News
Coronavirus: The French Banned from Entering the United StatesDonald Trump made a shock announcement yesterday evening, declaring that Europeans would be forbidden from travelling to the U.S. from Friday, March 13, due to the corona virus pandemic. The French are now preparing for an organizational nightmare and are worried about the economic consequences, particularly in the tourism sector. This measure applies to anyone who has been to the...
Explaining the French Pension Reform Strikes to AmericansThe French pension reform is hardly a long, tranquil river. Our Paris-based columnist took a crack at explaining what pushed thousands of French railway and public-transit workers, pensioners, medical staff, and teachers to take to the streets. France has been paralyzed recently by mass strikes and demonstrations over the government’s plans to reform the pension system. At present, there are...
Franco-American Esther Duflo Wins the Nobel Prize in EconomicsFrench-born American citizen and MIT professor Esther Duflo is one of three economists awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics for her research into the fight against poverty. Finding local solutions to the global problem of poverty is the calling of Esther Duflo, one of the most prominent economists of her generations. While studying at the Ecole Normale Supérieure during...
Map: Where to Celebrate Bastille Day in the United States?On July 14, the French commemorate the storming of the Bastille of 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération of 1790. In the U.S., the event is know as Bastille Day, a celebration of France through wine, accordion, and pétanque! Over 200 Bastille Day events will take place in the United States this year. In New York, the French Institute...
Opinion
“France and the U.S. Are Equally Flawed in Their Approach to the Coronavirus”Robert Sebbag is a doctor working with the infectious and tropical diseases department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, and has devoted his career to fighting pandemics such as SARS, Ebola, and now the coronavirus. He has also worked with the French-American humanitarian aid organization Action Against Hunger, the International Red Cross, and French pharmaceutical laboratory Sanofi. He believes that...
Your Money or Your Life: The Coronavirus DilemmaMust we save lives by confining citizens and thus bring the economy to a halt (the French stance), or would it be better to restart the economy at the risk of prolonging and aggravating the pandemic (Donald Trump’s approach)? Both, writes Guy Sorman. Here we are, all on the same level, all nations and social classes alike, exposed to the...
We’ll Always Have Notre-Dame de ParisNo one could have predicted the global swell of emotion inspired by the fire in the Paris cathedral, a year ago today. The French are generally so divided and there are few regular churchgoers. And yet they suddenly found themselves united in collective mourning. Condolences flooded in from all over the world as if every French person had lost a...
The Virus of DeglobalizationThe Covid-19 pandemic will transform the economic map of the world, writes Guy Sorman. "We will see a reindustrialization of the West, a retreat by China, and a certain degree of economic deglobalization." History may not repeat itself, but it sometimes stutters. Exactly nine years ago, a tsunami in Japan destroyed Fukushima’s nuclear plant and disabled the core of Japanese...
Culture
This Week on TV5 Monde USA (May 25-31)This is your new reality: You are confined at home for the foreseeable future. Take advantage of this time to watch TV5 Monde USA, the first French-language television channel in the United States. Every week, France-Amérique will compile a list of 5 films, series, documentaries, cooking shows, and children's shows you don't want to miss! 1. Law Breakers Tuesday, May...
Hopper in Paris: The Birth of a MasterEdward Hopper, 24, realized one of his dreams when he moved to Paris in October 1906. An array of works from his French years, which have had little public exposure, were set to be exhibited at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. from May 23. However, the current coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent closure of cultural institutions means this project...
Oh les Filles: Meet the Badass Women of French RockWhat if rock was not born with Elvis Presley, but with Edith Piaf? This is the starting point of the toe-tapping documentary Oh les Filles, presented at Cannes in 2019, which tells the story of French rock through its female leaders from Françoise Hardy to Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vanessa Paradis, Lou Doillon, and Christine & The Queens. Ahead of the broadcast...
This Week on TV5 Monde USA (May 18-24)This is your new reality: You are confined at home for the foreseeable future. Take advantage of this time to watch TV5 Monde USA, the first French-language television channel in the United States. Every week, France-Amérique will compile a list of 5 films, series, documentaries, cooking shows, and children's shows you don't want to miss! 1. New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Melanesia's...
Business
Coronavirus: Industry Goes to War!Heavy industry and individual workers have arrived as backup to accelerate the production of masks and ventilators desperately needed by medical professionals. Both in France and the United States, a wartime economy has developed to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. On the banks of the East River opposite Manhattan, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is back to work. The former naval...
Emmanuel Macron Dreams of UnicornsAmbitious French president Emmanuel Macron wants to see a fivefold increase in the number of billion-dollar start-ups, or “unicorns,” in France over the next few years. His goal is to replicate the American model. Emmanuel Macron has a dream. He wants unicorns to flourish in France, and hopes that their number will rise from five to twenty, or even twenty-five,...
Ode à la Rose: Flower Delivery à la FrançaiseThe business model of Ode à la Rose, a flower delivery company founded by two French entrepreneurs in New York City in 2012, is based on the dual concept of French elegance and speed. Available across the northeast of the United States and in the Chicago area, the service will soon be expanded to and Florida. Monday is the most...
Pop! The Rise of American Sparkling WineThe consumption of sparkling wine in the United States has doubled since the 1970s. Thanks to champagnes imported from France, "American champagnes," and sparkling wines produced by French companies established on the U.S. West Coast, the American market is bubbling over! Since the first cases of champagne were delivered to the Thirteen Colonies in 1750, French bubbly has enjoyed a...
Education
OFALycée, the French Online School for American High Schoolers[Partner Article] The first online French-American high school, OFALycée, will open its virtual doors in September. To assist students whose education was disrupted by the pandemic, its founders will offer online French and math classes for ninth, tenth and eleventh-graders starting on April 27. “Do you know about the drama of French-American education in the United States? Thousands of French...
Cécile David-Weill: “Authority Is Credibility Granted by Children”Cécile David-Weill is the author of three novels, including "The Suitors," a comedy of manners about French high society. In "Parents Under the Influence," recently translated from French and published in the United States, the French-American mother of three tackles accepted ideas about raising children. She shows how we are subconsciously influenced by how our parents raised us, with often...
Teachers 2.0: An Online French-American High SchoolThe first online French-American high school, OFALycée, will be opening its virtual doors in September 2020. Its goal is to prepare students within the U.S. education system for the French Baccalaureate exams. Every year, some 400 high school students in the United States take the Baccalaureate exam, which enables them to continue on to higher education in France. Fourteen schools,...
The Success of French Dual-Language Programs in the U.S.Dual-language classes are flourishing in the United States. With more than 160 bilingual programs across 34 states, French is now America’s second most popular foreign language. In New York, one in ten public schools offers a bilingual education. In Utah, one in five schools is bilingual. And in August, Alaska inaugurated its first two dual-language French-English classes. These bilingual programs...
Gastronomy
Melissa Clark: “France Is Where I Learned How to Cook”Melissa Clark was celebrating the release of her latest book, "Dinner in French," when lockdown began in New York City. Since then, the "New York Times" food writer and author of 43 cookbooks (including one written with French chef Daniel Boulud) has spread her love of French cuisine through online cooking demos, live videos on Instagram, and simple recipes tailored...
The Jean-Georges EmpireJean-Georges Vongerichten has lived in New York since 1986, and made the city the capital of his culinary empire. The French restaurant owner reigns over 39 establishments, including 25 in the United States. He guarantees the same quality of service from Las Vegas to Singapore, and still finds time to cook for his friends! The clock strikes 5:30 pm in...
La Chandeleur: The Day to Flip CrêpesWhile Americans watch expectantly for the groundhog to emerge on February 2, the French will be flipping crêpes with their families. Known as Chandeleur in French and "Candlemas" in English, this event mixes pagan, Celtic, and catholic influences, and is named after the candles used for a pagan ritual celebrating the arrival of the harvest. In 472, Pope Gelasius I...
King Cake: A French Tradition Little Known in the U.S.This golden, frangipane-filled cake appears in boulangeries and patisseries at the end of December. King cake or la galette des rois, is traditionally eaten with the family on the first Sunday after New Year’s Day, but many enjoy it from December 31 and throughout the whole month of January! Along with Yule logs and Easter eggs, this is another unmissable...