Every month in France-Amérique,
discover the best of French and Francophone culture in the United States.
Analysis of French-American news • French cultural events in the United States • Interviews with leading intellectuals • Fashion tips • Traditional and contemporary recipes • Reports from across the United States • Authors’ perspectives on America • Portraits of artists, entrepreneurs, and other French-American personalities • The best of Francophone literature translated into English • French movies and series in theaters and online • French habits and linguistic subtleties • Unique places to visit in France • And so much more…
August 2021
The Back to School Issue
Did you know the French Riviera was not always a summer hotspot? Read our feature on Sara and Gerald Murphy, the couple of Americans who made a little beach near Antibes their playground and attracted F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rudolph Valentino, and Picasso to the South of France. Also in this issue, read about Toussaint Louverture – the Black general who freed the slaves of the French colony of St. Domingue and paved the way for the world’s first Black republic: Haiti – and Marie Eiffel, the iconic owner of a little slice of France at the end of Long Island.
Featured Articles
IDEAS
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE
The Black Spartacus
Historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, a professor at Oxford and the author of a biography of Toussaint Louverture, is appealing to France and the United States to include the hero of the Haitian Revolution in their curriculums and national narratives.
By Guy Sorman
BON APPÉTIT
ICE CREAM
A Sweet, French-American History
France has gone down in ice cream history in America. Thomas Jefferson was a huge fan, and French ice cream has been enshrined in U.S. law since 1977!
CULTURE
MARYSE CONDÉ
“America Taught Me Fraternity”
Guadeloupe-born writer, critic, and professor Maryse Condé, who taught at Berkeley, Harvard and Columbia, where she founded the Center for French and Francophone Studies in 1997, looks back over her years in America.
CULTURE
THE MURPHYS
The Americans Who Invented the French Riviera
Until the early 1920s, no one would dare brave the burning sun of the French Riviera from June through August. At least not until an American couple, Sara and Gerald Murphy, decided otherwise.
By Jérôme Kagan
Table of contents
NEWS
De Guerre Lasse: French Forces to Withdraw from Western Africa. By Anthony Bulger
COME ON OUT
French Cultural Events in North America. By Tracy Kendrick
IDEAS
Editorial: The Virus and Civilization. By Guy Sorman
Sudhir Hazareesingh: Why Toussaint Louverture Needs to Be Taught in School. By Guy Sorman
The Eternal Conundrum of the Monarchy in France. By Anthony Bulger
ENTREPRENEUR
Marie Eiffel: The French Phoenix of Shelter Island. By Benoît Georges
FASHION
The Gentleman’s Style: Summer Color. By Julien Scavini
LIFESTYLE
With the Luma Foundation, Haute Culture Illuminates Arles. By Jean-Gabriel Fredet
BON APPÉTIT
The Scoop on Ice Cream’s French-American History. By Clément Thiery
CULTURE
French Is Beautiful: Learning French with Flair. By Gabriel Bertrand
A Canvas, an Artist: Henri Rousseau, The Merry Jesters. By Tracy Kendrick
Maryse Condé: “America Taught Me Fraternity.” By Sophie Joubert
Alice Zeniter: Writing the Silence of a History Without Heroes. By Sophie Joubert
How the Murphys Invented the French Riviera. By Jérôme Kagan
LANGUAGE
The Wordsmith: Estaminets, tavernes et autres bistrots. By Dominique Mataillet
UNKNOWN FRANCE
Giverny: A “Painting in the Heart of Nature.” By Gabriel Bertrand
© Maryse Condé Archives
