Experience Language: Experience Life!
Newsletter - June 2004

Bonjour and welcome to our June newsletter. Bonne lecture!

• Le Sacre de Louis XIV – 7 juin 1654
• Cannes Film Festival – ‘Comme une image’
• La fête du cinéma – 27 au 29 juin
• Tintin celebrates his 75th birthday

Un peu d’histoire! Did you know that Louis XIV, known as ‘le Roi Soleil’ was crowned 350 years ago on 7th June? He was king for 72 years - the longest reigning monarch in European history. During his reign, Louis XIV built the palace of Versailles and made it the residence of the court and the capital of France. More than ten thousand people lived at the château de Versailles.

Read more about Louis XIV, his glorious reign, mistresses and peculiar rituals!

Discover Versailles. Great day trip while in Paris.

The Palme d’Or this year has been awarded to Michael Moore for ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri won the best screenplay award for their French film ‘Comme une image’. The film is about a young girl, Lolita Cassard (Marilou Berry) obsessed by singing, but who feels misunderstood and uncomfortable in her skin. Around her are different characters also suffering personal crises: her father, Etienne (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a self-obsessed writer who ignores his daughter; her singing teacher Sylvia Miller (Agnès Jaoui), who doubts her own and her pupil's talent; as well as Pierre Miller (Laurent Grevill), Sylvia's husband and a would-be author.

Cannes Film Festival Quiz.

Living in the UK, I really miss the ‘fête du cinéma’: three days of cheap film watching. The fête takes place in most cinemas all around France. From Sunday 27th to Tuesday 29th June you can buy for the price of one ticket a ‘carnet passeport’, which gives you access to all the other films for EUR 1.50 only.

‘Tonnerre de Brest’ – ‘Blistering barnacles’

Can you believe that the first ever Tintin was created in 1929, 75 years ago? His creator, Hergé, pseudonym of Georges Remi, a Belgian author and illustrator produced 24 volumes by the time of his death in 1983. Tintin was translated from French into 40 languages. If in London, visit Tintin, Milou (Snowy), Capitaine Haddock (Captain Haddock), Tryphon Tournesol (Culthbert Calculus) et Dupont et Dupond (Thomson and Thompson) at the National Maritime museum. The exhibition finishes on 5th September 2004.

French Quiz on Tintin

We wish you all a happy month of June.

The Experience Language Team

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