Oak Park French Club

07/09/2019

Check out this nice report that Channel 7 news did about Robie House and Unity Temple being named UNESCO World Heritage sites. At about the 1:25 mark you will also see my cute little red sports car parked in front of Unity Temple.

The work of famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was recognized Sunday as eight of his buildings, including Chicago's Frederick C. Robie House and The Unity Temple in Oak Park, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

11/17/2018

I can't wait to read this book. What an intelligent and gracious woman.

First day sales for Michelle Obama's "Becoming" topped 725,000 copies, making it one of the year's biggest debuts. Crown Publishing told The Associated Press on Friday that the figures include sales and pre-orders for the former first lady's memoir include hardcover, audio and e-books...

09/19/2016

Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris. Père Lachaise is notable for being the first garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery in Paris. The cemetery was commissioned in 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte and laid out by the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Napoleon, who had been proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate that "Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion".

Père Lachaise is still an operating cemetery and accepting new burials. However, the rules to be buried in a Paris cemetery are rather strict: people may be buried in one of these cemeteries if they die in the French capital city or if they lived there. Being buried in Père Lachaise is even more difficult nowadays as there is a waiting list: very few plots are available. The gravesites at Père Lachaise range from a simple, unadorned headstone to towering monuments and even elaborate mini chapels dedicated to the memory of a well-known person or family.

For Americans, probably the first grave they look for at Pere Lachaise is that of Jim Morrison, lead guitarist of the 1960s rock group, The Doors.

Édith Piaf was a French cabaret singer who became widely regarded as one of France's greatest international stars. Her music was often autobiographical with her singing reflecting her life, with her specialty being of chanson and ballads, particularly of love, loss and sorrow. Her most famous song is "La Vie en rose".

Honoré Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus is La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. He was one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.

Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress. She was referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah".

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of color profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement.

Georges Bizet was a French composer of the romantic era. He was best known for his opera, Carmen, which has become one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

09/12/2016

Lascaux Cave is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be circa 17,300 years old. They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time.

The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories: animals, human figures, and abstract signs.

The most famous section of the cave is The Great Hall of the Bulls where bulls, equines, and stags are depicted. The four black bulls, or aurochs, are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented here. One of the bulls is 5.2 metres (17 ft) long, the largest animal discovered so far in cave art.

The largest work is the 17-foot long Great Black Bull, whose monumental size is enhanced by the way the black hide is depicted against the pale background and by the absence of any other comparably sized figures nearby. Nearly all the bull's anatomy is represented, except for the front left hoof.

In the Chamber of Engravings is the Shaft of the Dead Man. Here is found the only figure of a human being on the walls of Lascaux. This painting, entitled "Scene of the Dead Man," is a triptych of a bison, a man, and what appears to be a rhinoceros. The man appears to have had a confrontation with the bison, and is pictured lying prone on the ground with a broken spear next to him. To the left of the spear lies what looks like a stick with a bird on the top, a fact made more significant by the observation that the man also appears to have a bird-shaped head. Also present is the hook sign, which may represent a spear thrower.

One of the animals is famously called “The Unicorn” though it clearly has two horns. However it doesn’t look like any real animals of the region.

The Frieze of the Swimming Stags depicts a line of stags swimming in an imaginary stream.

Lascaux Cave was discovered on September 12, 1940, 66 years ago today.

09/06/2016

Bouef Bourguignon, also called beef Burgundy, and bœuf à la Bourguignonne, is an iconic French recipe. The dish originates from the Burgundy region (in French, Bourgogne) which is in the east of present-day France. It is a stew prepared with beef braised in red wine, traditionally red Burgundy, and beef broth, generally flavored with garlic, onions and a bouquet garni, with pearl onions and mushrooms added towards the end of cooking.

Beef bourguignon is one of many examples of peasant dishes being slowly refined into haute cuisine. Over time, the dish became a standard of French cuisine. The recipe most people still follow to make an authentic beef bourguignon was first described by Auguste Escoffier. That recipe, however, has undergone subtle changes, owing to changes in cooking equipment and available food supplies. Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking describes the dish, sauté de boeuf à la Bourguignonne, as "certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man.”

The following is a link that takes you to Julia Child's delectable recipe. http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/julia-childs-beef-bourguignon/cdda3ccc-3623-4363-8095-aaca1a3f8313

08/30/2016

The Battle of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916, was one of the largest and longest battles of the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies. The battle took place on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeastern France. An estimate in 2000 found a total of 714,231 casualties, 377,231 French and 337,000 German, an average of 70,000 casualties a month. The Battle of Verdun lasted for 303 days and became the longest and one of the most costly battles in human history. Verdun has become for the French the representative memory of World War I. The Douaumont Ossuary contains the remains of 130 000 unknown French and German soldiers who fell on the battlefields of Verdun. In front of the Ossuary the French National Cemetery contains the graves of 15,000 French Soldiers. As in other French cemeteries each grave is marked by a white cross with a name plate. Muslim soldiers are buried beneath a suitable gravestone facing towards Mecca.

08/29/2016

About.com offers many tips on improving your knowledge of French. Access their information at http://french.about.com/

Learn French at About.com with thousands of pages of free lessons, French verb conjugations, tips and everything else you need to learn French.

08/24/2016

08/24/2016

UNESCO has created a list of world heritage sites in France. This website leads you to photos and descriptions of the many beautiful French places that are world heritage sites, including the magnificent prehistoric painted cave of Lascaux.
http://whc.unesco.org/fr/etatsparties/fr

08/23/2016

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a World War II cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, that honors American troops who died in Europe during World War II. On June 8, 1944, the U.S. First Army established the temporary cemetery, the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach (one of the landing beaches of the Normandy Invasion) and the English Channel. It covers 172 acres and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II.

08/16/2016

Monet's garden at Giverny is among the loveliest places in France. Enjoy the short slide show.