Moving her young family to her husband's hometown in northern France, Karen Le Billon is prepared for some cultural adjustment but is surprised by the... food education she and her family (at first unwillingly) receive. In contrast to her daughters, French children feed themselves neatly and happily—eating everything from beets to broccoli, salad to spinach, mussels to muesli. The family's food habits soon come under scrutiny, as Karen is lectured for slipping her fussing toddler a snack—"a recipe for obesity!"—and forbidden from packing her older daughter a lunch in lieu of the elaborate school meal. The family soon begins to see the wisdom in the "food rules" that help the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners—from the rigid "no snacking" rule to commonsense food routines that we used to share but have somehow forgotten. Soon, the family cures picky eating and learns to love trying new foods. But the real challenge comes when they move back to North America—where their commitment to "eating French" is put to the test. The result is a family food revolution with surprising but happy results—which suggest we need to dramatically rethink the way we feed children, at home and at school.

Peter Mayle, francophile phenomenon and author of A Year in Provence, brings another delightful (and delicious) account of the good life, this time... exploring the gustatory pleasures to be found throughout France.The French celebrate food and drink more than any other people, and Mayle shows us just how contagious their enthusiasm can be. We visit the Foire aux Escargots. We attend a truly French marathon, where the beverage of choice is Chteau Lafite-Rothschild rather than Gatorade. We search out the most pungent cheese in France, and eavesdrop on a heated debate on the perfect way to prepare an omelet. We even attend a Catholic mass in the village of Richerenches, a sacred event at which thanks are given for the aromatic, mysterious, and breathtakingly expensive black truffle. With Mayle as our inimitably charming guide, we come away with a satisfied smile (if a little hungry) and the compelling desire to book a flight to France at once.

Brilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, French Lessons is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman... escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning. Kaplan begins with a distinctly American quest for an imaginary France of the intelligence. But soon her infatuation with all things French comes up against the dark, unimagined recesses of French political and cultural life.The daughter of a Jewish lawyer who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, Kaplan grew up in the 1960s in the Midwest. After her father's death when she was seven, French became her way of "leaving home" and finding herself in another language and culture. In spare, midwestern prose, by turns intimate and wry, Kaplan describes how, as a student in a Swiss boarding school and later in a junior year abroad in Bordeaux, she passionately sought the French "r," attentively honed her accent, and learned the idioms of her French lover.When, as a graduate student, her passion for French culture turned to the elegance and sophistication of its intellectual life, she found herself drawn to the language and style of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine. At the same time she was repulsed by his anti-Semitism. At Yale in the late 70s, during the heyday of deconstruction she chose to transgress its apolitical purity and work on a subject "that made history impossible to ignore:" French fascist intellectuals. Kaplan's discussion of the "de Man affair" — the discovery that her brilliant and charismatic Yale professor had written compromising articles for the pro-Nazi Belgian press—and her personal account of the paradoxes of deconstruction are among the most compelling available on this subject.French Lessons belongs in the company of Sartre's Words and the memoirs of Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Ernaux, and Eva Hoffman. No book so engrossingly conveys both the excitement of learning and the moral dilemmas of the intellectual life.

Cases in Entrepreneurship: The Venture Creation Process is the first book to be based upon a cognitive framework of entrepreneurship. These cases are... compatible with courses in Entrepreneurship, and New Venture Management at the undergraduate and MBA level in schools of business. 

Eugene Mason's 1911 translation of The Lais of Marie de France is thought to be superseded today by some scholars. It was, however, one of the first... broad popular translations of one of the great works of Medieval literature, the "Lais" of the mysterious Marie de France, and two other Medieval French romances. Little is known today about Marie de France, save a contemporary mention of her as the author of the "Lais," which were originally long, lyrical poems often sung by the troubadours of the day -- traveling singers who played ancient instruments that have since been forgotten. Some refer to the Italian Renaissance, but have forgotten the earlier French flowering of poetry, music and culture, of which Marie was the "queen," although we know only her name and work today. Said to be most popular among women, Marie's "lais" have born fruit to this day, in the form of chivalric, romantic, and even supernatural tales: one of the "lais" is the story of a werewolf.

Even before it led opposition to the recent war on Iraq, France was considered the most difficult of the United States’ major European allies. Each... side tends to irritate the other, not least at the negotiating table, where Americans complain of French pretensions and arrogance, and the French fulminate against U.S. hegemonisme and egoisme. But, whether they like it or not, the two nations are going to have to deal with one another for a long time to come.Charles Cogan’s timely and insightful study can’t guarantee to make those encounters more fruitful, but it will help France’s negotiating counterparts understand how and why French officials behave as they do. With impressive objectivity and authority, Cogan first explores the cultural and historical factors that have shaped the French approach and then dissects its key elements. Mixing rationalism and nationalism, rhetoric and brio, self-importance and embattled vulnerability, French negotiators often seem more interested in asserting their country’s “universal” mission than in reaching agreement. Three recent case studies illustrate this distinctively French mélange.Yet agreement is by no means always elusive. Cogan offers practical suggestions for making negotiations more cooperative and productive—although he also emphasizes the long-term damage inflicted by the crisis over Iraq.Drawing on candid interviews with many of today’s leading players on the French, American, British, and German sides, this engaging volume will inform and stimulate both seasoned practitioners and academics as well as students of France and the negotiating process.This book is the recipient of the Prix Ernest Lémonon from L'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 2006

In 2005, following the death of two youths of African origin, France erupted in a wave of violent protest. More than 10,000 automobiles were burned or... stoned, hundreds of public buildings were vandalized or burned to the ground, and hundreds of people were injured. Charles Tshimanga, Didier Gondola, Peter J. Bloom, and a group of international scholars seek to understand the causes and consequences of these momentous events, while examining how the concept of Frenchness has been reshaped by the African diaspora in France and the colonial legacy.

Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has... all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. By the mid-1960s, the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Claude Chabrol had changed the rules of film-making forever, but the French New Wave as such was over. This guide reviews and analyzes all of the major films in the movement and offers profiles of its principal stars, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, and Brigitte Bardot. There is also an introductory essay which examines the social context of the movement in France as well as the directors' considerable influence on later-generations of film-makers across the globe.

Let's face it: the French have gotten a bad rap. Mention that you're considering a trip to France and everyone will warn you about rude waiters,... supercilious shopkeepers, and snooty concierges who won't give you the time of day--and worse, pretend not to understand your high-school French. Not so, says Polly Platt, author of French or Foe?; "The French are generous, exhilarating friends," but they are different--wonderfully so. The trick to getting along in France is understanding the culture and learning to accept it on French terms instead of your own. Though the book is designed primarily for people who will be living or working in France for extended periods, the lessons Platt teaches about manners, attitudes, and culture are invaluable for even those visitors just passing through.

French Peasant Fascism is the first account of the Greenshirts, a militant right-wing peasant movement in 1930s France that sought to transform the... Republic into an authoritarian, agrarian state. Author Robert Paxton examines the Greenshirts in five case studies, throwing new light on French rural society and institutions during the Depression and on the emergence of a new rural leadership of authentic farmers. Paxton points out that fascism remained weak in the French countryside because the French state protected landowners more effectively than did those of Weimar Germany and Italy, and because French rural notables were so firmly embedded in social and economic power.Although the Greenshirts disappeared with the Third Republic, they left a double legacy: a tradition of peasant direct action, which is still exercised today; and the idea of France as a peasant nation, whose identity and virtues rest upon the persistence of a large peasant sector. That self-image continues to influence French policy choices today, long after the social structure on which it rested has disappeared.

This enhanced edition of French Phonetics is intended for college-level instruction, for self-study and for reference purposes. The text, including... Cahier d'Exercices, helps the student to become proficient in the pronunciation of French by explaining the characteristics of the French sound system clearly and systematically and by giving precise rules of pronunciation throughout. After introducing the learner to the International Phonetic Alphabet, the manual proceeds to a thorough examination of every sound in the French language in relation to its spelling and its phonological surroundings. If the book is used as a reference tool, the reader will be able to verify the pronunciation of many difficult verb forms and names not found in a dictionary. Students will be able to phonetically transcribe French words, to read a phonetically transcribed text, and most importantly to pronounce correctly any French word that they encounter, even if they have never seen it before. Cassettes or CD's for French Phonetics and the Cahier d'Exercices are available by contacting the author at Booth@up.edu; Please cc her alternate e-mail address in your request: trudie_booth@yahoo.com

The easy-to-use, color-coded Berlitz French Phrase Book helps you converse with confidence and travel with ease! From bonjour (good morning/good day) to... bonne nuit (good night), you'll learn 1,200 essential, everyday expressions and communicate easily and comfortably with native speakers. Also included are a bilingual dictionary and menu reader making this the only travel language tool you need. Berlitz phrase books, the unparalleled market leader, are available in 30 languages and three multi-lingual editions.

Assuming no previous knowledge and concentrating on the post-1981 era, this book introduces the fundamentals of French government and society. ... Covering a broad spectrum of topics, French Politics and Society 2nd Edition follows a logical structure and framework for analysis, providing an excellent description of French institutions, access to background information and discussions of historical developments, political forces, public policy, and the evolution of important aspects of French society.