LET'S SPEAK FRENCH

🎹 French pianist Colette Maze released an album this year at age 107, making her the oldest French pianist to release an album this year. Probably. This information hasn’t been verified. So just in case there was another 107-year-old (or more) French pianist who released an album this year, I'll add to the wonder that this was her sixth album, amongst which five were released after her 100th birthday. Music by Claude Debussy. (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). 🔗 Purchase Colette Maze's latest album: https://www.uvmdistribution.com/piano/7528-un-siecle-avec-debussy-colette-maze-label-continuo-classics-ean-3770000059885-annee-edition-2021-genre-classique-format-3-cd-cod-3770000059885.html 🎵 Listen to Colette Maze on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/48cfBr9GWw4qCShd5Et7AR ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

☀️ Probably amongst the top 3 tourist destinations in France, la Côte d’Azur has always attracted the rich and famous jet setters from around the world. But behind the sun, the beaches and the gorgeous landscapes, the Riviera also has an incredible artistic history and heritage that is worth the trip by itself. (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). 🔗 Crazy stories behind famous villas on the French Riviera: https://www.iconicriviera.com/most-famous-villas-french-riviera/ ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🏳 Beyond being a good way to learn about colors and shapes in French, flags give a great insight into a region/country/…'s history and politics. This week's episode provides a basic idea of what flags are and where they come from, but I can't wait to hear everyone's description of their own! (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🚙 The same way Ford or GM cars are icons of American culture, or Ferrari is a landmark of Italian design, there are some French brands that have so much history they could represent the country’s industrial background. Peugeot is one of them. Starting in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars (https://youtu.be/8YQ2XI8vBnA), they have been active for over 200 years in steel work, making all sorts of utilitarian objects. Including cars for which they are probably best known these days. Follow their history in this week’s episode (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). 🎬 Watch this short program filmed in the Peugeot museum, listing some lesser-known anecdotes about the brand (in French): https://youtu.be/lA91KU4rZLs ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

👽 With the release of "Dune" in the US and the UK, let's get back in time to review Denis Villeneuve's filmography. His feature film career started in 1998 in Québec with a very interesting and original movie in French named "Un 32 août sur Terre" (August 32nd on Earth). From this to "Dune", how would you describe the director's journey? (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar) 🔗 Watch "August 32nd on Earth" on MUBI: https://mubi.com/films/august-32nd-on-earth ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🎙 Last week we talked about the Académie française (https://youtu.be/1RU75-ufcsc), so what would be better this week than talking about one of the recipients of their poetry award: Georges Brassens. In a few days, it’ll be 100 years that Georges was born in the small town of Sète in the South of France. His career as a singer and poet has been an inspiration to many over the years. And it is hard not to succumb to his wisdom and casualness. Lots of Brassens celebrations planned in France this month! (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar) 🔗 Georges Brassens 100-year celebration in the news (TV5Monde): https://information.tv5monde.com/video/francophonie-sete-la-ville-de-georges-brassens-celebre-le-centenaire-du-poete-chanteur 🎬 52-minute documentary about the singer-songwriter: https://youtu.be/R9pgwA73iRk ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🏛 The “Académie française”, the French language headquarters, the linguistic mother ship… Or is it really? Since the 17th century, the forty “immortels” (members of the Academy) have ruled the language. But for a few decades now, their power and influence have been heavily challenged. After all, the francophone world has changed quite a bit in four centuries. (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar) 🔗 Official website of the Académie française: https://www.academie-francaise.fr/ 🔗 Two articles about the relevance of the Académie from TV5 Monde and France Culture: https://information.tv5monde.com/info/l-academie-francaise-doit-elle-representer-la-francophonie-305075 and https://www.franceculture.fr/litterature/lacademie-francaise-sert-elle-encore-a-quelque-chose ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🥊 When the body and the mind merge into one ultimate sport, we get chessboxing (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). Six rounds of chess, five rounds of boxing. But who came up with such an unusual discipline? Turns out, it was first imagined in a French comic book from the eighties: la “Trilogie Nikopol” by Enki Bilal… 🎬 Watch Redbull's documentary on Chessboxing: https://youtu.be/VZzj4ICKsF4 ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🚄 Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the TGV, Train à Grande Vitesse (high-speed) (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). The first trip from Paris to Lyon was made possible in 1981 by years of research on how to double the speed of regular trains. Nowadays, the speed has even tripled, reaching over 500 km/h on some lines. It goes pretty much everywhere in Europe, it is green, smooth and there is wifi onboard. Who wouldn’t want to try that on their next trip? 🔗 Why the US has no high-speed rail? (CNBC): https://youtu.be/Qaf6baEu0_w ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

💇‍♀️ Above every “haute couture” chef d’œuvre, there is a “haute coiffure” tour de force. With the Paris Fashion Week (https://youtu.be/xPh78cdpTT4) approaching (September 26), let’s give a shoutout to the hair artists by exploring the history of hairstyles in France and Europe. Very much linked to social status and heritage in the old days, haircuts have drastically evolved over time. (Sometimes in funny ways.) But do they still reveal much about someone’s background nowadays? Here is the new episode (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). 🔗 Site de la Haute Coiffure Française - Paris: https://www.hautecoiffurefrancaiseparis.com/ ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

🎹 What do Quincy Jones, George Gershwin and Astor Piazzolla have in common? You guessed right, their music professor: Nadia Boulanger. But what made a jazz, a classical music and a tango master travel all the way to Paris to study with her? And to be honest, there are plenty more composers who flew and sailed from far away to meet her, like Aaron Copland, Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, Michel Legrand,… Discover in this video (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar) what made “Mademoiselle” Boulanger the Yoda of modern music. 🎬 Watch Bruno Monsaingeon's "Mademoiselle" (1977), a documentary about Nadia Boulanger (in French with English subtitles): https://youtu.be/V2GX69XxxyE ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com

👅 How many French words do you use on a daily basis? Well, rest assured, francophones use A TON of English words all the time, it sounds cool. And they are going even one step further: using old French words passed to the English vocabulary, back into French with an English accent. Think “tennis” :). This is the weekly video about the real Frenglish (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar). Now it’s your turn to get those words back into English for a next round! 🎬 This video might help contextualize: le français et l’anglais (https://youtu.be/_xr24RkQbTY) ☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider: - supporting on https://www.patreon.com/frenchconversationgroup or https://anchor.fm/frenchconversationgroup - subscribe and share 🇫🇷 French Conversation Group meets weekly in Los Angeles, New York or online. It's meant for non native speakers (beginners, intermediate, advanced) to practice their French and have fun. You're more than welcome to join! Check out this link for more info: https://www.frenchconversationgroup.com