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

Cariso

Cariso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in French creole.

Chanté mas

Lyrics are almost all in French creole and are traditionally sung by women (chantwell), while the instrumental tradition are predominantly practiced by men

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.

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-Andrews House

In 1919 it underwent a careful restoration under the auspices of preservationist George Francis Dow.

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.

In 1970, the company purchased Widmer Wine Cellars of Naples, New York.

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.

Joseph Meek

As the French trappers enjoyed good relations with most of the Indian tribes in the area, Meek seems to have hoped that the Indians would take him for a Québécois and leave him alone.

Laura l'immortelle

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

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.

Nothing but a Heartache

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

Robert Marien

Robert Marien, born May 5, 1956, is a Québécois (Canadian) actor, singer, and songwriter who has performed in the musical Les Misérables in Montreal, Paris, New York and London.

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.


30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS

Soldiers of the division together with an unspecified Italian unit killed 40 civilians in Étobon, France on 27 September 1944, in retaliation of the support given by villagers to the French partisans.

Abraham Furtado

Arthur Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews: The Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism, Columbia University Press, New York, 1968.

Al Cliver

From 1975 to 1988, he was in a relationship with French actress Annie Belle and has acted alongside her in the films Forever Emmanuelle, Blue Belle, Velluto Nero and Un Giorno alla fine di Ottobre.

Alain Lanty

He has composed songs for a great number of French artists including Renaud, Florent Pagny, Marc Lavoine, Dani, Régine, Maurane, Hélène Ségara, Jean-Luc Lahaye.

Amyraldism

The national Synods at Alençon, 1637; at Charenton, 1645; and at Loudun, 1659 (the last synod permitted by the French government), decided against the excommunication of Amyraut but delimited his views in order to avoid further variance with historic Reformed orthodoxy.

August von Werder

Promoted general of infantry, and assigned to command the new XIVth Army Corps, Werder defeated the French at Dijon and at Nuits, and, when Charles Denis Bourbaki's army moved forward to relieve Belfort, turned upon him and fought the desperate action of Battle of Villersexel, which enabled him to cover the Germans besieging Belfort.

Brico Dépôt

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

Castelnau-de-Lévis

The village at the base of the château is the site of a motocross championship, the Championnats du Monde MX3 et d’Europe 125 de Motocross. The track is also scheduled to host the French 2009 Sidecarcross world championship Grand Prix on 29 March 2009, however, this will still have to be confirmed by the FIM.

Christophe Cuvillier

Christophe Cuvillier (born December 5, 1962 in Etterbeek) is a French businessman and current chief executive officer of the European real-estate group Unibail-Rodamco.

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.

Dominique Fidanza

In 2006, she moved to France to participate at the French reality television show Star Academy France and she arrived at the end of the show but she lost against Cyril Cinélu.

Entrevaux

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

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.

Jacqueline Robin

Jacqueline Robin (December 11, 1917 in Saint-Astier, Dordogne – February 3, 2007 in Taverny) was a French pianist.

Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda

At the request of the prosecutor of the ICTR, he was arrested by French officials in Bourges on 26 November 1999.

Jean de Pourtales

Jean de Pourtales (born August 19, 1965) is a French racing driver from Neuilly-sur-Seine.

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 Pierre

Jean-Jacques Pierre (born 23 January 1981 in Léogâne) is a Haitian footballer currently plays for French club SM Caen.

Joseph Spear

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

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.

Kramp

Christian Kramp (1760–1826), French mathematician who worked primarily with factorials

Le Château de verre

Le Château de verre (English title: The Glass Castle) is a 1950 French language motion picture romantic drama directed by René Clément who co-wrote the screenplay with Gian Bistolfi and Pierre Bost, based on the novel Sait-on jamais by Vicki Baum.

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.

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.

MSL Aero H80

The MSL Aero H80 is a French ultralight aircraft that was designed by Massimo Tedesco and Sebastian Lefebre and produced by MSL Aero of Limoges-Fourches.

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

Olry

Olry Terquem (1782–1862), French mathematician who proved Feuerbach's theorem about the nine-point circle of a triangle

Paul Barril

Paul Barril (13 April 1946 in Vinay, Isère) is a former officer of the French Gendarmerie Nationale.

Phénoménal

Phénoménal is a mixtape by French musician Lord Kossity, released in 1999 on the label Killko Records.

Pierre Tabart

Pierre Tabart (Chinon, 1645 – Meaux, 1716) was a French composer and maître de chapelle.

Punta Bagnà

Administratively the mountain is divided between the Italian comune of Bardonecchia (southern face) and the French communes of Modane (north-western face) and Avrieux (north-eastern face).

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 Majzels

Governor General's Award for French to English translation for Just Fine, from the French Pas Pire, by France Daigle (2000).

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.

Sebastian Castellio

Having been educated at the age of twenty at the University of Lyon, Castellio was fluent in both French and Italian, and became an expert in Latin, Hebrew and Greek as well.

Serge Brussolo

In 2009, a film adaptation of his best-seller French-language novel Les Emmurés was adapted into a film, entitled Walled In.

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 Alan Bown Set

In November 1966 Burgess was replaced by Tony Catchpole and in 1967 the band released "Gonna Fix You Good (Everytime You're Bad)" / "I Really, Really Care" and recorded the soundtrack for Jeu de Massacre a French film featuring Jacques Loussier.

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

Sturges directed only one more film in his life, the 1955 French comedy Les carnets du Major Thompson (released in the U.S. as The French, They Are a Funny Race).

The Stoning of Soraya M.

The son of a former Iranian ambassador, French-Iranian journalist and war correspondent Freidoune Sahebjam has also reported on the crimes of the Iranian government against the Bahá'í community in Iran.

Tsering Dorjee

In 1999, he starred in the French Nepali film directed by Eric Valli, Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef, in which he starred alongside Lhakpa Tsamchoe.

Viscose

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

Where Did All the Love Go?

According to guitarist Serge Pizzorno, the song's music video was inspired by Kenneth Anger's films like Scorpio Rising, Busby Berkeley and French cabaret.

Y.O Concept

Y.O Concept is a French racecar constructor based in Cornillé, Brittany.

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.