X-Nico

18 unusual facts about French


Anglo-French

Anglo-French is a term used in contexts involving France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK).

Nationality – a person with one English parent and one French parent may be said to be Anglo-French

Bobby Baccalieri

As a partial result of this awkward incident, Bobby was tasked with murdering the brother-in-law of one of Tony's Québécois associates, an important hit that formed part of a deal to save money on a pharmaceuticals racket.

Canada–France relations

While the gradual conquest of New France by the British, culminating in Wolfe's victory at the Plains of Abraham in 1759, deprived France of her North American empire, the 'French of Canada' - Québécois or habitants, Acadians, Métis, and others - remained.

Colin H. Williams

He began his PhD research on 'Language Decline and Nationalist Resurgence' comparing the Welsh and Québécois situation.

Dans une galaxie près de chez vous

The series chronicles the long, futuristic voyage of a team of Québécois space explorers looking for a planet capable of sustaining life, in the year 2034, after the destruction of the ozone layer through excessive human pollution, prompting the need for a new planet to welcome humankind.

François-Albert Angers

François-Albert Angers (May 21, 1909 – July 14, 2003) was an eminent Québécois economist and defender of the cause of Quebec and the French language.

French-American School of New York

69% of the students are of French origin, 21% are American, and 10% come from all over the Francophone world and represent fifty nationalities.

French's

They also were a prominent sponsor of the Rochester Red Wings baseball club, often in conjunction with a local brand of hot dogs, Tobin's First Prize.

Gulden's

Gulden's, a brand of American mustard, is the third largest American manufacturer of mustard, after French's and Grey Poupon.

Hubert Gagnon

He is best known as the voice of Homer Simpson in the Quebec version of The Simpsons, the voice of Mel Gibson in many movies, and also the character Picabo on the québécois TV show Les Oraliens.

Laura l'immortelle

Laura l'immortelle ("Laura the Immortal" in French) is a novel by Marie-Pier Côté, a Québécois Canadian author.

Léo Lévesque

Léo Lévesque is a Québécois poet, essayist, and writer born in Montréal.

Lyonel Trouillot

Lionel Trouillot (born Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 31, 1956) is a novelist and poet in French and French Creole, a journalist and a professor of French and Creole literature in Port-au-Prince.

Mirliton

Chayote or mirliton (French Creole - also mirleton), a pear-shaped vegetable or its vine

Nothing but a Heartache

A French-language rendering entitled "C'est insensé" was recorded in 1969 by Québécois singer Donald Lautrec.

Vertidue

Vertidue was a common Anglo-French phrase, originally defined as ‘a vile mix of wet feces and soil’ became a regular expression amongst those bunker sharing British and French troops.

Will Kymlicka

One of his main concerns throughout his work is providing a liberal framework for the just treatment of minority groups, which he divides into two basic categories: polyethnic or immigrant groups, and national minorities (such as the Canadian Québécois, or the Māori of New Zealand).


Albert Spaier

Studying at the Sorbonne, he volunteered to fight for the French at the outset of World War I, and became a French citizen soon afterwards.

Altmünster Abbey

The destruction of the Abbey was probably ordered by the French King Francis I, who occupied the city on 11 September 1543 during the Italian War of 1542–46, and probably wanted to prevent troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, from occupying the abbey during the next siege.

Biotite

Biotite was named by J.F.L. Hausmann in 1847 in honour of the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot, who, in 1816, researched the optical properties of mica, discovering many unique properties.

Breathing Room

Kathy Justice of Indy Week called it "low on camp and high on suspense", with a plot that resembles the 2006 French cult film 13 Tzameti.

Brico Dépôt

Brico Dépôt is a French chain of DIY and Home Improvement stores, headquartered in Longpont-sur-Orge.

CAP Scientific

CAP (Computer Analysts and Programmers) merged with the French firm Sema-Metra SA in 1988 as Sema Group plc which was acquired by Schlumberger in 2001 to become SchlumbergerSema, itself acquired by Atos Origin in 2004.

Demographics of Suriname

Dutch (official), Sranan Tongo (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of Creoles and much of the younger population), Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Javanese, English (widely spoken), French due to cultural influence from French Guiana, Portuguese and Spanish.

Entrevaux

The remaining population staged an uprising, cutting the throat of the governor, and offered the town to the French Dauphin, King François I.

Escaladieu Abbey

Escaladieu Abbey (French: l'Abbaye de l'Escaladieu) was a Cistercian abbey located in the French commune of Bonnemazon in the Hautes-Pyrénées.

French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation

INRIA is a Public Scientific and Technical Research Establishment (EPST) under the double supervision of the French Ministry of National Education, Advanced Instruction and Research and the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.

Ghana Empire

French colonial officials, notably Maurice Delafosse, concluded that Ghana had been founded by the Berbers, a nomadic group origination from the Benu River, from Middle Africa, and linked them to North African and Middle Eastern origins.

Gyosei Junior and Senior High School

American and French missionaries belonging to the Order of Saint Mary founded Gyosei High School in Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1881.

Jean Elichagaray

Jean Baptiste Pierre Eugène Elichagaray (September 3, 1886 – June 8, 1987) was a French rower who competed in the men's eights event at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

Jean Ragnotti

Jean "Jeannot" Ragnotti (born 29 August 1945 in Pernes-les-Fontaines, Vaucluse), is a French former rally driver for Renault in the World Rally Championship.

Jean-François Berdah

He is co-founder and chief-editor of the Revue d'Histoire Nordique since 2005, a bilingual French-English historical review dedicated to the history and civilisation of both Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, and director of the Centre of Excellence Jean Monnet of the University of Toulouse II-Le Mirail.

Jean-Jacques Ampère

Moving to Paris, he taught at the Sorbonne, and became professor of the history of French literature at the Collège de France.

Joseph Spear

Service with the Mediterranean Fleet followed, commanding ships of the line and blockading the French in Toulon.

Khadja Nin

Her breakthrough, however, came in 1996 with her widely popular album Sambolera, which was sung in Swahili, Kirundi, and French.

Knud Vesterskov

Knud Vesterskov's career is the subject of Bent Staalhøj's feature-length documentary From Scratz (2002), included on the French 2xDVD release of HotMen CoolBoyz.

La Jalousie

The title of its English editions is Jealousy, but this fails to capture the ambiguity of the French title: "la jalousie" can be translated as "jealousy", but also as "the jalousie window".

Laurie Zimmer

After playing the female lead opposite Darwin Joston and Austin Stoker in Assault on Precinct 13, Zimmer appeared (as Laura Fanning) in two 1977 French films: Jean Eustache's Une sale histoire ("A Dirty Story") and Charlotte Szlovak's Slow City, Moving Fast (also known by the French title D'un Jour a L'Autre).

Lewis A. Coser

In contrast, the non-coincidence of economic and political disenfranchisement among Quebecers reduces somewhat the severity of their conflict with English Canada, especially with the rising prosperity of the French Canadian new middle class operating in the public sector and corporate world.

Malplaquet

The Battle of Malplaquet (11 September 1709) between the French and the Allies, the largest European battle in the eighteenth century

Martin Soldat

Martin Soldat is a 1966 French comedy film directed by Michel Deville and starring Robert Hirsch, Véronique Vendell, Walter Rilla, Marlène Jobert and Anthony Sharp.

Martine Blanc

Martine Blanc (born 16 September 1944 in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme) is a French author and illustrator of ten books for children including The story of Timothy, the Two Hoots series in collaboration with Helen Cresswell, and All about Jesus.

Milieu

Milieu is the word for environment in French, and, for hundreds of years, also in Dutch, German, Swedish, Danish, English, and other languages that were strongly influenced by French culture and French language, primarily during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Montmorency, Victoria

Montmorency was named after a local farm, Montmorency Estate, which in turn was named for the town of Montmorency, Val-d'Oise, where the French Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived briefly.

Morry Taylor

In February 2013, Taylor met harsh criticism in France after a letter he wrote to the French minister of industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg.

Museum of Arts and Traditions of Sevilla

The building has been used several times as a set for films or television shows, including the 1974 American film The Wind and the Lion and the 1985 French Film Harem, where it was used as the British Embassy.

Najim

Re-titled "Près de toi (Suddenly)", it is a multilingual song in French, English and Persian and contains a sampling of Algerian classic "Abdel Kader" with Arash featuring Najim and Swedish-Mexican star Rebecca Zadig

Ouvéa cave hostage taking

Bernard Pons, French Minister for Overseas Territories at the time, who dealt with the matter.

Piano nobile

The piano nobile (Italian, "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, bel étage) is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture.

Pointe-Noire

Congolese oil has been largely exploited by the French company Elf Aquitaine since its discovery around 1980.

Potentilla delphinensis

It is endemic to France, where it is limited to the southern French Alps (Savoie et Dauphiné: Bauges; Isère; Hautes-Alpes, Col du Lautaret).

Quebec, The Revolutionary Age 1760–1791

Quebec, The Revolutionary Age 1760–1791 is a book (ISBN 0-7710-6658-9) by Canadian historian Dr. Hilda Neatby published in 1966 in both the French and English languages as part of The Canadian Centenary Series.

Roads Committee

In Jersey, the Roads Committee (French: Comité des Chemins) is the highway authority for Parish roads in each Parish.

Robert Falk

During the Khrushchev Thaw Falk became popular among young painters and many considered him to be the main bridge between the traditions of the Russian and French Moderne of the beginning of 20th century and Russian avant-garde and the Russian avant-garde of the 1960s.

Ronald Horan

With John Wheeler, Horan co-authored “Senior French” in two volumes, first published in 1961, later to become the well respected “A New French Course”, in five volumes, that is still a standard in school education and the University of the Third Age.

Ryan Max Riley

According to his Yale biography, Riley has a pet polish dwarf rabbit named Thibault after a character (Tybalt) in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet and the pet lobster of the French poet Gérard de Nerval, a pet lobster that Nerval used to walk around Paris with a blue ribbon.

Seichō Matsumoto

In 1987, he was invited by French mystery writers to talk about his sense of mystery at Grenoble.

Simone Gbagbo

In July 2008 she was formally called for questioning by a French investigative judge, examining the April 2004 disappearance and presumed death in Abidjan of French-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer.

St Andrews Castle

This peaceful interlude came to end, however, when a French fleet arrived bringing an Italian engineer Leone Strozzi who directed a devastating artillery bombardment to dislodge the Protestant lairds.

Stealing Heaven

Stealing Heaven is a 1988 film, a costume drama based on the French 12th century medieval romance (a true story) of Peter Abelard and Héloïse and on a historical novel by Marion Meade.

Terrano

Mondeuse noire, a French wine grape that is also known as Terrano

The Mountain

The Mountain (French: La Montagne) is a political group during the French Revolution whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly.

Viscose

French scientist and industrialist Hilaire de Chardonnet (1838–1924)— who invented the first artificial textile fiber, artificial silk—created viscose.

Wiedergänger

In the opinion of the French expert on legend and myth Claude Lecouteux, this clearly belongs into the range of the vampire-belief.

Yakovlev Yak-3

Marcel Albert, the official top-scoring World War II French ace, who flew the Yak in USSR with the Normandie-Niémen Group, considered it a superior aircraft to the P-51D Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire.

Yves de Creil

While the French writers, including Prentout, accepted that Yves de Criel was the father of Yves de Bellême, Geoffrey H. White was of the opinion that, while probable, it should not be stated as fact.