There is nothing quite like reading an inspiring book during the holiday season. Taking time out for reading is a cathartic experience that can make time fly by effortlessly. Panayotis Pascot’s “La prochaine fois que tu mordras la poussière” has been my companion throughout various spaces this winter – from the bustling metro stations in Paris to the serene TGV to Lyon, and even the cozy coffee shops in Corsica. The release of Pascot’s book came quite as a surprise, especially considering my familiarity with him from his time as a reporter at Le Petit Journal with Yann Barthès and as a comedi ..read more

Where do you keep your souvenirs? Mine are in my own personal memory book: a dusty old scrapbook filled with unsent postcards, diary entries, and museum tickets. Working at The French Library of Boston has reminded me that many of my most cherished memories are safe and sound in the part of my brain that formed when I was twenty-one years old, living abroad for the first time, as an American student in Paris. The mind seems to me like a museum unto itself, one made of lofty galleries and darkened corridors, displaying and hiding whatever we, its curators, decide to collect through life. It’s ..read more

For me, summer is the best time to read those books you are always saving for later. Yes, we are talking about that 700-page long novel or that classic you bought years ago thinking it was about time you discovered it. Well, it’s happening now. Grab your beach towel, your beach chair, your beach drink and your beach book. The water is too cold in Massachusetts for swimming anyway. And if you don’t know what to read, here are a few recommendations. Reading Room À la recherche du temps perdu, by Marcel Proust, is the ultimate summer reading. It’s over 2,400 pages long, deals with almost every ..read more

Spring—or, more specifically, that first day when you open the window in your office and the smell of blooming magnolias is carried in on the tail end of a warm breeze — spring always makes me think of France. Growing up in Florida, I never knew the difference between winter and spring. They were always the same to me, heady and warm with no consequence, no direction, just a rhythmless humming of the same salty fruit smells, all the same on island time. Seasons in the South were an afterthought, a foggy outline of life that often bled outside the lines and strayed from convention. The first t ..read more

Né en 1854 à Charleville-Mézières, dans les Ardennes, Rimbaud a commencé à écrire de la poésie à l’âge de 15 ans et a produit une œuvre prolifique avant de se retirer de l'écriture poétique à l'âge de 21 ans à peine. Après une brève phase d'initiation, par assimilation du style des grands poètes contemporains (Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Théodore de Banville...), il développe une grande originalité dans l'approche de thèmes classiques (« Le Dormeur du val », « Vénus Anadyomène »), cherchant à dépasser ses influences en développant ses propres conceptions théoriques, allant jusqu'à utilis ..read more

The waning days of autumn are a terrific time to visit the realm of the eerie, the imaginative, and the surreal, and this week I’d like to tell you about one of my favorite masters of all three domains who had a French connection, too!  The American illustrator and author Edward Gorey was able to express, as well as any artist I can think of, the mystifying, whimsical, antic, playful, sometimes sublime, oftentimes sordid idiosyncrasies of Western life.  The creator of hundreds of works, Gorey excelled at the meticulous execution of etched and ink-drawn portraits and scenes of handsom ..read more

The first Molière play I ever saw was Le Malade Imaginaire. The performance took place at my local theater in Brest, France: “Le Quartz, scène nationale”. I must have been no older than 7 or 8 at the time, and I vividly remember it as one of the best theater experiences I have ever had. The question is: how is it possible that my mother thought it appropriate to bring a 7 or 8 year-old kid to see a work written by such a famous, revered and 17th century classical playwright? Was I a precocious child? Well, let’s say I believe it more likely that Molière was the genius in this equation.  ..read more

I love reading stories to children, I really do. I love doing all the different voices, as it absolutely awakens the inner actress in me. And I love hearing the pitter patter of little feet as they go pick out another book from the shelf. But sometimes, it’s nice to delegate! If your voice is also hoarse from reading Cornebidouille for the sixty billionth time, or if you simply don’t enjoy reading stories to kids that much, whether you’re a parent, grandparent, cousin, babysitter, chauffeur, or French learner... check out these incredible podcasts and audiobooks for children, all available th ..read more

The French Library is proud of our library’s physical collection of books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, and games and the fact that it is one of the largest French-language collections in the United States. While we think that over 32,500 materials is a great start, we also understand the desire for online resources. We previously explored such resources through mediums like YouTube and podcasts, the internet is also home to entire digital libraries for e-browsing! Looking for some help finding the best option for your needs? Ask a librarian! Although most of the e-libraries on this list are specia ..read more

Né en 1854 à Charleville-Mézières, dans les Ardennes, Rimbaud a commencé à écrire de la poésie à l’âge de 15 ans et a produit une œuvre prolifique avant de se retirer de l'écriture poétique à l'âge de 21 ans à peine. Après une brève phase d'initiation, par assimilation du style des grands poètes contemporains (Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Théodore de Banville...), il développe une grande originalité dans l'approche de thèmes classiques (« Le Dormeur du val », « Vénus Anadyomène »), cherchant à dépasser ses influences en développant ses propres conceptions théoriques, allant jusqu'à utilis ..read more