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. The capital of France, Paris, is famous for its high culture and world-renowned arts firstly in Europe in the nineteenth century and today, worldwide. In modern days now whenever people mention about France, they will think of the arts, cinema, fashion and cuisine. French culture today is rather complicated as it is marked both by great regional and socioeconomic differences and by strong unifying tendencies.
Firstly, we will look at the definition of ‘French culture’ for both the past and present. In the past, French culture refers to a specific geographic region where the people are of common ethnicity and religion. However, even before the late nineteenth century, France was largely a mix of local customs and regional differences that the aims of the French Revolution had only begun to work against. Today's France remains a nation of numerous indigenous and foreign languages, of multiple ethnicities and religions.
In the past, the powerful internal forces such as the French educational system, mandatory military service, state linguistic and cultural policies had try to create a French culture identity despite of the vast mix of regional differences. However despite the French Revolution effort, France today still remains marked by social class and by important regional differences in culture.
In recent years, to fight the loss of regional diversity, many social forces in France have promoted forms of multiculturalism but due to the French taking great pride in its national identity and fear that its culture will be threatened by American cultural hegemony, the idea is hard to accept.
However the last 50 years have shown that the interracial blending of some native French and newcomers stands as a vibrant and boasted feature of French culture, from popular music to movies and literature. Therefore, alongside mixing of populations, exists also a cultural blending that is present in France today.
Culture
France is renowned for its culture due to its complexity and various forces affecting it that makes French culture all the more intriguing. There are many gems and jewels scattered in French literature that have found their place even in the world literature. The French supremacy in all the branches of art is the reason why culture of France is so highly revered all across Europe and the world.
Etiquette
The French attach much value to their customs and traditions. Etiquette in France is quite elaborate and formal. It is customary to greet anyone with a warm handshake. The French extend this courtesy to even their colleagues. It is quite common a practice to shake hands while leaving the office. Both men and women hug each other as a mark of good acquaintance. The dining etiquette too needs to be properly followed to avoid any embarrassment in the public. The French, while dining, keep their arms on the table. One essential point, you should always greet a stranger with Monsieur (for male) and Madame (for the fairer sex).
Wedding
Curious as it may sound, the French literally behead champagne bottles at weddings. A specially made saber is used to behead the bottle. This tradition is said to have generated during Napoleonic times when champagne bottles were beheaded to celebrate victory.
Christmas
Holiday season, which kicks off with Christmas, sees many old customs and traditions in France being followed with a renewed vigor. Family members and friends join in the late Christmas dinner after the holy Christmas Mass. Roasted turkey is the most common item on the menu. As the custom has it, Church bells do not ring on Thursday prior to the Good Friday. The bells ring again on Easter Sunday.
There are two famous indigenous groups in France namely The Franks and Gaul.
The Franks
The Franks comprises a federation of Germanic people who entered France during the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. They were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the third century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River.
Contemporary definitions of the ethnicity of the Franks vary by period and point of view. Many in the East used the term "Franks" to describe or refer to Western Europeans and Roman Catholic Christians in general.
Gaul
The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France and Belgium, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish.
The Gauls practiced a form of animism, comparing human characteristics to lakes, streams, mountains, and other natural features and granting them divine status. Also, worship of animals was not uncommon; the animal most sacred to the Gauls was the boar, which can be found on many Gallic military standards, much like the Roman eagle.
As France take great pride in its national identity, it is only natural that French is their official language. There are several regional languages spoken as well but they make the minority. According to Enquête familiale, Insee, 1999, statistics have shown that
- French: 42,100,000 (92%)
- Occitan: 1,670,000 (3.65%)
- German and German dialects: 1,440,000 (3.15%)
- Oïl languages (excl. French): 1,420,000 (3.10%)
- Arabic: 1,170,000 (2.55%)
As you can see all the other languages only totals up to a measly 8%.
Occitan
Occitan language is a Romance language spoken by about 1,500,000 people in southern France. All Occitan speakers use French as their official and cultural language, but Occitan dialects are used for everyday purposes and show no signs of extinction.
German and German dialects
German dialects are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German.
Oïl languages
Oïl languages are a group of languages or dialects including standard French and its closest autochthonous relatives spoken today in the northern half of France.
Arabic
Arabic is a Central Semitic Language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages.
The French mode of education is very much like the system in Singapore where it is highly centralized and organized. It is divided into 3 different stages: primary, secondary and higher education.
Governance
All educational programmes in France are regulated by the Ministry of National Education. The head of the ministry is the Minister of Education, one of the highest-ranking officials in the cabinet.
The teachers in public primary and secondary schools are all state civil servants, making the largest employer in the country. Professors and researchers in France's universities are also employed by the state. At the primary and secondary levels, the curriculum is the same for all French students in any given grade, which includes public, semi-public and subsidised institutions.
Primary Education
Kids start their primary school life at the age of 6. However, parents usually send their children to nursery classes at 3 years old which are basically day-care centre. The last year of nursery is especially important as the kids would be introduced to reading.
When they move on to primary school, students would learn to write and develop their reading skills. Very much like education everywhere else, one teacher is assigned to a single class.
Secondary Education
French secondary education is divided into two schools – the college for the first four years after primary and the lycée for the next three years.
The colleges is the first official diploma a pupil has to sit and is not required in order to enter lycée. Until 2006 the school marks for the whole of the third and final year were taken into account for a percentage of the mark. The rest of the mark consisted of the final exam, the brevet. Pupils were only tested on French, Mathematics and History for the exam.
Starting in 2007, only the marks from the final year (3ème) were taken into consideration.
The baccalauréat is the end-of-lycée diploma students sit for in order to enter university. It is generally taken at 18 if the pupil has not repeated a class during secondary school.
Higher Education
Higher education in France is divided between grandes écoles and public universities. Grandes écoles are selective whereas with universities, as long as you have a baccalaureat you can get in to one. This has led to an overwhelming amount of first year students, for example at the university of Montpellier, first year students have had to sit outside their lecture rooms and try to listen to lectures from steps stairs and corridors, unless they get there very early to bag the seats that are inside.
Sports
- Cycling
France is famous for its cycling since Tour de France, an international cycling road race that attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators each year. Established more than a century ago, the annual summer race covers some 3,600 km (2,235 miles) over the course of three weeks, finishing in Paris.
- Soccer
Soccer is extremely popular in larger towns since the country is pretty good at the sport. In 1998 during The World Cup, not only was this global event was hosted by France but France also won The World Cup. From then on, the popularity of soccer has skyrocketed.
- Rugby
Rugby league has a strong following in the south and southwest of France where favourite teams being Toulouse, Montauban and St-Godens.
- French Balls
France’s most traditional ball games are petanque and the similar, though more formal, boules. Both are played by village men in work clothes on rough gravel, or sandy pitch known as a boulodrome, scratched out wherever a bit of flat and shady ground can be found.
Here is a video to show you an example of the game
Festivals
- Bastille Day
The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine and is best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which lead to the end of the country's monarchist rule and the establishment of a new French Republic. The event was commemorated one year later and was declared a national holiday. Nowadays it's still a day of celebration for the French, and today the July Column and the Opéra Bastille are located in La Place de la Bastille.
- Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival is the world's most prestigious film festival and is held in May each year in Cannes, in the south of France. The most prestigious award given out at Cannes is the Palme d'Or ("Golden Palm") for the best film.
- Nice Jazz Festival
Nice city in the south of France, receives more than 45,000 visitors each year, between musicians and spectators. All of them are there for the Nice Festival of Jazz that takes place in the Arenes de Cimiez every summer. Concerts are held each night between 7pm and midnight.