monuments, postcards, and Brittany's Parliament building, to name just a few.
Paris http://www.paris.org Learn about the city of Paris and its culture. Under the heading The City you'll find captioned photos of street scenes, well-known cafes, major stores, and theaters and clubs. There are also metro maps and information. Under the heading Its Culture you'll find information on monuments, museums, exhibitions, a collection of historical maps, and a clickable map of the main attractions in central Paris. The Kiosque is the site's magazine, whose features give good insight into the life of Paris and its various neighborhoods.
Paris Anglo http://www.paris-anglo.com Learn to find your way around both geographically and socially with this guide, which would be equally relevant for all the major cities of France. The section called Practical Information is particularly helpful, with information on transportation, getting around, and sightseeing.
Présidence de la République http://www.elysee.fr/ang/index.shtm This is the official site of the Elysée Palace, home of the French president. The site can be accessed in English, French, and German, but certain areas are only available in French. You'll find guided tours of the palace and the other presidential residences and you can read about the history of the Elysée and about the office of the president. Students of French will be interested in the news magazine that details the president's activities and gives reports on events around the world.
Musée du Louvre http://www.louvre.fr
La Tour Eiffel http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/ Le site officiel de la tour Eiffel.
Le Château de Versailles http://www.chateauversailles.fr/
About French http://www.livjm.ac.uk/language/re_fre.htm#history A brief discussion of the history of the French language, its geographical distribution, and its speakers. The author explains the basic sounds, the grammar, and the origins of the vocabulary in terms that would be useful for students who are unfamiliar with the background of this language.
Fast and Friendly French for Fun http://library.advanced.org/12447/contents.html A way to enforce concepts being introduced in a beginning French class. Short lessons on French language (parts of speech, letters and numbers, tenses, and so on), arranged by difficulty, each culminate in quizzes. There are also short pieces on French geography, people, and food.
First Year French @UT Austin http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/fr/home.html Entertaining Web activities such as visiting the recipes pages of Eile magazine (dossier 7) and planning a dream vacation (dossier 12) make learning and using your French fun. In addition to these Web exercises, you can test your progress using the interactive Internet grammar drills.
Français Langue Etrangère et Langue Seconde http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/clicnet/fle.html ClicNet, a gateway site based at Swarthmore, has gathered here a number of links to sites of interest to students of French. They are organized into three main categories and several subcategories and are ranked by level. The all-French site will not be useful to beginners themselves but teachers and more-advanced French speakers will find links here of interest to beginners.
Français pour Voyageurs http://www.travlang.com/languages Acceptez-vous les cartes de credit:' Here you can practice the basic phrases you'll need for traveling in France or any French-speaking country. Select French as the language you want to learn and then choose a category of words and phrases. Audio files accoinpany each phrase, so you can be sure your pronunciation is correct, and you can test yourself with quizzes when you complete each area. A guide to French pronunciation is also helpful. French-to-English and English-to- French dictionaries are provided at the site.
French Tongue Twisters http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/fr.htm Get your tongue around some of these and you'll never have trouble making friends in France. A good pronunciation exercise too! There are 95 to choose from; some much longer than others. Translations are given at the bottom of the page.
Lire Français http://www.lire-francais.com The daily newspaper Sud-Oeust created this site to help students learn French. You can take comprehension tests on current news stories, and you can read how newspapers are put together, how headlines are written, and learn to write briefs. Idiomatic phrases are explained in a special section in the Kiosk. An interesting and useful site.
Premiers Pas Sur Internet http://www.momes.net Students of French of all ages will enjoy this all-French site intended for children. On the homepage, you'll find illustrated stories under the heading "Histoires inédites." Try the stories of Belinda la petite baleine or Le petit dinosaure vert qui avait mangé trop de bonbons rouges. The frame on the left of the page offers you many other choices. The button Comptine brings you hundreds of poems and songs divided into quite specific categories (elephants, farm animals, water, and so forth). Under Fantastique you'll find horror and science fiction; under Voyages there are virtual trips to French-speaking locations around the world.
Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language, University of Chicago http://humanities.uchicago.edu/ARTFL/ARTFL.html This is a cooperative venture between the University of Chicago's Humanities Department and France's Institut National de la Langue Française. Among the many features you'll find here are a French-English dictionary that will translate single words, a searchable French Bible, a collection of French dictionaries dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and pamphlets and periodicals from the French Revolution of 1848. In addition you can conjugate verbs electronically and use a morphological analyzer. Some additional features of this site are available only to subscribers.
