REGISTER NOW FOR THE WINTER SESSION OF FRENCH CLASSES

The winter session will last 10 weeks for the kids and 8 weeks for the adults, between January 17 and March 12. Our French teachers use modern methods in a friendly atmosphere which allows each student to learn according to their goal, for pleasure, for work or to prepare a trip to France.

REGISTER NOW BY CLICKING ON THE FLYER BELOW

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Découvrez le département de France aux 1000 villages:

La Haute Savoie

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Through this rich and tasty report, you will discover what makes the essence of France, its roots, its past, its colors, its accents and its traditions.

AFF à aimé...

LES FEMMES DU 6ème ETAGE

Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently in a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis' family, makes him discover the servants' quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new civilization and a new approach of life. In their company - and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria - Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.

AFF Cooking class by David Masters

"On December 4, 2021 eleven of us met at the lovely home of Jesus and Georgeanne Maldonado for a luncheon of gourmet French food, conversation, and fine wine. Our chefs for the meal were Denise Ulrich and Jesus Maldonado, who did a masterful job of preparing our feast. Our president Emmanuel Le Bihan, served as our wine steward and made sure no glass was wanting. Due to lengthy preparation and cooking time of the dishes chosen for the meal, the dishes were prepared ahead of time so Jesus and Georgeanne's daughter, Rina, gave a description of each dish as it was presented. As such, we were each given a copy of the recipes so we could prepare them in the future.

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We began our meal with pâté Berrichon. We learned that this dish originated in Denise's home town and our sister city, Châteauroux. It was like no other pâté that I had ever eaten. The minced meat was topped with hard-boiled egg and then encased in a puff pastry shell and baked. It was delicious! Following the pâté, we were served Quiche Lorraine. The buttery and flaky crust was the perfect accompaniment to the rich and creamy custard. We then went into the kitchen where Denise demonstrated the steps for Coq au vin. Unlike most recipes for Coq au vin that i have prepared the pearls onions and mushrooms were served on the side instead of being incorporated into the stew. The Coq au vin was excellent with tender chicken in a rich red wine sauce. To end the meal, our chefs had prepared Mousse au chocolat. This rich and creamy dark chocolate finale was a perfect ending to an excellent meal.

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The afternoon was a congenial meeting of food, conversation and wine that i would encourage everyone to experience."

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Mark your calendar: next class 06/04/2022

AFF's book club celebrated its two year anniversary !

It's time for Randa to tell us about this activity that she has been leading with passion and professionalism for two years.

"Some days, you wake up thinking about it, and spend the day recalling it. You go to bed and are haunted by it, as it accompanies you into your dreams. That’s when you know that you’ve fallen into the trap, once again, but with total satisfaction and pleasure, as with every time. You have become obsessed with the character from a novel, a character who causes you to dread the moment when the life of this character will end, on paper, with the conclusion of the novel.

It’s a most pleasant type of suffering and a most enjoyable addiction. Others have it too, and you look forward to meeting with them, to talk, listen and share this obsession that has stayed with you for days and weeks – an opportunity provided by the Book Club of the Alliance Francaise de Fresno, which I have the pleasure of organizing and moderating.

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It’s a recurring date with a number of friends who are also addicted to falling into this trap, and this passion for literature. This passion has taken us through time and place on journeys of discovery and re-discovery of the classics of French literature, as well as more modern works that have received the highest literary prizes and awards. The Book Club of the Alliance Francaise de Fresno has discussed important French novels and the films based on them; attendees look forward to discussing these works as a window on France, the French language and culture, and a history of literary and intellectual achievement. We concluded our 2021 meetings with a session dedicated to the novels Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, by Marcel Pagnol, as well as the Claude Berri films that spread their fame around the world.

Even though the global Covid pandemic has suddenly confronted us with huge existential questions and isolated us from each other, it hasn’t affected the passion of our Book Club. In fact, the situation has perhaps motivated us, and highlighted our need to confront isolation and loneliness, whether through in-person meetings or remote ones. After all, recognizing the value of life, beauty and hope is perhaps a result of literature and the act of reading.

Merry Christmas to all and we look forward to seeing you at Book Club meetings during 2022, beginning on 19 February!"

Randa Alrahwanji

Why are there first names on the French calendar?

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It is a tradition of celebrating first names which is linked to Christianity. At each canonization, the Church assigned a day to the new saint, martyr or not. Over the centuries the whole year has been filled. Like major religious events such as Christmas, Easter or Pentecost, it is usual to celebrate the saint with a "Bonne fête" the day before.

Some first names will be familiar to you, others unknown. The first names that our late grandparents or our grandparents wore seemed obsolete but by the fashion phenomenon can reappear in some recently born babies.

ENJOY THE GAME PETANQUE WITH AFF

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Our group of pétanqueurs recently inaugurated the new piste, freshly built, with a barbecue and some fun games. The group meets every Thursday around 2 p.m. then some join the French bakery conversations at 4 p.m. Every 2nd Thursday of the month, we meet around noon for a potluck lunch before playing a few games. If you also want to spend a friendly moment playing pétanque, a French game that is played with metal balls and where fun, strategy and skills are combined, join us with or without boules, we will provide you with.

Location: 3639 N Blythe Avenue Fresno 93722

Contact Emmanuel (949) 426-6505 for more information

Election Results

The General Assembly of l'Alliance Francaise de Fresno was held on December 9th at 6pm.

All agenda items were discussed, such as 2021 finances, AFF's project for 2022/2023, 2021 upcoming events and the Scholarship.

This meeting was above all an opportunity to renew the Board of Directors for which 91 up-to-date members were called to vote.

Thank you to all the participants in this vote and congratulations to the elected candidates whose details you will find by clicking on the AFF logo.

Thank you Ghassane who hosted the meeting and thank you Nidia who supervised the election process.

The minutes of the General Assembly are accessible to all in the Governance section of our website. These were the last for Marge who has done a fantastic job for AFF for two years as secretary. Thank you Marge.

New Board elected



Emmanuel LE BIHAN elected

Margareth FRECH elected

Ghassane HABIB elected

Patience TSHIMIKA elected

Celeste DEMONTE elected

Larry ROSELLE elected

Florent TROUILLAS elected

LA RIVIERE SANS REPOS de Gabrielle ROY

What an excellent choice for our first book club in 2022 is this literary fiction by Gabrielle Roy, a Quebec novelist, first a teacher then a journalist who became one of the most important figures in Canadian literature, which will take us to the Inuit community of the Ungava, where the first whites have recently settled, a cultural drama is playing out: that of the confrontation between the traditional values ​​of a thousand-year-old civilization and those brought with them by emissaries of science and progress from the South. This drama sometimes gives rise to comical juxtapositions, sometimes to heartbreaks which call into question the whole of life, the whole identity of the being in whom the two worlds meet. This is the case of Elsa, the heroine of The Restless River, mother of a child who, by her very existence, embodies both the clash of the two civilizations and their dialogue, that is to say the balance so difficult to achieve between their respective requirements.