I paused this blog when the pandemic began, last spring, given that the possibilities of traveling abroad to study French were slim. In the interim, I decided to refocus the site on discussions of French and francophone culture generally. The earlier posts were my takes on Quebec as a foreigner. In keeping with the theme …
Author Archives: Jen Rappaport
Poutine at the Penrose
I briefly relived my Québécois experience the other day by stopping at the Penrose, a pub in my New York neighborhood, for an order of poutine, shown here. For those not familiar with it, poutine is a gooey dish of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. Its origins are uncertain, but according to …
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Fans of American abstract art are likely familiar with Joan Mitchell. The painter is profiled along with several other women artists in Mary Gabriel’s recent book Ninth Street Women (Szalai). But how many of these fans are familiar with the French-Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, Mitchell’s longtime romantic partner? Probably not many, since, as an article …
Kamouraska, by Anne Hébert: A Review
New York has a French bookstore, but it doesn’t stock many books by Québécois authors, so when I was in Quebec this summer, I spent a lot of time at the bookstore Pantoute—Québécois for the French expression pas du tout (not at all). Among the novels I brought back with me is Anne Hébert’s Kamouraska, …
New France
When you study French in France, you learn about Charlemagne, the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc, the Bourbon dynasty, Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution, Versailles, and Napoleon Bonaparte. When you study French in Quebec, you learn about the explorers Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain, as well as the Alqonquins, the Montagnais, …
École Québec Monde
I’ve been studying French since middle school. I went to France for the first time, with my parents, when I was in high school. I got a kick out of ordering in French in restaurants and using French in the hotel. There were mistakes, of course. Like the time we ordered “douze escargots pour tout …
Le Monastère
Le Monastère des Augustines–a monastery converted into a hotel, museum, and wellness center–is an unusual place to stay. As the Web site of the Monastère explains, “On August 1, 1639, three sisters from the Augustinian order” came to Quebec and set up “North America’s first hospital north of Mexico” (“Authentic and Original Concept”). They came …
Silence
Silence. It’s an unusual way to begin two weeks of French language study in Quebec. But I’m staying at the Monastère des Augustines, and breakfast (what the French call le petit dejeuner and the Québecois simply dejeuner) is served in silence–well, almost. The servers ask in a whisper if I want coffee and what my …
Tour de French: French Books and Culture from around the World 