Learn a foreign language while discovering its parent culture! The Alliance Française d’Atlanta presents a four-week cultural seminar where the goal is to learn or improve your level of French, allowing you to understand the subtleties of the language and of those who speak it. These workshops offer, therefore, a double objective: linguistic and cultural enrichment.

Discover or rediscover these main cultural themes:

August 30th: Literature

To know any culture you must know its great minds. Discover or deepen your knowledge of the grands auteurs of French literature. From Rabelais to Michel Houelbeck, we will study the works that marked the history of French literature. The last hour of class will be devoted to contemporary literature and new authors (from the 90’s forward) that carry on the French literary tradition.

September 1st: Architecture

A visual feast of the most beautiful and celebrated French monuments: Through a chronological, thematic and playful approach we will pay virtual visits to la Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, la Cathedrale d’Amiens, le Pantheon, la Madeleine, le Sacre Cœur, Le Mont Saint-Michel, les Chateaux de la Loire and others, with the use of 3-D websites. These monuments we will allow us to get acquainted with renowned French architects from Vauban to Le Corbusier.

September 6th: No Class (Labor Day)

September 8th: History

As the old proverb says, you can’t understand the present without first understanding the past. This need for understanding France’s millenary, political, economic and societal history as a base for getting a grasp on France’s society and culture today has never been more relevant. This workshop presents the most significant events that forged French history. We will travel back in time to encounter the personalities and events that are inscribed in the French collective memory. If Clovis, Charlemagne, Saint Louis, Jeanne d’Arc, Louis XIV, Napoleon and De Gaulle are well-known to those who are interested in this aspect of French culture, there are other essential historical figures who merit discovery as well. As the French Revolution is known worldwide, other major historical events will be addressed here, helping to paint a clearer picture of contemporary France.

September 13th: Painting

Learn about the works and techniques of the masters, through this study of French painters and their vastly different styles (classic, neoclassic, romantic, surrealist, pointillism, abstract…) with the last hour focusing on impressionism, highlighting the works of Monet, Manet, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec, Cezanne.

September 15th: Gastronomy

Ah French cuisine!!! Known and loved the world over, perhaps one of the most essential aspects of French culture. We will indulge in discovering specialties from each region, understanding what is original and specific to French cuisine. Some savory recipes will be presented and, mais oui! there will be an opportunity to sample a few treasures of French gastronomy.

September 20th: Cinema

From the Lumière brothers up to today, we will explore the major genres of French cinema, (silent films, science fiction, etc.), its greatest films, as well as actors and actresses who have left their mark on French cinematography. An equally opportune time for vocabulary enrichment and listening comprehension through the study of famous film excerpts and legendary one liners.

September 22nd: Music

This rhythmical workshop revisits the French musical repertoire from pre-war melodies to the rap of today; we will explore the main musical currents, key artists from the French music scene. The last portion of this class will present a study of a musical genre currently in fashion: Le Slam. This poetry of the day has become a veritable societal phenomenon. No need for music, only words. We will thus, create our own texts allowing us to learn and practice a French that is poetic, literary and slang in style.

September 27th: Regions and Dialects

This workshop presents the cultural and linguistic specificities of the regions of France. Indeed each region has a very distinct culture of its own, regionalisme, Find out why inhabitants of Lille, les lillois, don’t share the same culinary traditions or the same accent as citizens of Perpignon, for example.

Fall Session

Ateliers Culturels: Connaissez-vous?

Ateliers will return in the Fall Session, the schedule may change, below is an idea of the subjects previewed for the fall.

Tuesdays from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

$200 for the series or $25 per workshop

ADVANCED LEVEL ONLY: classes in French

Date

Theme

Teacher

Content

Coluche

Meet Michel Colucci Known as Coluche. Coluche was a humorist, but he was also famous for his acting skills, then he became a politician always ready to move the “establishment” as he ran for presidency in 1981. He started a humanitarian association well known in France: “Les Restos du Coeur”. Unfortunately he died in a motorcycle accident in 1986. But Coluche is still very present in French people's heart because he never was afraid to say what was on his mind.

Gustave Eiffel

Lionel Zadje

« French architecture of the end of the 19th century was marked by the genius of an extraordinary architect: Gustave Eiffel. He has handed down his testimony of the industrial revolution which enshrined the supremacy of steel. Gustave Eiffel is an integral part of the French landscape. His creations are everywhere and often spectacular, such as on the banks of the Seine where his monumental Tower stands. However, the story of this architect from Dijon started before this major work with constructions which were already spectacular. From world famous bridges to steel buildings around The world. This journey back in time will take us throughout Europe to Panama, Africa, Asia and of course to New York City Harbor where his famous steel structure stands today inside the Statue of Liberty.”

Baudelaire

Véronique

Often called le Poète Maudit (The Cursed Poet), Charles Baudelaire is one of the greatest French poets of the 19th century, who shocked his contemporaries with his visions of lust and decay. The volume of poetry Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil) is considered as one of the masterwork of French literature in the symbolist and modernist movements.

Toto

Catherine

Toto is a mischevious little boy all French adults remember form childhood tales. He is a universal symbol who represents the child in us all. Come rediscover and reunite with the Toto in you via funny stories and book excerpts about this beloved childhood personality.

Joséphine Baker

Péri

Josephine Baker sashayed onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Josephine rivaled Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford as the most photographed woman in the world, and by 1927 she earned more than any entertainer in Europe. Josephine served France during World War II in several ways. She performed for the troops, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance (undercover work included smuggling secret messages written on her music sheets) and a sub-lieutenant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. She was later awarded the Medal of the Resistance with Rosette and named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for hard work and dedication.

Antoine de St Exupéry

Marion

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944), between myth and reality.

For most of us, Saint-Exupéry is best remembered as the author of the Little Prince, the fantastical tale of a small boy's experiences as he travels through the universe. The short life of this talented author and journalist, brilliant aviator and visionary humanist seems to come right out of one of his books. The disappearance of his plane in the Mediterranean on July, 31st 1944, while executing a wartime reconnaissance mission over the South of France largely contributed to build his myth.

In France Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is seen as a national hero.

Jacques Brel

Véronique

If you know the song “Ne me quitte pas” (1959), then you know this Belgian singer and songwriter, Jacques Brel. His songs, frequently sharply satirical and often implicitly religious, but also very romantic, became hugely popular in Europe. Brel's songs are not especially well known in the English-speaking world except in translation and through the interpretations of other singers, e.g. David Bowie, Ray Charles, Sting, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra.

Youssou N'dour

Hélène

Coco Chanel

Christine

In 1999 French famous designer Coco Chanel was named in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century and was placed in a list that includes the unambiguous moral giant Nelson Mandela or the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Kouchner. Raised in an orphanage, Coco will navigate her way through two world wars and build an empire in the world of fashion.

Throughout her fifty years of career running her own clothing line she is now known as the "Grande Mademoiselle " of high society, who not only revolutionized what women wore, but also the roles they were supposed to play in society.

Her sense of style changed the fashion industry as she dictated poise and tastefulness to women; her reputation for style has prevailed long after her actual life.

French Connection: African American Writers 1920's-1970's

Currently we are not offering a special lit. course, check back with us or call 404-875-1211 to express an interest.

Taught by Dr. Richard Long (in English)

Tuesdays 7:00 - 8:30 pm

At Alliance Française

$130 members & $150 non-members

This literature survey class will focus on selected works of prominent African-American writers in France from 1920-1970. Featured authors include Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, Countee Cullen, Claude Mc Kay, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Barbara Chase-Riboud. It will use as a reference the often-cited work of Michel Fabre, FROM HARLEM TO PARIS: Black American Writers in France, 1840-1980. The course will explore the inspiration and artistic freedom these writers were searching for in France, and the long standing “French Connection” between African-American artists and France. It is the perfect companion to our upcoming trip, April In Paris. You can read the works in Atlanta and then visit the writer’s neighborhoods and see the places that were the settings in Paris!

Dr. Richard Long is the Atticus Haygood Professor Emeritus at Emory University.
Dr. Long has a distinguished career in the study of language and the arts and is the author of several books on the contributions of African Americans to the arts.
He has served as a member of the faculty at West Virginia State College, Morgan State University and Hampton (Va.) University, and held a visiting appointment at Harvard University. He settled in Atlanta and taught at both Clark Atlanta University and Emory University.
His books include The Black Tradition in American Dance and Grown Deep: Essays on the Harlem Renaissance. He is a co-author of Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy and co-editor of Afro-American Writing: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry, and his work has been included in more than 20 anthologies and encyclopedias of African American culture. Dr. Long’s research interests include African American literature, music, art and dance history. He has a particular interest in African American authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, musician Louis Armstrong and artist Romare Bearden.
In 2001, Dr. Long was a panelist during the Preservation of Dance symposium at the Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts, and, in 2002, he served as a moderator during the Emory University conference on “Lynching and Racial Violence in America.”
He is a member of the national planning board for the Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Fla.

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Fall Session

Ateliers Culturels: Connaissez-vous?

Archives:

French Connection: African American Writers 1920's-1970's

Currently we are not offering a special lit. course, check back with us or call 404-875-1211 to express an interest.