The culture of
France is very rich and diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the influence of immigration.
France plays since centuries an important worldwide role as a cultural center, with
Paris as a world center of
high culture. The importance of French culture has waned and waxed over the centuries, mostly alongside its economic, political and military importance. Its formal global expression today consists of regular conventions of leaders from la Francité, the group of countries or nations where French is the main or one of the main languages: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and a number of countries in Africa. Informally, French culture has been and still is an important counterweight against the worldwide predominance of Anglo-saxon culture. It is characterised by a carefully considered balancing of rationality and sensitivity, of expression and analysis and of leisure and productivity. According to
Hofstede, it is moderately individualistic and has a relatively high Power Distance Index.
Education
Main article:
Education in FranceSince the
Jules Ferry laws, the prime minister and Minister of Education, all state-funded schools, including university, are separate from the church. Education in these institutions is free. Non-secular institutions are allowed to organize education as well. The French educational system differs strongly from Northern-European and American systems in that it stresses the importance of the development of the individual as an independent intellectual rather than a productive servant (of the State or the Company).
Religion
Main article:
Religion in FranceFrance is a
secular country where
freedom of thought and of
religion is preserved, in virtue of the 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The
Republic is based on the principle of
laïcité, that is of freedom of religion (including of
agnosticism and
atheism) enforced by the 1880s
Jules Ferry laws and the
1905 law on the separation of the State and the Church, enacted at the beginning of the
Third Republic (1871-1940).
Roman Catholicism is not considered anymore a
state religion, as it was before the
1789 Revolution and throughout the various, non-republican regimes of the 19th century (the
Restauration, the
July Monarchy and the
Second Empire).At the beginning of the 20th century, France was a largely rural country with conservative Catholic morals. In the course of the century, major changes have occurred: the countryside has become largely depopulated, and the population has largely become de-Christianised. This has led to important changes in social morals.
Specific communities
The
Bohemian geography of
Paris deserves an article in itself. Many cultural icons spent some years in
Paris, including
Hemingway,
Picasso,
Toulouse Lautrec,
Gertrude Stein,
Samuel Beckett and many others.
Art in France
Main article:
French artPainting
The first paintings of France are those that are from prehistoric times, painted in the caves of
Lascaux well over 10,000 years ago. The arts flourished already 1,200 years ago, at the time of
Charlemagne, as can be seen in many hand made and hand illustrated books of that time.
Classic painters of the 17th century in France are
Nicolas Poussin and
Claude Lorrain. During the
18th century the
Rococo style emerged as a frivolous continuation of the
Baroque style. The most famous painters of the era were
Antoine Watteau,
François Boucher and
Jean-Honoré Fragonard. At the end of the century,
Jacques-Louis David was the most influential painter of the
Neoclassicism.
Géricault and
Delacroix were the most important painters of the
Romanticism. Afterwards, the painters were more realistic, describing nature (
Barbizon school). The
realistic movement was led by
Courbet and
Honoré Daumier. Impressionism was developed in France by artists such as
Claude Monet,
Edgar Degas,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Camille Pissarro. At the turn of the century, France had become more than ever the center of innovative art. The Spaniard
Pablo Picasso came to France, like many other foreign artists, to deploy his talents there for decades to come.
Toulouse-Lautrec,
Gauguin and
Cézanne were painting then.
Cubism is an
avant-garde movement born in Paris at the beginning of the
20th century.
The
Louvre in Paris is one of the most famous and the largest art museums in the world, created by the new revolutionary regime in
1793 in the former royal palace. It holds a vast amount of art of French and other artists, e.g. the
Mona Lisa, by
Leonardo da Vinci, and classical Greek
Venus de Milo and ancient works of culture and art from Egypt and the Middle East.
Fashion
France is know as the "Fashion Capital of the world", having unique and free designs.
Architecture
France's older buildings (including the church Notre Dame)were "gothic" and France started the trend of
Gargoyles on buildings. Most have survived the wear and tear of daily life in France.
Customs and traditions
France is noted for its cosmopolitan, civilized approach to life, combined with great concern for style, fashion and appearances, but generalizations are not without risk, as in other countries. There are huge differences in life style and world view between various 'elites' and 'lower' people, especially if they run parallel with the wide gap between Paris and what is sometimes called 'le desert Français'. The French are often perceived as taking a great pride in the national identity and positive achievements of France, although many would argue that people of all nations tend to do that. However, there is a notion of the exception Française that is more explicit in France than its equivalent in many other countries
[1]. The culture of France is diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the influence of recent immigration. French culture has played an important role with universalist pretensions for centuries, with Paris as a world center of high culture. Any perceived decline in cultural status is a matter of national concern. Cultural issues are more integrated in the body politic than elsewhere.There are many regional cultures, linked to languages like
corsican,
català,
occitan and breizh (
Breton). The official policy was for a long time to suppress local native tongues, but it has relaxed to a great extent.
Food and Alcohol
Main article:
French cuisineThe legal drinking age for alcohol beverages (21% vol. alcohol) is officially 18.
Sports and Hobbies
Main article:
Sport in FranceThe French "national" sport, is
football (soccer). The most-watched sports in France are
football (soccer),
rugby union,
basketball,
cycling,
sailing and
tennis. France is notable for holding the football World Cup in 1998, for holding the annual cycling race
Tour de France, and the tennis Grand Slam tournament
Roland Garros, or the
French Open. Sport is encouraged in school, and local sports clubs receive financial support from the local governments. While football (soccer) is definitely the most popular, rugby takes dominance in the southwest, especially around the city of
Toulouse.
Professional sailing in France is centred on singlehanded/shorthanded ocean racing with the pinnacle of this branch of the sport being the
Vendee Globe singlehanded around the world race which starts every 4 years from the French Atlantic coast. Other significant events include the Solitaire du Figaro,
Mini Transat 6.50, Tour de France a Voile and Route de Rhum transatlantic race. France has been a regular competitor in the
Americas Cup since the 1970s.
The most played sport in France is
Pétanque. The social form of the sport of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France. The category Sport Competition of Pétanque is played by about 480,000 persons licenced with the Federation Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP). The FFPJP is the 4th largest sports féderation in France. Professional players play the very competitive form of Pétanque which is called Pétanque Sport, under precise rules. It has to be noted that Pétanque is mostly played in the southern part of the country. Pétanque is not considered as a sport by many northern Frenchmen.
Babyfoot (table football) is a very popular pastime in bars and in homes in France, and the French are the predominant winners of worldwide table football competitions.
Language
Main articles:
French language,
Languages of France, and
Language policy in FranceFrench culture is profoundly allied with the
French language. The artful use of the mother tongue, and its defense against perceived decline or corruption by foreign terms, is a major preoccupation for some persons and entities.
The
Académie française sets an official standard of language purity; however, this standard, which is not mandatory, is even occasionally ignored by the government itself: for instance, the left-wing government of
Lionel Jospin pushed for the feminization of the names of some functions (madame la ministre) while the Académie pushed for some more traditional madame le ministre.
Some action has been taken by the government in order to promote French culture and the French language. For instance, there exists a system of subsidies and preferential loans for supporting
French cinema. The
Toubon law, from the name of the conservative culture minister who promoted it, makes it mandatory to use French in advertisements directed to the general public. Note that contrary to some misconception sometimes found in the Anglophone media, the French government neither regulates the language used by private parties in non-commercial settings, nor makes it compulsory that France-based
WWW sites should be in French.
France counts many regional languages, some of them being very unrelated to standard French such as
Breton and
Alsatian. Most of them are from the same language group (
Indo-European languages), and some regional languages are
Romance, like French, such as
Provençal. Many of them have some enthusiastic proponents among the people; however, the real importance of local languages remains subject to debate. There is also a language completely unrelated to French,
Basque. In April
2001, the Minister of Education,
Jack Lang, admitted formally that for more than two centuries, the political powers of the French government had repressed regional languages, and announced that bilingual education would, for the first time, be recognized, and bilingual teachers recruited in French public schools.
Transportation
Main article:
Transportation in FranceThere are significant differences in lifestyles with respect to transportation between very urbanized regions such as
Paris, and smaller towns and rural areas. In
Paris, and to a lesser extent in other major cities, many households do not own an
automobile and simply use efficient
mass transportation. The
cliché about the parisien is
rush hour in the
Métro subway. However, outside of such areas, ownership of one or more cars is standard, especially for households with children.
The
TGV high speed rail network, train à grande vitesse is a fast rail transport which serves several areas of the country and is self financing. There are plans to reach most parts of France and many other destinations in Europe in coming years. Rail services to major destinations are punctual and frequent.
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