Archives des Culture Vultures - Page 3 sur 6

Literary Fun and Games

Time for some English Literary Fun and Games Identify the following Literary Fun first lines with the novel or short story that they open. Who was the author? He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish. When Mrs. Frederic C. Little's second son arrived. Everyone noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes. We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it --it was the black kitten's fault entirely. "Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a mooc…

Paris peep shows!

Inspired by Philippa Campsie’s excellent blog Parisian Fields https://parisianfields.com/ where she talks about her husband's Paris peep show collection of stereoscopes. I started exploring stereoscope peep shows of Paris and Montana - my two favorite places. I thought I’d share a couple of the images of bridges that I found. But first what is a stereoscope. Like it sounds there’s stereo (from more than one source) and scope (view). A stereoscope is an optical trick, a dual or double view; the art of capturing and displaying two slightly offset photographs to create three dimensional images. Of course you need a special viewer to see the overlaid images. Remember that Viewmaster you had as a kid? That's a "modern" stereoscope! I came across a Viewmaster wheel recently in a book which had been donated to Bill & Rosa’s Book Room. What a blast from the past. I had mine when I was about 10. Our family travelled across the USA that year, 1975, in a green Dodge Maxivan. Fo…

Tarsila do Amaral Exhibition

Tarsila do Amaral exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, until 02 February 2025 The Musée du Luxembourg is hosting the first-ever French retrospective of Brazilian modernist artist, Tarsila do Amaral, also known as Tarsila. She is one of Brazil’s most famous and best-loved artists and a central figure in Brazilian modernism. She was born in 1886 in a rural town outside of São Paulo, in a traditional Brazilian bourgeois family. She benefitted from a good education, studied piano and painting and traveled to Europe for the first time when she was 16. She was married by 18 years old, but her husband did not support her wish to pursue painting, so she divorced him and moved to Paris to study painting in 1920. Tarsila do Amaral enrolled at the Académie Julian, the famous school for modern art and also studied with André Lhote, Albert Gleizes, and Fernand Léger. She moved between Paris and São Paulo and used cubism as a means of developing her own style. Two years later, she joine…

French Culture Quiz

French Culture Quiz : 21 questions to measure the extent of your knowledge Answers at the bottom. 1. Where did Julius Caesar defeat Vercingétorix in 52 BC ? 2. Parisian revolutionaries in 1789 were called - Les sans-culottes - Les passe-muraille - Les rabat-joie 3. Who is at the origin of the abolition of slavery in French colonies in 1848 ? - Victor Hugo - Victor Schoelcher - Lamartine 4. Bonaparte said this about a certain honor : « C’est avec un hochet que l’on mène les hommes. » To what honor was he referring ? 5. What river does this bridge / aqueduct in the photo above cross? Hint: It was built by the Romans to bring water to the city of Nîmes. 6. This popular car from the 1930’s included in its specifications: Carries 4 people, 50 kilos of potatoes or a small cask of wine at a speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour with a consumption rate of 3 liters per 100 kilometers. What car is it? - La 2 CV - La 4 CV - La 4L 7. What island sold to F…

Reflections from an old timer in Paris: La Télé

La Télé – French TV in the 1980s One cold, wet evening during a recent school holiday, we suggested a movie-and-pizza evening to our 12-year-old granddaughter. We spent an hour scrolling through all the channels in addition to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV, but every (suitable) movie was rejected or had already been seen. In the end we gave up and went out to eat the pizza we were going to order in. The old adage about the more channels there are, the less there is to see? It's not that I’m nostalgic for the days of three-channel French TV, but I did have a pang for those times when we had what you might call community viewing, when you could be sure that most of your friends watched the same show the same day and you could dissect it together and share the pleasure of anticipating the next episode. Realising this, no doubt, some distributors of major recent series, like Succession and White Lotus, also released episodes on a week-by-week basis. The 1980s wer…

La Seine, La Seine at Quai de la Photo

QUAI DE LA PHOTO LA SEINE, LA SEINE What could be a better venue for a photo exhibition tracing the history of Paris’ iconic river than a custom designed, permanently docked barge hosting a gallery, photo bookstore, bar, plus indoor and outdoor restaurant spaces on the banks of the Seine? Two current exhibits: RIVE DROITE, RIVE GAUCHE - Agence Roger-Viollet Running through September 8 and open daily, the exhibit La Seine, La Seine examines two distinct lives of the river. The first segment, Rive Droite, Rive Gauche, displayed in the interior gallery, is comprised of 80 archival photographs from the mid-19th century through the 1960’s, documenting the commercial, working, and social lives of the laborers whose livelihoods depended upon the river. The Seine was a major artery that enabled French wines and other merchandise to be warehoused and shipped worldwide, while its banks provided outdoor workspaces for the messy organic trades: wigmakers and animal groomers, sheep…

WEEGEE : AUTOPSIE DU SPECTACLE

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson 79 rue des Archives, 75003 www.henricartierbresson.org @FondationHCB #weegee REGARDS CROISES Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck and WEEGEE : AUTOPSY of the SPECTACLE Through May 19 2024To celebrate its 20 years of existence, the Fondation HCB is sharing Regards Croisé, a small grouping of images created by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck, highlighting the couple’s common themes. These gentle, lyrical images strongly contrast the “grab and gotcha” quality of Weegee’s work in the next room, and illustrate how two completely different styles of photography, in this case of the same general genre, can be so different yet each so iconic. WEEGEE AUTOPSIE DU SPECTACLE Born into a Jewish family in Zloczow (then Austria-Hungary; now Zolochev, Ukraine) in 1899, the ten year-old Usher Fellig americanized his first name to Arthur upon immigrating to New York in 1909 with his family. Disinterested in school, he dropped out at fourtee…

English theater productions

News from Paris in the Anglo Theater world - Three new English theatre productions come to Paris Just released : Joanna Szybist, a French writer and producer has just directed and released an audio drama about a British musical in Paris. It’s called “My Lunch with Frank”. Written by Kester Lovelace it’s an intimate and above all true story of an English director in France. Great expectations, broken hopes… An intimate story about what happens when you meet your heroes... It involves the most prestigious theatre in Paris, a few high-profile media partners, some of the best French musical actors….and a posh London restaurant. The story goes like this : Frank Williams, the author of acclaimed and multi-award-winning British musicals, had always been Lester's beloved playwright and lyricist. Lester had read everything Frank had ever written; seen everything Frank had ever done. Lester believed they were meant to become friends. At least, that’s what was supposed to happen at…

Immigration in France, A new look

Immigrant or expat? A question long debated in our anglophone community. As with most north western nations the history of immigration is a major part of France's history where a quarter of the population is either first- or second-generation French and ten percent are immigrants. And as with everything in France there is a dedicated museum. The new layout (as of June 2023) of the Musée National de l'histoire de l'immigration (Museum of Immigration in France) at the Palais de la Porte Dorée takes on the challenge of evolving views on immigration. The choice of building itself is an interesting one. The Palais de la Porte Dorée was originally called the Palais des colonies which was constructed between 1929 and 1931, for the Colonial Exposition. The Exposition attempted to promote an image of imperial France at the very height of its power. The Palais was to be a “museum of the colonies”, representing the territories, the history of the colonial conquest a…

Sing C’est la Vie by Sonny and Cher

Sing C’est la Vie This priceless song by Sonny and Cher from 1965 was the flip side of a 45 rpm single titled Just You. Sing C’est la vie is a great pick-me-up and a motto for life and will certainly bring a smile to anyone you share it with today. Happy New Year from FUSAC ! We love the interjected comments with a great French accent by Sonny. Who knew! (He is clearly pleased). This rare video has 1960s vintage sound and image which adds to the charm. During 1965, five of Sonny and Cher's songs were on the US Billboard Top 20, a record surpassed only by Elvis Presley. Sing C’est La Vie was number 1 in Belgium in November 1965 for 24 weeks. It was recorded along with I Got You Babe on their second album Look at Us. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher sold over 40 million records worldwide. Here are the words to Sing C’est la Vie because you'll want to sing along and because the best verse is not in the video. Sing C'est La Vie And s…

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