The original 'Picks' from November 2005

Pick of the week 03June2006

But here is the real master of the langue de bois. Text, sound.

Here is the speech of Charles de Gaulle at the Hotel de Ville, Paris, 1944. Text here, sound here.

Let's start with something rigorous -France Culture. I take a deep breath every time I visit this site. You need to be seriously intellectual and prepared to breathe through the pain. But here are a nice, and quite comprehensible pair of playlets by David Lescot. In the best French tradition the fonctionnaires of F-C remove the Écouter button from the page, while retaining the sound file on the archive page here. Or just click on this link.

Pick of the week 27May 2006

We've vidited Agoravox before. There is a lot of audio/text material; on this site. Worth a regular visit. Here is Prospective des départs en retraite, read by a synthetic voice, no less.

Le Père Noël n'est pas forcément un enculé de sa race. Some ironic stories, text and sound. Hunt around, there may be more.

The atelier de création sonore radiopphonique is a Belgian site with some interesting stuff. Here is La precision aveugle.

Pick of the week 20May 2006

Here is a Petit cours d'autodéfense intellectuelle. Canadian, and I cannot resist this accent.

This page asks Voulez-vous écouter les cours en ligne du Professeur Mireille CIFALI , psychologue clinicienne, consacrés aux dimensions relationnelles et affectives des métiers de l'humain. Well, probably not all the courses, but Professor Mireille has a charming voice... Do our university lecturers have this passion for putting their classes online?

I like this site jet fm. Have a look at the Archives Sonores. Similar to Arte Radio, very much in your face, very gauchisant.

If you are a very sad and studious person, you might just want to listen to and read this speech given by Gilles de Robien to le Café Pédagogique. No seriously, good practice.

Arte Radio's nouveautés this week leads with Lettre à sa mère. I won't comment. Included here as an example of clear French. More normal, and something of a relief, is the latest Winckler. Remember to look up the text on his site.

Often the best bits of Inter's Charivari are the chroniques at the end. The programme is archived, so you can find back numbers here. On Tuesday night I enjoyed Philippe Colin, le délinquant de l’expression imagée, on the subject of the Da Vinci Code film. Here is the clip.

I hesitate to include religious stuff here. However the Bible is freely available in both languages, text and audio, on the Internet, so at the least it is good listening practise. It is also wonderful literature. John Chapter 20 in the Authorised Version here, and the French version, with audio, here.

And here is the last part, and the credits for l'Étranger.

Pick of the week 06 May 2006

It's been a while since I caught David Lowe's chronique anglaise on le Fou de Roi (Inter). This trendy chat-show is a bit hard for our level here, but I cannot resist this Englishman who tries to make the French laugh. Here is an excerpt of last Tuesday, where he succeeded by sending up the British love of cricket. The following day an old lady wrote in to the programme to castigate this énergumène - 'faux anglais, faux accent, faux comique' . Here she is.

That last item reminded me that we haven't had an audio bande-dessinée recently with funny voices. Here is Banal Fantasy. Unfortunately named, but very much in the genre. I maintain that these strange sites are useful, because you get very idiomatic French, the 'cartoon' voices are clear, and you have the text.

La toile des anges is an interactive influence-the-plot type site. Not terribly exciting. However, you get text and sound, and that's what we do here isn't it?

Always worth calling in on Koreus.com.

I discovered Polémix et la voix off while tracking down a wonderful Sarko parody called Tout les p' tits enfants. The idea is to edit (real) speeches of politicians to produce something unintended, libellous and vicious. Wonderful. Enjoy.

Chapter 4 of Part 2 l' Étranger up. Next chapter is the last.

Always willing to be a guinea pig, I tried to download an interview with Raymond Queneau at 1Euro 50. All bureacracies go overboard on security, so INA apply tatouage to the files (stamp, or watermark, we would say), and, optionally, encrypt. Until that is done it says Patientez..... That was an hour ago. We live in hope...

Pick of the week 06 May 2006

La Bibliothèque de l'éducation offers some interesting interviews. Try the one with Martin Winckler.

Audiard.net is a site that offers audio clips of film scenes, along with the text. Worth a visit.

The fortnightly Martin Winckler La rencontre. Not a story this time, a little evocation of adolescence. Winckler's voice is so clear and measured, he is always good listening practice. (And funny and witty and original also...)

Chapter 10 of l' 'Etranger. Not far to go now.

Arte has updated, and here is yet another Sarko parody, editing exisitng speeches to make my hero even more rebarbative.

Since the 8th was the celebration of the end of the European War, here is Le chant des partisans. The sound file is here.

I adore Céline Dion, and Laurent Gerra makes me laugh, so here are the two together in Céline et son mari R'né. Yo haven't missed F Cabrel et sa cabane have you?

I don't often listen to Inter Sundays, so I was delighted to catch La Guerre des Ondes, an evocation Radio Londres, the BBC's transmissions to occupied France from 1940. Super. Here is the sound file on the archive site.

There are some odd sites out there. Here is Mon site sur Buffy et Sarah Michelle Gellar and if you click on Répliques you'll get the text and sound files for the sort of dialogue that would make Molière proud.

La Fondation 93 a permis à des jeunes collégiens et lycéens de la Seine-Saint-Denis de s’exprimer en direct sur Radio France Internationale (RFI). I thought this would be too difficult as a comprehension exercise, but not so - and interesting.

Canal Académie is another of the formidably intellectual sites with which the French web abounds. Here is the Qui sommes-nous? page. Not sure yet whether everything is archived, but there are many programmes with text, and it is well worth a look. I enjoyed the interview with the président de l'alliance française de Glasgow, John Campbell

Pick of the week 29April 2006

The front page of www.ina.fr now invites you cliquez ici to sample over 100,000 émissions télé et radio. The old site offered a small choice of tit-bits from the archives, so this is much more promising. The clips are of good length and quality : free of charge you get a picture at about 320 X 200, but you can buy the full-screen size version for from 1 to 6 euros. I tried with a Molière play of one and a half hours at six euros, and was disappointed to find the facility temporarily unavailable. Try the Parcours surprise. I was delighted to find James Robertson Justice speaking stunningly good French. When asked about that, he explained urbanely that the French and the Scots were both civilised nations, separated only by the English... I've put a permanent link to INA in the left hand frame.

Difficult to praise France Inter's Rendez-vous avec X too highly. Also, it's archived so I can point to a permanent link. Last Saturday the subject was not at all French - Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972. Salutary to remember that we have at least as many stains on our national honour as have the French. Here is the link to the archive site for this programme. Of course you get a few digs at the British - the fact that we invented concentration camps, for instance. Fair enough. 16 mins 12 secs into the programme you'll find Marchands de cailloux, the 1991 song by Renaud. Here are the words.

Here is Part 2, Chapter 2 of l'Étranger.

Pick of the week 22April 2006

Comment l'amour a conquis la terre. Another contes à rêver debout from Martin Winckler.

I haven't worked out what to do with interesting sound files which may be violating copyright law. Here is where you can - and should - buy the 3 CD livre audio of Amélie Nothomb's Antéchrista. I also find the newsgroup alt.binaries.ebook.french extremely interesting...

26th. France Inter announced that INA - l'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel was going to start putting its files on line. Before, all you got was a sort of show-case of a few interesting clips. So today, by clicking on www.ina.fr, you can look at a message that reads : Veuillez nous excuser ...
Le site ina.fr est momentanément indisponible en raison d'un trop grand nombre de visites.
Merci de réessayer ultérieurement. I'll report back on it - ultérieurement.

The biography of Justin Vaïsse is impressive, as is the page of chroniques. Excellent listening practice, sound plus text.

A series of interviews on Europe 1 with Gérard Miller, Professeur à l'université Paris VIII (Chaire de Psychanalyse et politique) who has his own fan-site! . That's what I like about France...

Part 2, Chapter 1of l'Étranger.

I point to Inter's Charivari whenever the speaker is clear and comprehensible, and the subject interesting. Here is a writer caller Bernard Stiegler, who having penned a fun book titled Mécréance et discrédit, vol. 2, Les sociétés incontrôlables d'individus désaffectés now follows it with Mécréance et discrédit, Vol. 3. L'esprit perdu du capitalisme. I am always fascinated by the structural perfection of French thought and the paucity of the content. We know the world today is imperfect, M. Stiegler. Was it better in the Middle Ages? However - as a listening exercise - useful and interesting.

...and I like Rongeurs du risque...

Drôlement Cérébrale is worth a visit. Try the Extraits Sonores.

Here are some Histoires illustrées à lire ou écouter. This, from Amnesty International appeals to my warped sense of humour. Un conte pour les 8/12 ans sur le thème de la torture, des rapports avec l’autorité, et de la résistance. Cuddly....

Pick of the week 15April 2006

And here is a nice little parody of Racone's Phèdre, by Pierre Dac in 1935.

On the site of Amélie Ridel, we find some very pleasant chansons , with the texts.

Not difficult to make fun of Villepin and his CPE. As it disappears beneath the waves here is the premier ministre as the pirate Barbe-Rouge. From Arte Radio.

Here is Part 1, Chapter 6 of l'Étranger.

Spirite - 16ème et dernier épisode. At 20 minutes each that makes five and a third hours. Wonderful. I've started to read Pierre Loti's Pêcheur d'Islande, before listening to this as the next from Télérama.

Pick of the week 8April 2006

I found La Lettre on the site of Catherine Boulanger. Nice. A bit reminiscent of Windmills of your mind?

TV5Monde have added a wmv video clip, Merci_professeur! to their offering. A minute and a half of Bernard Cerquiglini. Interesting, and the archives are available.

Part 1, Chapter 5 of l'Étranger.

Pick of the week 1 April 2006

According to me, listening to (and even understanding) French comedy sketches is good practice. No, I just like to laugh. Here is Elie Semoun on rire-et-sourire, with La Maison Perglioni - pompes funèbres à l'italienne.

In the world of music it is a truth universally acknowledged that drummers aren'the brightest of guys. Here are some French jokes about drummers. And here, a nice little sketch.

Fifteenth episode of Spirite. Sound file here.

Ferreting around in tromal.net I found myself on the site of the author Pérignac. Here is the Légende d'Arkara. My goodness, enough material here to last a lifetime. And talking of a lifetime, on the Romans Audio page of tromal. the first part of the Da Vinci Code - 8.5 hours....

The latest clutch of Arte Radio, and a particularly nice Martin Winckler. Remember, the texts eventually find their way onto his site

There is a fine anger in this piece J'accepte. The sound file is here.

I don't come across many poetry sites by accident - apart from Baudelaire & Rimbaud - so here is a pleasant change. Yves Brillon, a very unassuming Montréal academic, has a page of poetry here, read by Daniel Dubé. Poetry is the most demanding of literary forms : we have to come to it gently. I enjoyed listening to Ailleurs.

Tuesday, and France-Inter is on strike - again. So I've turned to Europe-1's web site. I hate messy web sites, so I've tended to neglect this. However here is their page of Chroniques. Not only La revue de presse, but La revue de presque. Funny?

Keep an eye on France-Culture's Théâtre Européen page for broadcasts of plays for which you can find the texts in the library. Here is India Song de Marguerite Duras. A play for radio, written at the request of our wise Peter Hall. The text is published by Gallimard. Because the official site doesn't retain the sound files for long, here is the link to the archive site.

Here is the humour page from the Gazeta Beskid. Keep scrolling and you'll find Un petit Coluche : Le PC, la CGT, la Pologne, l'URSS. Followed by Les blagues anti-français.

-Comment fait-on pour tuer un Français?
- On tire 10 cm au-dessus de sa tête, pour toucher son complexe de supériorité.

On we go with Chapter 4 of L'Étranger.

Pick of the week 25March 2006

We shouldn't neglect the bread-and-butter programmes. Here's an excellent episode of 2000 Ans d'Histoire. Pétain's accession to power in 1940. A lovely quote from Général Weygand : « Il faut en finir avec tous les politiciens. Ils sont tous les mêmes, pires les uns que les autres. » Quote it next time your French prof tells you off for saying politicien... Sound here. Remember you can pick up all the archived sound files from this link.

I've altered the Là-bas si j'y suis link below to point to the archive site.

I was late last time posting Spirite. Here is the page, and here the sound file. Guy de Malivert resists the charms of Madame Ymbercourt....

I often refer to Charivari, (Inter, 17.20 GMT). It's such a relief after the griping of Là-bas si j'y suis. Also, it's archived, so I can point to it. 30 March was a gentle gripe about LQR, Linguae Quintae Respublicae, a latinisation of the 'langue de la Vème République'. We have the same thing, and mock it as the language of political spin-doctors. But the voice of the interviewee, Eric Hazan, is very clear, so it's good listening practice. And funny. The programme page here, the sound file, here.

Ever wondered what a Remix politique is? Wikipédia explains. Scroll down to Références to find some nice sound clips, like this one.

An amazing find, this. www.tromal.net. On the outside, a fine Gothic front page with a quotation, La vie est une longue marche funèbre où les blessures déambulent derrière l'âme dans son cercueil de chair, and on the inside - - . Nothing less than Les Romans Audio. My mouth is still open.... I'm going to start with Le Petit Prince - here.

Là-bas si je suis is unbearable, but so important if you want to understand the French. This points to the Monday programme on La précarité a une histoire. I don't want to get into politics here, but my goodness.....

Thirteenth episode of Spirite. Sound file here.

Chapter Three of l'Étranger is up.

Pick of the week 18 March 2006

It's Friday, and things are getting a bit silly. Here is UFOCOM, with dossiers audio. You can treat yourself to an interview with Jean-Jacques Velasco on the subject of OVNI (objets volant non-idenitifiés). Sound here. Text here.

Here is Edouard Brasey, conteur. An interview with him here. And here, one of his stories. Interesting guy.

I've added the AOL search engine to the left hand frame (or bottom, if you're not using frames). Select the Audio tab. It's good.

It's worth listening to Queston directe on Inter. It's also available by Podcast , but often a day late.

Here is an article on the Canadian humorist François Pérusse and a programme called Les 2 minutes du peuple. You'll find a good selection of his humour on this site, including a parody on the Dictée de Bernard Pivot.

I love Charivari, weeknights 5.20. They are archived, so I can point to the permanent link. Here is the interview with Viviane Forrester, 20th March. And if you click towards the end (36 minutes in approx), you have Philippe Val (editor of Charlie Hebdo) mocking le projet de loi contre la blasphème.

Updated Podcasting.

And then there is the fertile ground of French messages de répondeur. Bouygues Télécom has lots... as well as a page of Sarko parodies.

Here is follerie.com which advertises itself as a site d'humour vulgaire. I recommend this sort of thing because a) it's good practise to listen to informal language and b) I like vulgar humour. In this Windows movie clip, Batman tests Robin on his connaissance sexuelle.

Call in on Euronews from time to time. It doesn't sparkle, exactly, but there are lots of low-resolution videos to watch, and the news chroniques are accompanied by text.

The Guardian has a French page, with a whole series of articles, text and sound. The articles have the virtue of being interesting in themselves i.e. not about the environment or Francophonie.

Twelfth episode of Spirite. Sound file here

Chapter Two of l'Étranger is up.

Pick of the week 11 March 2006

An update on the Daily Exercises page. Thoughts on the link between speed reading and oral comprehension. Maybe useful

Tuesday is the start of the week for Arte Radio, or at any rate, that's when the latest podcast arrives on my desk. I do recommend using ARTE's podcast : it's very efficient. Here is the RSS link. Right click, copy the shortcut, then paste it into your iPodder/Juice software. The level of ARTE's little pieces is just right for the target audience of this site. And they're funny, and sometimes sad, and often very original.

Vivement dimanche is now on, early afternoon Sundays, TV5Monde. I cannot resist pointing you to the video clip of the 1986 confrontation between the young Michel Drucker, the glorious Whitney Houston and a drunk Gainsbourg. Who illustrated how careful we have to be with the verb baiser.

This makes me laugh, though. Dupontel La Pause. Plus "Un terroriste Belge se prend en hôtage - et menace de se tuer s'il n'est pas libéré. La police intervient - quatre morts." That's more like it...Found on Koreus.com

A site offering video clips of French humourists. Some may even make you laugh, but all are great practice in following informal French. Here are Les Inconnus. Hmmm...

Here are the last few moments of David Lowe's piece on le Fou du Roi.

The eleventh episode of Spirite, on Télérama Radio. Not far from the end now. By far my favourite of the week.

I started last week's Pick with a discovery on alt.binaries.ebook.french of Albert Camus reading his novel l 'étranger. Since your ISP may not provide that group, the best thing to do is to put it up here, week by week, as they do on Telerama. It has it's own page Camus.

Pick of the week 4 March 2006

And after the item below, here is the other side of the moon... When you search for sound sites in French, one that often comes up is www.survivreausida.net. I have always skipped over it, on the grounds that I haven't got it, am unlikely to get it, and this is about oral comprehension by finding interesting and fun french sites. More fool me. A wonderful site.

Here is a charming little Swiss site for children. Let's not be snobbish; as students listening to French we are sourds et malentendants, and in terms of comprehension, enfants. You get the texts too. Try Des paroles en l'air, with the sound here.

Tuesday, and the week's programmes from ARTE Radio are here. A nicely vicious spoof job ad under the Contrat Première Embauche, and the latest Martin Winckler.

On Agoravox we have the first "podcast interview" with Nicolas Sarkozy. I nearly skipped over this, then listened, and kept on listening. What a serious political operator this guy is... But you have the text. Good practice.

Much more consciously literary is the site of éditions P.O.L and their page of Vidéolectures. Good though.

On the site of JIC - Journal Intime Collectif, we find a nice little page of readings with texts. Unassuming, but rather sweet.

It's well worth keeping a link to France Culture's Revue de presse européenne. A long piece, always interesting, and the text is included. What a pity the F-C site is so messily constructed...

We start this week with an amazing find and a potential treasure trove of material. I decided to explore the French Newsgroups, from a position of total ignorance, knowing nothing about newsgroups. First one I looked at was alt.binaries.ebook.french, and there was a group of twenty files, upload date 25 Frebruary, called AudioBook Camus l'Étranger. About an hour and a half's worth - the entire book. When I played it, the first words were La Radiodiffusion Française vous prie d'écouter..... This is a 1954 recording - excellent quality - of a reading of l'Étranger by - the author. It's wonderful. Camus has that clear diction which was so typical of the period. How to handle this on a site which exists to give links to sounds, I haven't worked out yet. À suivre...

Pick of the week 26 February 2006

Episode 10 of Spirite here. That makes over three hours of listening - and it ain't finished yet!

Là-bas si je suis is hard, but, for me, unmissable. Here is the archive site page with the interview with Pierre Marcelle. And here is a nasty little commentary on Jean-Pierre Raffarin from about ten minutes into the programme.

Koreus.com is a site which should keep you busy for a while. I suggest you start here, and scroll down to Canular téléphonique avec Jean-Pierre Raffarin where the last Prime Minister thinks he is being telephoned by his minister of health who - apparently - has been caught on a set of compromising photos. Here is the sound file.

I was tempted to pass over this next one as too boring for words. It's the blog of Alain Carignon, a French politician. His blog starts Voici mon troisìeme podoacst (sic). However, he includes the text of his three effusions, so.... I hope politicians aren't going to make a habit of this.

Animafac describes itself as a Réseau d’échanges d’expériences et centre de ressources pour les initiatives étudiantes. It seems that it produces regular chroniques on France Info, and this is an archive page.

No sooner had I caught the interview with Pennac than I found another, wonderful interview with our hero on Télérama Radio.

Sunday evening on Inter we have La librairie francophone. It is simply a book programme, where authors talk about their works with, online, readers from Canada, Switzerland and Belgium, as well as France. The real Francophony, for me, rather than the politically correct one of minor African states. This week a great hero, Daniel Pennac, talking about his books and one-man-show Merci. Because the programme is an hour, rather difficult to follow, and Inter don't archive these programmes permanently, I'm putting theclip of Pennac up here. As always, if anyone objects, it will be removed.

Pick of the week 19 February 2006

Saturday night on Inter includes C' est pas dramatique. A nice idea to have actors come along, talk about their current production and perform some excerpts. This weekend, a production in French of Shaw's Pygmalion. Here, the programme site. Here, three or four excerpts of the play. And here, the English online version as an aid to understanding. But be aware that it's a free translation.

What on earth this site is doing I don't know. It's just a directory listing of a mixture of sound and video clips. But try this. It's a French journalist interviewing Miss Belgium. Watch this one.

And here is the 9th episode of Spirite, the story of a young Parisian beau who receives a love letter from a pretty girl - from beyond the grave... I cannot praise this too highly. The episodes are beautifully produced, with an excellent choice of music, and the reading by Alain Duband is leisured and very clear.

The latest batch of nouveautés from Arte Radio is here. Don't miss the latest Martin Winckler. After a little delay you will find the text on his own site. Also this week on Arte, Il suffira d'un cygne, where a very worried bird phones the bird-flu helpline...

Started a Translation page. Very experimental, and still looking for suitable software.

On Télérama Radio, Here is a short story by George Sand. Télérama has to be the best value going for those who want livres-audio gratuits. Here is the text

I'm normally away from home Sunday nights, but some good programmes on Inter: La librairie francophone. To note for Sunday 26th, Daniel Pennac will be one of the invités. Also La Masque et la Plume.Also Histoires possibles et impossibles

I don't know why I have never clicked on ARTE TV. Perhaps because I use the ARTE Radio site so much. The picture quality is excellent. Here is the page of the videos from the programme Bienvenue sur Mars.

I search Rire-et-sourire for sketchs which are not too hard for us to understand. Here is Qui veut passer pour un con. Gerra again.

Saturday 4pm on Inter is L'actualité des radios francophones. Here is the site.