The French Language Kiosk

Discover or rediscover the great classics of French literature: novels, short stories, theatre, poetry, from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Each work is presented, analysed and commented on by Romain Dousso, a graduate in Modern Letters, with the help of videos that allow the work to be reconstructed in its historical context associated with historical references, documents, works of art, paintings and music, thus offering a real cultural bath.

Discover the major movements and themes of art history through Connaissance des arts magazine’s online lectures on Impressionism and Sacred Art. Who are the leading artists of the Impressionist movement ? How does this period mark a turning point in art history ? Is it possible to represent the divine? What is the function of an icon ? Two lecture series for pleasure and a deeper understanding of these themes, which are as rich as they are complex.

Zoom in the artworks : gigapixel Dive into a selection of more than 50 paintings photographed in gigapixel, in ultra-high resolution. Explore the
artist’s work and discover details of the composition, technique, texture and colors. Focus, zoom and navigate in the paintings and observe their tiniest details.

’’Un siècle d’écrivains’’ is a collection of documentaries (52 minutes) exploring the lives and works of 20th-century writers, using previously unseen archive footage, interviews, readings of excerpts, analysis and critical commentary by specialists, and testimonials from readers.

Emile is an app that can be downloaded for free on your phone or tablet to discover Paris’s most beautiful spots as described by classic and modern authors of French literature. When passing near a historic location in Paris, Emile sends a notification offering a literary excerpt that evokes, describes, or features that place. You can read the text or listen to it, voiced by a member of the Comédie-Française.

Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, offers 150 free downloadable e-books linked to school curricula. The selected works cover several genres : novels, theater, poetry, short stories... across both French and foreign literature. On the program : Aeschylus, Dante, Charles Perrault, Émile Zola, Mark Twain, the Countess of Ségur, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guillaume Apollinaire, George Sand, and many others.

Designed for the educational community and art lovers, this French Ministry of Culture website provides free access to over 5,000 educational resources across all artistic and cultural fields : architecture, gardens, circus, decorative arts, digital arts, visual arts, comics, song, cinema, dance, design, drawing, literature, fashion, music, painting, photography, poetry, sculpture, theater...

This unique collaborative website is entirely dedicated to all the songs of Georges Brassens, author-composer-performer of one of the most outstanding works of 20th century French song. For each song, the site offers a commentary, accompanied by explanations of the text, references, expressions and an exhaustive analysis of the lexical and stylistic aspects. To be consumed without moderation...

The Paris Philharmonic’s Éduthèque portal offers free access to music from around the world, lullabies, and the history of "La Marseillaise." Featuring thematic fact sheets, portraits of composers, and presentations of works and instruments, it provides numerous educational resources that are regularly updated.

Built from 1163 and completed in 1330, Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral is located in the historic heart of Paris, on the Île de la Cité. In the 19th century, the general restoration of the cathedral was undertaken under the direction of the architects Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The work lasted 20 years. In 2019, a spectacular fire could have wiped out the cathedral, but 5 years later it was restored to its former glory. Notre-Dame de Paris: a symbol of France, a key part of Paris’s identity, a place where visitors from all over the world converge and a place that is exceptionally cherished.

Every month, a meeting with a multilingual person to discover our connection to family languages and the linguistic virtuosity of multilingual individuals : contexts of learning, transmission, usage, emotional bonds, and linguistic elements (vocabulary, phonetics, loanwords...). The first three twenty-minute episodes are already available : on Algerian Arabic, Portuguese, and Tamil. Coming soon : Guianese Creole, Savoyard Arpitan, Wolof, Breton, Alemannic...

A collection of audios to decrypt the words of scientific research : coronavirus, artificial intelligence, essentialization, degrowth. Researchers enlighten us and invite us to learn more about the history and meaning of these words, which will no longer hold any secrets for you ! These podcasts are posted online following the program offered on The Conversation website.

The association "Des Livres à Lire et à Entendre" aims to facilitate access to the joys of literature for everyone, particularly the blind and visually impaired. It offers over 8,000 audiobooks for free on its website to listen to or download : from detective novels to great classics, including humor, fantasy, and children’s literature, all genres are represented.

Discover every week the life of a great name in literature : Molière, Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, Victor Hugo, Colette, Romain Gary, Marguerite Yourcenar, Jean Giono, Jacques Prévert, Marguerite Duras, Jean de La Fontaine... You know their books, but what do you know about their lives ? "Portraits" takes you into their private lives. To discover : 30 episodes of 15 to 20 minutes each.

"Le français facile avec RFI" offers dedicated podcasts and audio content, accompanied by exercises and teaching resources, which capitalise on RFI’s rich offer of French language learning and the success of "Journal en français facile". Entirely free of charge, the site is aimed at learners who wish to improve their French, whatever their level and objectives, as well as teachers of French as a foreign language.

French Baratin is a podcast where you can improve your French by listening to discussions and debates on social issues. Each month there is a 45-minute episode on a new theme. To view the vocabulary cards, choose a podcast app that supports the chapters, such as Pocket Casts, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Antennapod, Castro or Player FM.French Baratin is a free podcast with paid extras: an interactive transcript of each episode, comprehension, expression and grammar exercises, French recipes, vocabulary flashcards and word searches.

Every evening, the Cinémathèque française offers online a film from its collections on its new video on demand platform: HENRI. You can also watch some 800 videos: film lessons with the greatest filmmakers, actors, actresses and technicians from all over the world; essays; conferences... but also read over 500 articles and websites developed by the Cinémathèque’s teams.

Educational platform of the French public audiovisual sector, developed in partnership with the French Ministry of Education: video and audio content, expert resources for free access to culture, knowledge and learning in all fields, including FLE. Programmes accessible by podcast or streaming on public audiovisual digital platforms as part of the "Learning Nation" operation.

A journey to discover the linguistic and cultural diversity of the world. Professor Serge Borg presents, in short 7-minute videos, the history of languages, their status in society, and the place that the Francophonie occupies in these countries. These videos are aimed at any audience curious to understand the life of languages, their birth, and their spread, and offer a reflection on their future in light of interventions, planning, and linguistic developments.

On France Mémoire website, the Institut de France provides information on the major anniversaries of French history. From science and politics to the arts and literature, national commemorations provide an opportunity to disseminate a wealth of knowledge. Each dossier draws on the expertise of specialists to provide high-quality information in the form of audio and video documents, notes and in-depth monographs.

On the Académie française’s website ‘Dire, ne pas dire’, academics and linguists from the Quai Conti provide clear, well-argued answers to a wide range of questions asked by Internet users about language difficulties, particularly in relation to incorrect usage, abuse of meaning, neologisms and anglicisms. The many questions about the omnipresence of a technological vocabulary or the irruption of foreign words, conveyed by the media and globalisation, find fascinating answers here. Far from being a policeman, the Académie française is attentive to the need to enrich the French language and to fight against the impoverishment of vocabulary.

The Université Virtuelle du Temps Disponible offers every day an interactive meeting for all those who share a common interest in a given cultural theme: History of Art, Astronomy, Famous People, Cooking, Great Parisian Exhibitions, Literature, Cinema, English, Sciences... Choose the theme then the conference of your choice and connect at the indicated time to join the event live.

The digital video library of French higher education and research: more than 10,000 resources, accessible free of charge, to complete or enrich your teaching in all areas and disciplines of higher education. Intended for students and teachers, they are offered in the form of courses, lectures and educational clips.

Canal Académie is the webradio of the Institut de France, an institution that brings together the Académie française, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. It provides online access to more than 6,000 articles, broadcasts, conferences, interviews, chronicles and academic sessions.

The Institut de France brings together the Académie française, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, the Académie des sciences, the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. It now offers a collection of online conferences in all fields of knowledge and learning.

Discover online the free cultural program open to everyone offered throughout the year by the Alliance Française Paris Ile-de-France. Online conferences and meetings with French and Francophone personalities from the worlds of culture, science, economy, and media. Events can be found in replay on the AF Paris YouTube channel.

Current events in French covered with simple words, by journalists specializing in youth media. Every day, an article, a photo, a video, maps, and large-format diagrams to decipher the news in a language accessible from level A1. Every month : a current events report with a web-documentary. Also : free-access resources for teachers on education.1jour1actu.com.

A selection of YouTube channels, created by the website Commun français, some of which are specifically dedicated to learning French as a foreign language. A significant number of these channels offer videos with French subtitles. A useful resource for improving comprehension or simply listening to French for pleasure while enriching your general knowledge or expertise in specific fields such as science or medicine.

Proposed by Learn France Paris, "Le Mag facile" offers in each issue cultural and current affairs content accessible for levels A1 to B1. In the last issue: Exhibition, Outremonde - The Sleeping chapter by Théo Mercier, La Conciergerie Paris - The Christmas market in Strasbourg - The village of Cribs in Melay and the vocabulary page dedicated to Christmas. Read an issue