Na

me- Rohit Sikri

Sec
tion- A 47

Fre
nch Language Assignment

Culture of France

The culture of France and of the French people has been shaped by
geography, by profound historical events, and by foreign and internal forces and
groups. France, and in particular Paris, has played an important role as a center
of high culture and of decorative arts since the seventeenth century, first in
Europe, and from the nineteenth century on, world wide. From the late
nineteenth century, France has also played an important role in modern art,
cinema, fashion and cuisine. The importance of French culture has waned and
waxed over the centuries, depending on its economic, political and military
importance. French culture today is marked both by great regional and
socioeconomic differences and by strong unifying tendencies.

Language

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.

Religion

France is a secular country where freedom of thought and of religion is

preserved, by 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 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). A January 2007 poll found that 51%
of the French population describe themselves as Catholics—and only half of
those said they believed in God--, 31% as atheists, 4% as Muslims, 3% as
Protestants and 1% as Jews. France guarantees freedom of religion as a
constitutional right and the government generally respects this right in practice.
A long history of violent conflict between groups led the state to break its ties to
the Catholic Church early in the last century and adopt a strong commitment to
maintaining a totally secular public sector.

Household structure

Growing out of the values of the Catholic Church and rural communities, the
basic unit of French society was traditionally held to be the family. Over the
twentieth century, the "traditional" family structure in France has evolved from
extended families to, after World War II, nuclear families. Since the 1960s,
marriages have decreased and divorces have increased in France, and divorce
law and legal family status have evolved to reflect these social changes

Education

The French educational system is highly centralised, organised, and ramified. It

is divided into three different stages:

• Primary education (enseignement primaire); secondary education (collège

and lycée); and higher education (l'université)(or les Grandes écoles).

Primary and secondary education is predominantly public (private schools also

exist, in particular a strong nationwide network of primary and secondary
Catholic education), while higher education has both public and private
elements. At the end of secondary education, students take the baccalauréat
exam, which allows them to pursue higher education. The baccalauréat pass rate
in 1999 was 78.3%.

In 1999–2000, educational spending amounted to 7% of the French GDP and

37% of the national budget.

Since the Jules Ferry laws of 1881-2, named after the then Minister of Public
Instruction, all state-funded schools, including universities, are independent from
the (Roman Catholic) 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 partaking in a society as opposed to being
responsibly independent.

Food and alcohol

Traditional French culture places a high priority on the enjoyment of food. French
cuisine was codified in the 20th century by Georges Auguste Escoffier to become
the modern version of haute cuisine. Escoffier's major work, however, left out
much of the regional character to be found in the provinces of France. Gastro-
tourism and the Guide Michelin helped to bring people to the countryside during
the 20th century and beyond, to sample this rich bourgeois and peasant cuisine
of France. Basque cuisine has also been a great influence over the cuisine in the
southwest of France.

Sports and hobbies

The French "national" sport is Association football, colloquially called 'le foot'
(see Football in France). The most-watched sports in France are football (soccer),
rugby union, cycling, tennis Handball, basketball,and sailing. France is notable
for holding (and winning) 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 union and rugby league takes dominance in
the southwest, especially around the city of Toulouse

Fashion

Paris is the leading capital of fashion and design. Along with Milan, London and
New York, Paris is center of a important number of fashion show. Some of the
world's biggest fashion house (ex:chanel) have their headquarters in France.

The association of France with fashion (French: la mode) dates largely to the
reign of Louis XIV when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly
under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of
taste and style in Europe.
Music

France boasts a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by
immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music,
France has produced a number of legendary composers, like Gabriel Faure, while
modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, French rock,
techno/funk, and turntablists/djs.

France created the Fête de la Musique (first held in 1982), a music festival, which
has since become worldwide. It takes place every June 21, on summer's day