Un Point c'est tout

⭐️ If you'd like to start reading French literature, this is a great beginning. Eighty years ago, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote a short novel for children combining poetry and philosophy, "Le Petit Prince". Since then, the tale has been translated in several hundred languages, making it the most translated book in the world after the Bible. Feel free to read it in your language first to grasp all the symbolism, then read it in French to seize its original poetry.

🔗 "Le Petit Prince" in French: https://www.ebooksgratuits.com/pdf/st_exupery_le_petit_prince.pdf

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🍫 Are words necessary to describe how good chocolate tastes? Certainly not. This week’s episode shows where it comes from, how to taste it and how good it is for your health. Tip: try listening to the episode with a piece of chocolate melting on your tongue for the entire length, you’ll get a nice surprise at 3:37

🔗 BBC study: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6558775.stm

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

⚡️ Mixing music, politics, news and linguistics, this week we are focusing on the term "coup d'État". A "coup d'État" is a putsch, and also a song by Ivorian singer Alpha Blondy. Is his lyrics, he denounces the excess of coups caused by international interests in Africa. There has been quite a few coups in the news recently. But what does the term exactly mean and where does it come from? (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar).

🎵 Listen to Alpha Blondy's song "Coup d'État": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4p7ahySjyg

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🌍 This translation of a Polish article (https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/vu-de-varsovie-exercices-militaires-en-bielorussie-la-pologne-raison-davoir-peur) explains how the country is rightfully concerned about the current Russia/Ukraine tensions. Coincidentally, it is in the same region, about 135 years, ago that Dr. Esperanto tried to prevent such tensions by inventing a universal language. This way, he hoped to contribute to a fairer and a more peaceful world.

🔗 Read more about Esperanto in the n°79 - janvier 2022 edition of https://www.histoire-et-civilisations.com

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🥼 Clothes, hats, jewelry, perfumes,… Coco Chanel created an empire, starting with nothing but her desire to revolutionize women's fashion. Doing so, she became a symbol of French elegance and defined "modern chic" for generations. Watch this week's episode (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar) and let us know what modern chic means to you.

🎬 Watch Anne Fontaine's COCO AVANT CHANEL (2009) on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0U43X4J1EEV3PNEW8WCFON4NPT/ref=atv_dl_rdr?tag=justus1ktp-20

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🍎 Ever wondered why French people don't suffer much of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes while their diet is made of charcuterie, bread, cheese and wine? Nothing to do with genetics, the results are accessible to anyone willing to relax, exercise and adjust their diet. More sun, better food and chillax, that's my 2022 resolution (subtitles are available in French and English by clicking on the CC button on the YouTube control bar).

🔗 Read more about the French paradox in the International Journal of Epidemiology: https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/40/6/1486/801211

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🖼 Well known for his lifestyle and his rebel behavior (both in life and in art), Paul Gauguin sailed away from Europe, leaving five children behind, to start a new life in Tahiti. Did it make his art more interesting? Could he have been the painter we still recognize to this day if we could separate the man from the art? Find out more about this controversial figure in this week’s episode.

📖 Read "Gauguin: loin de la route" about his final moments in Tahiti: https://www.amazon.com/Gauguin-Loin-de-la-route/dp/2803632012

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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 best to start the year than a topic covering so many themes? Bougainville was an explorer from the 18th century. Aboard his ship, he became the first Frenchman to sail around the world and discover Tahiti. To this day, we know his name mostly thanks to a flower he brought back to France: the bougainvillea. But a flower wasn’t the only thing he brought back: knowledge, science, discoveries and social controversies accompanied him along.

🔗 "Bougainville trouve l’éden au bout du monde" in Histoire & Civilisations: https://www.histoire-et-civilisations.com/thematiques/epoque-moderne/bougainville-trouve-leden-au-bout-du-monde-78898.php

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

✍️ Should a language increase in complexity or be simplified? In this case, certainly both ways can be supported with strong arguments. On one hand, the French language has already tons of subtleties, but on the other hand, genders are very polarized which doesn’t reflect our society. Learn more about « iel » in this week's episode.

🔗 Source: https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2021/11/26/de-l-ecriture-inclusive-a-la-transidentite-iel-dans-le-monde_6103681_4500055.html

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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

🗺 On top of Metropolitan France, in 2021, there are still a dozen French territories around the world. Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Réunion,… are amongst them. And so is New Caledonia, which made the news recently for their third independence referendum (fifth including 1958 and 1987). Let's dive a bit into the history and political status of the overseas territories, the DROM-COM (formerly DOM-TOM).

🔗 Find out more about overseas France: https://www.vie-publique.fr/fiches/les-collectivites-doutre-mer

☝️ If you enjoyed this episode, please consider:

🇫🇷 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