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France Traditions and Culture
France Traditions and Culture
France Traditions and Culture
CULTURE
France's long history and varied geology have given root to national traditions
as well as diverse regional ones. From snow-capped glacier peaks to sun
splashed shores, France encompasses a great variety of landscapes. As 20th
century French President Charles de Gaulle expressed it, "How can anyone
govern a country that has 246 different kinds of cheese?"
As residents of one of the world's oldest nations, the French have deep
respect for language, customs, traditions, and etiquette while taking pride in
their global status as innovative, forward thinkers in the arts and literature,
cuisine, and fashion.
Several uniquely French celebratory occasions are traditions with rich historic
origins.
Epiphany is Three King's Day, or the Twelfth Day of Christmas, on January 6. It
recalls the Bible's telling of the visit of the Magi bearing gifts for the infant
Jesus. La Fête des Rois is celebrated with parties for which galette des rois, or
"cake of kings," is the essential centerpiece. Following a centuries-old recipe,
the flaky, round, flat cake is filled with frangipane and a cream made from
sweet almonds, butter, eggs and sugar. It's cut into slices and the fun is to see
who gets the piece with a small token charm (la fève) hidden inside and wears
a paper crown.
Poisson d'Avril, or April Fish, is a day for practical jokes on April 1. In
accordance with an obscure 16th century custom, children make a paper fish
drawing to pin to unwitting grownups' backs, scurrying away while saying,
"Poisson d'Avril." The tradition at least explains why you can purchase a fish
made of chocolate on the first of April.
All Souls' Day on November 2 is the day following All Saints' Day. Also known as
Day of the Dead (Jour des Morts), this is when prayers are dedicated to all
good departed souls.
St. Martin's Day falls on Armistice Day, which marks the end of World War I in
1918, commemorated at 11:11 a.m. on November 11. It also calls for a
traditional feast of roast goose at the end of harvest to precede a fasting
period now known as Advent. Traveling astride his white horse as Bishop of
Tours, Martin was the 4th century patron of beggars, tenant farmers, and
tavern keepers. In the Auvergne region of central France, horse fairs are held
on St. Martin's Day and in Dunkerque, near the Belgian border, children frolic
with paper lanterns in early evening in a mock search for St. Martin's horse.
Paris Plages is a newer tradition since 2002. The beach comes to Paris
throughout July and August when the city hosts a free outdoor event along
the banks of the River Seine with deck chairs, sun umbrellas, picnic tables,
palm trees, sand, fountains, plus refreshments, ice cream trucks, and
swimming for all to enjoy.
For the new mother, an old French tradition is for the new father to present a
diamond piece of jewelry to celebrate the birth of the couple's child,
especially in the case of the first born child.
Birthday Traditions
Attend a birthday party in France and you'll notice quite a few similarities, plus
a few differences, to birthday celebrations you've experienced in the US.
Expect cake adorned with fruit instead of icing. Learn how to sing "Joyeux
anniversaire!" and if you don't know what to choose for a gift, go with flowers
or anything that's elegantly wrapped and tastefully adorned with ribbon.
Wedding Traditions
It's all finished around midday, as everybody heads to a café or home for lunch
and possibly a siesta. Each of the villages or Paris neighborhoods with a
market has different days and hours. While nobody knows for sure, the best
guess is that some 10,000 traditional French markets operate across France.
"Le Guide Michelin" is the highly respected global resource for inspecting
and selecting the best restaurants and hotels in 28 countries.
French service is the formal, labor-intensive, and highly trained table side style
used in fine dining establishments.
Anyone can tuck a perfect, crusty baguette under the arm to be paired with
French cheese and red or white wine for a traditional French picnic lunch
that's eaten at home, on a park bench, or laid out on the grass by a river bank.
The most classic French wine and cheese pairings are regionally inspired.
The Louvre in Paris is the world's most visited museum, with more than nine
million people streaming through its doors annually. Some of the world's most
valuable, beloved French Impressionist paintings hang in the nearby Musée
d'Orsay. Several of Monet's famous "Water Lilies" landscapes line the walls at
its much smaller offshoot, l'Orangerie.
Popular works by well known French artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-
Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Paul Cézanne are admired in
the collections of fine art museums around the world where these
Impressionists represent a rebellion against the formality of classical tradition
by the Great Masters.
The filmmaker Lumière brothers are credited with being among the first to
create moving images at the dawn of the 20th century. Their early experiments
recorded everyday events, such as trains arriving at stations. Thus began a
long tradition of film production in France. After World War II, La Nouvelle
Vague or New Wave launched a French cinematic tradition when a group of
young critics including François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard started making
their own films.
Fiercely proud of their melodic language, the French have produced a strong literary
tradition, with a claim to more Nobel Prizes in literature than any other nation. For
centuries, French was the intellectuals' language of arts, letters, and diplomacy. While
everyday descriptive French adjectives and slang come alive with informal imagery,
the written language's purity has been closely protected by 40 esteemed members of
the Académie Française since the 17th century.