That s where this book comes in.

Introduction Every year, some 17,000 American students travel to France to spend a semester or an academic year abroad, hundreds more participate in the Teaching Assistant Program in France, and still others go to France to work or to study independently of an American university program. In a world where language skills and understanding of foreign cultures is becoming increasingly important, that number is growing every year. Even though French is hardly considered one of the State Department s «critical languages» and is studied less and less in American public schools, it remains, in many places, the language of diplomacy. In 2005, officials estimated that over 500 million people spoke French as their first language or second language. Other than the sixty or so million speakers from France, the vast majority of those speakers come from fast-growing developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, is an official language in 30 countries and an administrative language in 7 others, and is the only language other than English to be spoken on all six continents. If you re reading this book, though, you probably don t need to be convinced that learning French is important. In fact, you probably don t need to be convinced that going to France is important. What you may not know, though, is no matter how much you prepare yourself for going to a foreign country, actually going is hard. It s hard because there s no guidebook. Unless you re paying thousands of dollars for an administrator of an American program to hold your hand, nobody is going to tell you what to do or how to do it. Even if you are paying for aforementioned administrator, there s no guarantee she ll be able to tell you what paperwork you need when you want to get a part time job,

or how to find an apartment without a garant, or how to transfer money from your US account to your French one. Even if your university provides guides to doing exposés and instructs you to sign up for a card to the Bibliothèque Nationale, you re not the only student the school has to take care of, and at some point, she s going to say, «débrouille-toi!» That s where this book comes in. Unlike traditional guidebooks on France, this book isn t going to tell you where to go to dinner in Montmartre, or the hidden gems of the Loire Valley. Unlike books on French culture, this book won t tell you that French women don t get fat because even though they eat more fat and cholesterol than their American counterparts, they eat small quantities and drink red wine and smoke with every meal. It won t tell you, as one generalizing «cultural studies» textbook told me, that the French like to keep the doors in their houses closed and that it represents the compartmentalization of every aspect of their lives. You ll certainly read these types of books, and you should. They ll help you to make the most of France s rich history and culture, and to understand some of the more annoying and frustrating aspects of living in France. But that isn t the point of this book. I first had the idea for this book in the spring of 2010. I was nearing the end of my second year in France, and I was trying to simultaneously apply to school for the following year at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and renew my carte de séjour. I rushed to get paperwork to renew my visa, yet couldn t make my appointment on the préfecture s website. Turns out, the site was down for several weeks, and by the time I got to the préfecture to plead for an appointment, there were none available before my departure. I would have to go back to the US and get a new visa in order to stay in France.

Like any French person would do, I refused to accept that answer. «C est pas possible!» I said. Rules are for other people. I begged. I pleaded. Immigration officials are tough in any country. They held their ground. I went to the other préfecture office. The woman at the information desk was sympathetic, and told me to check with the regular carte de séjour office. Normally they don t process students, but they might make an exception. They couldn t. Again, the woman listened kindly, and sent me to the Service des Amériques. «N importe quoi!» said the man behind the counter. «I mean, I understand that they have regulations, but they shouldn t screw with your studies.» He sent me to the secret, hidden Service Etudiants on the fourth floor in a hallway under construction. Clearly, nobody was supposed to know of its existence. After some crying and begging, the secretary made a few phone calls and got me an appointment. I told my mother the story on the phone that night. «I don t know how you do it,» she said. «I would never be persistent enough to live there.» How many other students gave up and went home, I wondered, when they faced the obstructionist French administration? And how many never came at all, because the prospect of going to another country was so overwhelming they didn t know where to start? This book is not only a step-by-step guide to moving to France, getting established, and taking advantage of the many opportunities Paris has to offer, it is also a guide to the guides. In other words, this book will tell you where to get advice about job hunting, or cheap tickets to the ballet, or a list of museums that are free for students. Because everything from immigration laws to the price of movie tickets is constantly changing, I decided to publish this guide as an e-book in order to be able to provide periodic free updates. I also wanted to create an English language forum where students can share their experiences and guide each other to the best of Paris. In this format, you can access your book from any

computer with your personal code, and I can use the site s blog to guide you to events and deals for students announced throughout the year. If you have any questions or suggestions, or just want to touch base, please feel free to contact me by email at parisunraveled@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy your time in France unraveling the mysteries of Paris. Allison Grant January, 2011

Chapter 1 Preparing to Study in France American Programs versus Direct Enrollment If you re reading this book, you re probably one of the almost 20,000 American college students that decide to study in France each year. Maybe you re enrolled in an American college and looking for an opportunity to study abroad, or maybe you ve already studied abroad and want to return to France. In any case, your two options for studying in France are either to go with one of the many American programs that offer semester or year abroad in France, or to enroll directly in a French university for the year. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each option to help you make your decision. As an American student, the advantages for going to France with an American program are numerous: - You can get college credit through agreements between your program and your university. - You ll have administrators who speak English and are familiar with American culture, and who can help you to speak better French and to understand aspects of French society. - You ll have French language classes and other American-style classes with other students in your program, so your French will get better and you ll be with other students and professors who are used to the same standards as you are.

- You ll have the opportunity to take classes in at least one, or maybe more, French universities. - You may have tutors to guide you and help you write assignments for French university classes. - Your program may organize trips and cultural exchanges during your stay, provide a stipend for cultural activities, and host events with French students. - Your program may provide or help you find housing, set up your bank account, provide support for the visa process, find a job or internship, or help you with other problems you may encounter. - Your program may help you communicate with professors, reschedule exams, and get you the right to use a dictionary during exams. Aside from the many benefits American programs offer, consider also the following disadvantages: - You ll pay the American tuition rates of your home university, plus a program fee for the program you choose. - You may get credit but not grades. - You ll meet many American students, but probably not many French students. - You won t necessarily get lots of opportunities to practice your French, and you may end up speaking English most of the time. - Your program may have strict attendance and travel requirements that the French universities don t have. - Your program will probably have classes two or three times per week, or every day for language classes. - Many programs require you to complete extra coursework for French university classes. Advantages of direct enrollment in a French university:

- You ll pay the same rate as any other French student (about 237 ) and have a year of health insurance for 200. - You ll meet other French students, get information on student groups, and get to practice your French a lot. - You ll take the same number of classes and do the same work as French students (which is either an advantage or a disadvantage: this means more classes if you re an undergraduate, and fewer if you re a master s student). - Your professors will probably be somewhat indulgent if they know you re an American student enrolled on your own. Disadvantages of direct enrollment: - You won t have administrative support for finding housing, getting your carte de séjour, doing other administrative tasks. - Your home university may not award credit, so you should check in advance. - It can be hard to make friends with French students in a university setting. - Nobody will help you communicate with professors, and you probably won t get special advantages like the use of a dictionary if you re directly enrolled. Your professors will assume you speak French sufficiently well to complete all regular class work. Since you have this book, you already have support to guide you through the administrative and academic requirements of living in France, and if you are enthusiastic and persistent, you will certainly be able to te débrouiller tout(e) seul(e). When considering American programs and their fit, ask yourself whether the benefits they provide are worth the thousands of extra dollars you ll have to pay for them, and read the sections of this book geared towards directly-enrolled students to decide what is right for you.

Applying to French Universities If you ultimately decide to enroll in a French university, you ll need to follow the procedures and timeline for applying and enrolling from abroad in order to get your paperwork and student visa before the fall semester begins. Because French high school students don t apply to school until they ve passed the bac in May or June, applications for French universities generally become available in mid-april, and admissions run until mid-october, a few weeks into the fall term. Schools are closed from July 14 to September 1, so you ll want to apply in the spring, so you ll get your paperwork during the summer. To get accepted to a public university in any department, all you have to do is prove that you ve successfully completed the level below the year for which you are applying. In other words, if yo want to do a master s degree, you have to show that you ve completed your bachelor s. If you want to enter L1, you must provide your high school diploma. And if you want to spend spend your junior year abroad as a directly enrolled French student, and you ve verified that your college will accept your course credits, you ll have to provide a transcript showing your grades for the first two years. You must get a certified translation by a translator listed on the French consulate s website to accompany your English-language transcript. For some of the grandes écoles that require a high level of English, this is unnecessary, so check with the school you re applying to before dishing out $50 or $60 per page. In addition to proving this level equivalence, foreign students who did not attend French high school or pass the bac in French must prove that their level of French is sufficient for succeeding in a French-only higher education system. To do this, you ll have to take one of the French language exams sponsored by the French government and administered in France and in major US cities a few times throughout the year, and get an attestation of your French level, valid for 2 years.

Finally, you ll have to fill out the very brief application on the university s website, stating your personal information and the department in which you d like to enroll. Depending on the school, you may have to provide a copy of your birth certificate with its certified translation, something you ll need to get anyway for your visa and carte de séjour applications. Applying to Grandes Ecoles While there is no definitive list of grandes écoles, the schools that are most often recognized as such are engineering or technical schools (School of Mines) or schools that lead to careers in politics. As American students, the two schools that you are most likely to apply to are Sciences Po (for undergraduates or master s students) or the Ecole Nationale Supérieure (graduate students only), the more generalized schools with social science and literature classes. Ecole Polytecnique, a science school, is also an excellent choice for those who wish to pursue medicine or graduate careers in the sciences. There are many other engineering grandes écoles open to international graduate students and exchange students, but since the vast majority of American students coming to France are in the social sciences, we re not going to discuss those schools here. Note that the procedures outlined in these pages have to do with students who want to apply directly and who plan on spending the entire undergraduate or graduate career at these schools; the application procedures for studying abroad at Sciences Po, for example, are vastly different from the direct application procedures, which are far more demanding. While Sciences Po requires its third-year students to study abroad and thus has a complete third year filled with international students, the ENS has far fewer temporary study-abroad students, and the procedures are not as standardized.

If you plan on applying to one of the Grandes Ecoles, keep in mind that you re not accepted until you ve passed the exams, and it s impossible for you to have your visa paperwork before you go to take them. If you don t want to make two trips and prefer to spend the summer in Europe, however, you can get a visa provisoire a visa contingent upon your acceptance at the school to which you are applying. In this case, you ll need to submit your application online and contact the school s international office. They will sign you up for the exams and send you a certificate proving your candidacy. You can get a visa based on this candidacy, which is only valid and renewable if you are accepted to the school. Once you are accepted, the international office should be able to provide you with the paperwork and instructions you ll need to convert your temporary visa into a full-time student visa. Since there are not a lot of international students who apply directly to these schools, this procedure is not very publicized. Of course, you can also go to take the exams on a regular vacation, then return to the US and await your paperwork before applying for a visa. Sciences Po (Institut d Études Politiques) Sciences Po, an undergraduate and graduate grande école, is unusual in that it accepts students who have just passed their baccalaureat, instead of taking primarily students who have taken cours préparatoires. Ranking 203 rd in the international ranking of universities, it is the 6 th French university to place, after the ENS-Paris, Ecole Polytecnique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (public), the ENS-Lyon, and the Sorbonne (Université Paris IV, also public). As its name suggests, its primary focus is political science and economics, and many of the French students plan on applying to the famous Ecole Nationale d Administration (ENA) after graduation. It also offers courses in social sciences, like literature, sociology, and history.

French students who apply to Sciences Po are accepted through their master s degree (M2), and study there for five years, completing their third year abroad. They must have an excellent level of English, and must usually speak the language of the country in which they plan to spend their third year, although English-speaking American universities are highly sought-after. Thus, Sciences Po has exchange programs with many American schools, inviting third-year American students to spend a year on its campus (sorry, no semester-only students) while its students go in exchange. Some American schools also offer a dual-degree program with Sciences Po, allowing students to leave after their third year to complete a master s degree in Paris. Those who want to apply directly will have to choose which Sciences Po campus they wish to study at. There are several Sciences Po campuses, and the ones outside of Paris are the easier to get into than the Paris campus. To be admitted to the regional Sciences Po schools, you need only to complete an application on the website. If you are a candidate for acceptance, Sciences Po will contact you for an interview, which they do all over the world. Applying to Sciences Po Paris for the full term of studies, though, is a more intense process, and you ll be required to take the exams, or concours, along with the French students. The exams take place over four days at the end of June, around the same time as the French baccalauréat, and students are often taking both at the same time. In fact, students may only apply between July 6 and 8, right after the results of the baccalaureat are released. Those who receive Mention très bien on their bac do not have to take the Sciences Po exams, but of course that only applies if they submit their applications the following year, after receiving the results. In any event, students must receive an average grade of 12/20 on the four exams: 20 th century history, a dissertation or commentaire de texte, and an exam of the student s choice in literature, mathematics, or social sciences. All students must also take a foreign language exam and score at least 7/20.

Those who receive grades higher than 14/20 are exempt from the interview and admitted automatically; those who pass the exams with a 12 or 13/20 are invited to an interview, and the acceptance list for those students is determined after interviews have been completed and their applications have been examined. Students with strong academic records who received a grade just under 12 on the exams can be considered and admitted by the jury as well. Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) In 2010, the École Normale Supérieur ranked 33 on the list of Top Universities in the World as determined by international scholars, and it was one of only two French universities to break the top 100. (The other was Ecole Polytecnique at number 36,) which we ll discuss next). The ENS is one of the most sought-after French schools, and not only because their students receive housing and a stipend. It s also a very prestigious line on a résumé, and proof of being among France s best and brightest. Nomaliens are held in high esteem, obtain top jobs, and often go on to pass the difficult aggregation exams to become the top professors in France. The Ecole Normale Supérieure is the only Grande école to offer studies in both social sciences and hard sciences, and their entrance exams and procedures are designed to attract the best students from around the world in these domains. Students usually apply to the ENS after their second or third year of university (L2 or L3), although, as an American student in a fouryear system, one could make the case for applying after graduation. Keep in mind that while the ENS doesn t require a specific level of French, and won t ask for the results of a French language test for admission, the coursework and lectures are generally in French. Intensive language classes in the fall before the start of courses and during winter break are generally offered to

those who need them. There are four different ways to apply to the ENS, which we will outline here. By passing the concours The most obvious way to get into the ENS is to take the exams held every spring for French and international students who wish to apply for the status of fonctonnaire-stageaire, or intern-employee of the state. These students are housed near the ENS (in the posh 6 th arrondissement, nonetheless!) and given a stipend of 1250 per month after taxes for four years. It s a good deal. Non-European students are awarded a scholarship. There are two sets of exams: one in letters, and one in hard sciences, and they are both extremely competitive. Taking the letters exam leads to studies in language, literature, or an area of the social sciences, while taking the science exam leads to the biology, physics, medicine, and computer science departments. Each year, only 100 students pass the literature exams, while 94 are accepted from the science exams. Students can take the exams twice, in two different years, but no more than that. By submitting an application Students can also apply for the «Diplôme de l ENS» after completing L2 or L3 by submitting an application to be evaluated by a jury. First, the student must declare his or her intent to apply online, and print the application from the website. After selecting the course of study, the student sends his or her application, including passport-sized photos, grade reports, and a cover letter directly to the department in which he or she wishes to enroll. The juries of each department meet in the beginning of July and the beginning of September to select their students. These students do not receive a

scholarship from the ENS, but if they have outside scholarships, they can sometimes get housing from the school. By competing for the international program Students who wish to apply to the ENS as international students must first submit an application online between January and March for the following fall. Those who are selected are invited to Paris in July to take exams and pass an interview, and the final admissions decisions are released at the end of July. Anyone accepted to this program is awarded a stipend of 1000 per month for the duration of the three year program. Through university exchange Several universities have exchange programs with the ENS, usually at the graduate level, and the Fulbright program offers between 20-25 scholarships annually to study at the ENS. Applying for Master s Programs While admission to undergraduate programs in France is automatic upon receipt of a high school diploma, master s programs admit students based on applications, and can be more competitive. To choose a master s program, you ll first have to decide what you d like to study, find a professor who specializes in your topic, and have that professor agree to direct your thesis project. You ll probably have to do some research.

Project Proposal The project proposal is the most important part of your application, because it shows your ability to come up with an interesting research idea and to formulate research questions on your own. Since the professor s job in France is more to evaluate the quality of your work rather than to guide you in creating it, it is important that you be able to organize your thoughts on your own and figure out what s important without your professor s help. If you don t have an obvious project that you d like to undertake, the first thing to do is to write down a list of all of the topics you re interested in. Try to be as specific as possible. Don t say French history, or even World War Two, say women s history and the French resistance to come up with women s contributions to the formation of the French Resistance in 1941. And even that is more of a dissertation topic than a Master 1 forty-page thesis. Write down some authors you ve enjoyed reading, and then read a little bit about their time period and politics contemporary to that time. Once you have a list of maybe 10 broad topics or authors, pick a few of your favorites, and try to link them. I had folklore, Algerian immigration in France, bilingualism, Algerian women, and education in Algeria/education of immigrants in France. I ended up proposing the topic of Transmission of folklore in Algerian immigrant families in France, and the topic I ended up working on for my Master 2 thesis in Comparative Literature was Initiation and Emancipation of Women in Nora Aceval s Algerian Libertine Folklore. The topic I proposed was too complicated for one year, according to my professor, and we ended up modifying it to a more text-centric project that could be completed in one year. But I was able to combine several items from my list and come up with a few good project possibilities.

If you re struggling with combining the topics, come up with a few ideas, and then discuss them with your departmental advisor at your school. He or she might be able to guide you to some questions that haven t been fully developed yet by academics, which will make your topic seem all the more intriguing to your future professor. Try to avoid developing topics that have very little research, though, because French professors are generally not great believers in their students having original thoughts. In master s programs, students are learning how to research, organize their thoughts, and argue, and most French professors prefer that students do so within established research domains. In their eyes, masters students are in training, whereas doctoral students can try to find out something new. After choosing your favorite topic, you re going to have to justify it. Make some notes on a piece of paper to answer these questions: (It goes without saying that writing your notes in French will make transferring them into a coherent proposal much easier) How did you come up with your topic? (I don t mean the process above; I mean, what questions were you asking yourself that led you to thinking up this topic?) Has the question you re asking been asked before? By whom? What were their answers? How are you asking the question in a different way, or looking at it from a different angle? What have you already found out about your topic? What conclusions do you expect to get from your research? Why is your topic important? When you ve answered all of these questions, you re going to have to synthesize the answers and develop your topic in a 2-3 page paper that will serve as your project proposal. Don t write your proposal without going to the library. Find a few books on your topic, flip through them, and see if they mention people or sources that would be particularly helpful to you. If so, write down their bibliographical

information. Since you ll also need books in French for your bibliography, search on the site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, find a library or two in Québec, and even search on Amazon.fr. Your bibliography doesn t necessarily have to be as broad as it would be for a paper you ve already written, but it should show that you know where to look for information related to your topic and that you know how to do some research. Be sure to model your bibliography on the French bibliography in Chapter 4 instead of using the MLA style. When you send your project proposal, you ll have to include your curriculum vitae in French as well. A model French CV is included in Chapter 3 in the section on Working in France. Sample Project Proposal Transmission des contes algériens en situation décontextualisée: Vecteurs et formes de cette transmission Je propose une étude de la transmission de la tradition orale dans des familles d origine algérienne ayant immigré en France, afin de mieux comprendre la place du savoir traditionnel et de la transmission de ce savoir dans des familles qui ont été déplacées d une culture à une autre. J aimerais étudier les circonstances et les modalités de cette transmission : pourquoi les mères partagent (ou ne partagent pas) cette tradition avec leurs enfants, quelles traditions ou rituels accompagnent cette transmission. Ayant enseigné l anglais en écoles primaire à Drancy cette année, j ai pu nouer des relations professionnelles avec trois enseignants de CM2 qui travaillent sur les contes en cours d année. J ai proposé à ces collègues et au directeur de l école Romain Rolland de mettre en place un projet sur les contes algériens des recueils Contes du Djebel Amour de Nora Aceval et Traditions Algériennes de Jeanne Scelles-Millie avec ces élèves pour compléter leur formation littéraire avec un projet culturel. Ensemble, nous demande-

rons aux parents d élèves d intervenir en classe s ils détiennent des contes de tradition orale qu ils aimeraient partager, et nous demanderons également aux élèves de raconter un conte de leurs parents et d en écrire leur propre version. M appuyant à la fois sur ces textes et sur des interviews faits auprès des élèves, je poserai des questions sur la culture d origine de leurs parents et leurs voyages «au pays» pour mieux comprendre leurs histoires. Une analyse des interviews des interprétations des contes faits par les enfants révélera l importance de la tradition orale et la culture d origine pour ces familles, et les idées que se forment les enfants de la culture de leurs parents. Il sera intéressent en même temps de voir quels ateliers et activités sont proposés par les écoles et les centres culturels de Drancy, de Bobigny, et du Bourget pour mettre en valeur la culture maghrébine. Si les enfants assistent à des cours de langue, des évènements littéraires, ou des concerts de musique maghrébine en dehors de l école pour connaître la culture de leurs parents, nous pourrons apprendre ce qu ils pensent de leur double culture. Évidemment, tous les élèves dans les classes seront invités à participer à ce projet dont j espère faire une sorte de spectacle à l école, mais mon mémoire portera uniquement sur les contes des élèves maghrébins. Mon étude se concentrera en particulier sur la place des femmes dans ces contes dans le récit comme dans la transmission et les interprétations des rôles familiaux que les enfants se font de ces histoires. Ce thème est particulièrement intéressant parce que mon mémoire sur cinq contes merveilleux algériens collectés par Jeanne Scelles-Millie a montré que ces contes sont très riches en personnages divers à analyser et que les possibilités pour les personnages femmes sont distinctes des possibilités pour les personnages hommes. Si les femmes ont une certaine liberté d action dans ces contes lorsqu elles quittent la maison, elles n ont aucun pouvoir sur les hommes, et les sexes ne sont pas égaux. Par contre, mon mémoire sur les contes libertins de Nora Aceval a révélé que dans ces contes, ce sont les femmes qui détiennent le véritable pouvoir, et elles arrivent souvent à faire ce qu elles veulent. Recueillis à l époque contemporaine, ces contes (de Nora Aceval) reflètent-ils des changements dans la société algérienne depuis

les années 1970? Comment les élèves conçoivent-ils la masculinité et la féminité dans les contes de leurs parents? Puisque une polémique qui se trouve au cœur de la politique française de l immigration est justement l égalité des sexes et la soumission des femmes dans certaines traditions musulmanes, cette étude est importante parce qu elle montrera jusqu à quel point les enfants biculturels s identifient avec la culture de leurs parents et acceptent ou rejettent les rôles familiaux dépeignés dans ces contes. N ayant pas grandi dans la même société que leurs parents, il se peut que les enfants issus des familles immigrées n arrivent pas à comprendre ces contes de la même manière que leurs parents. Élèves dans l école française républicaine et laïque, ces enfants ont peut-être une conception de l égalité des sexes et des rôles familiaux bien différente que celle de leurs parents. Leur interprétation de ces contes serait donc influencée par leur héritage biculturel: étudier ces interprétations des contes traditionnels et les comprendre montrera comment ils négocient ce biculturalisme, et illuminera la valeur que le conte peut avoir comme modalité de transmission des valeurs traditionnelles en dehors de son contexte d origine. Choosing a Professor Choosing a professor to direct your master s research is the next step in applying to a French university for graduate school, and you shouldn t even begin to think about professors until you have a good idea about what your project is going to be. After you ve written a project proposal, think not only about where in France you d like to go, but more importantly about what department and/or specialty your project falls under. Most topics can be in several categories, depending on the research approach you want to take. The topic on folklore in Algerian immigration, for example, could be literary if it s the text of the transmission that s important, or anthropological if the recording of oral traditions is a priority. A literature professor may reject the idea of doing interviews, while an anthropology professor will

guard against focusing too much on the text and not enough on the human context. Figuring out how you want to frame your work from the beginning will prevent you from having to change your topic or adapt your work to your professor s research mode. After you ve decided what you want to study and how you want to study it, you ll have to figure out who is qualified to direct your research by looking up professors in your area of study. If you studied abroad in France as an undergraduate and took a class with a professor who inspired you, this might be a good place to start. When you write your cover letter, be sure to indicate how you know the professor and what class you took with him or her, since they have many students and may not remember you without help. If your university has a study-abroad program, you may also want to check out their course offerings and see if any of their professors also work in French universities. Abroad programs will usually have their professors information on their website. You can also check with the French department at your university to see if there have been any visiting professors from France who have worked on your topic. If a professor has worked at your school, it means that she is used to working with American students and is familiar with your school s curriculum, which can help her to direct you better. If you don t already know someone you d like to work with, you can try searching for professors in the city you re most interested in going to. Most universities have an online directory of professors who can direct master s theses or doctoral dissertations, along with their areas of specialization. Consulting those lists and finding several professors at different schools in your area is a good place to start. If the professor doesn t know you, he or she may not make much of an effort with your application, since most professors

take applications from students who took their classes as undergraduates at the same school. If you are accepted with multiple professors at different schools, you ll have to choose without really knowing what you re getting into. There s no such thing as rating one s professors in France, and the idea of students being able to have opinions about someone s teaching ability is all but nonexistent. The rentrée is too busy a period to consider meeting a few professors beforehand and choosing between them; they would also be very put off by the idea of having to be selected by a student on the basis of something other than their area of specialty. If you realize after a few weeks or months that you don t see eye to eye with your thesis director, try changing your subject slightly so it falls into the expertise of another professor you know and like better, and then ask the new professor if you could switch to his direction. If you re in Master 1, your thesis is only about forty pages, and you can try putting up with your professor until the end of the year, and then switching to someone new for Master 2. Cover Letter Like a cover letter for a job, the cover letter for your application is a onepage explanation of who you are, what you re applying for, and how this particular research project fits into your career goals. It s designed to show that you re a serious student and that you ve thought carefully about what you want to do and why you want to study in France. The goal of the letter is to introduce yourself, explain what your course of study is going to be, and to show how this course of study will help you advance your professional and educational goals. It also provides some back-

ground information for the professor, who needs to know that you re going to be able to complete the coursework in French and work independently as a researcher. A word of caution: It goes without saying that you should make sure that the letter and the Project Proposal are written in the best French of your life. In situations where language proficiency is important, I m generally not a fan of having someone edit work that could mask potential problems for completing the degree. Having someone correct your letter and proposal to the point of rewriting it is only going to hurt you in the long run, since not all professors will be sympathetic to second language learners, and you could be at a disadvantage for completing the work successfully and getting a good grade. That being said, if you are applying to French schools, you probably feel that your French is good enough for you to succeed in France. In that case, you may want to ask someone to look at your work to correct grammar, but not style. That way, if there are any of the cringe-worthiest errors, your reader will catch them, but the paper will still show your overall style of writing in French, even if there are some Anglicisms. Begin your page with the place and date you are writing the letter, and then open with the professor s name and a colon. Do NOT write «Cher Professeur» or «Cher Monsieur.» It s very familiar, and will make it look like your French is not very good. More traditional professors, especially those from old schools like the Sorbonne, may be offended. The first paragraph of your letter should be very short, and should state clearly what program and degree you re applying for as well as the name of the school. Some professors have appointments at several universities, so you don t want him or her to lose track of where you re planning on enrolling. In the second paragraph, give some information about your educational background and explain why you re choosing to pursue this diplôma.

In the third paragraph, explain your research interests and identify the questions you d like to study. Introduce the subject of the thesis you want to write specifically with this professor. In the fourth paragraph, explain the resources you have at your disposal to complete the project, especially if it requires fieldwork, like this one does. State what courses you d like to take with the professor or in the department to complement your research, basically stating how the professor and program is a «fit» for you. You can also discuss how this diplôma advances your career goals, and what you are going to use it for, or you can address this in a separate paragraph Before closing, identify any attachments (your project, cv, and your academic transcripts). Close with the standard French formula that expresses respect and thanks, and sign your name, omitting any equivalent of sincerely, cordially, etc. In an email, you can sign, «Cordialement,» but in a letter, there is no formal equivalent. Sample Cover Letter à Paris, le 13 juin, 2010 Professeur Lefébure: C est avec grand plaisir que je vous écris pour poser ma candidature pour un M2 en Anthropologie à l École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales pour l année prochaine.

Diplômée de Columbia University et de Middlebury College, je termine actuellement mon M2 en arts, esthétiques, et littératures comparées à l Université de Paris VII Denis Diderot, où j écris mon mémoire intitulé «Pour votre sérénité, laissez-leur la liberté!: L initiation et l émancipation des femmes dans les contes libertins de Nora Aceval» sous la direction de Bernadette Bricout. Ayant suivi une formation plutôt littéraire avec quelques cours de base en histoire, je souhaite désormais m orienter vers l anthropologie pour compléter mes connaissances de la littérature et des contes maghrébins par des connaissances des peuples et des cultures maghrébins. Je m intéresse particulièrement à l interculturel : les points d intersection des cultures maghrébines et de la culture française. Dans un cours d histoire, j ai étudié le processus d arabisation de l enseignement dans les trois pays du Maghreb après la décolonisation, et j aimerais aussi étudier le biculturalisme chez les enfants issus de l immigration maghrébine en France. J aimerais savoir si leurs parents partagent un patrimoine oral avec leurs enfants, et comment ces enfants interprètent les contes et la culture de leurs parents. Le mémoire que je souhaite écrire sous votre direction portera sur ses questions et sera intitulé «Transmission des contes algériens en situation décontextualisée : vecteurs et formes de cette transmission.» Il examinera les circonstances de la transmission de la tradition orale algérienne dans des familles immigrées, et l interprétation de ces contes par les enfants. De par mes connaissances de la tradition orale et mes relations professionnelles dans des classes de CM2 à Drancy et au Bourget, je pense avoir les qualités et les contacts nécessaires pour réussir un projet de Master 2 original qui alliera une recherche nuancée à de multiples entretiens avec des élèves et des parents. Les cours en anthropologie à l EHESS tels que «Anthropologie du monde arabe» et «Anthropologie entre primitivisme et postcolonialisme» fourniront des réflexions sur les sociétés arabes dont j étudierai les ressortissants. Je continuerai en parallèle ma formation de langue arabe, cet été à l Institut Bourguiba à Tunis, et l année prochaine en Diplôme Universitaire à la Sorbonne.

Ce cursus correspond parfaitement à mes objectifs de carrière, puisque je souhaite faire mon doctorat par la suite dans une université américaine afin de continuer mes recherches dans les domaines du folklore, de l histoire postcoloniale, du bilinguisme, et de la littérature maghrébine. Je mets en fichier joint le projet de recherche que j aimerais proposer pour l année prochaine avec sa bibliographie, mon cv, et mes relevés de notes des universités américaines. En vous remerciant de votre aide, je vous prie de croire, Monsieur, à mes sentiments les plus distingués. French Language Tests The CIEP, or Centre International d Etudes Pédagogiques, is the national institute in France that administers French language testing according to the European Union language standards. The tests are administered all over the world, and are graded according to a seven hundred-point scale, similar to the SATs. After the tests are graded, the numerical score converts into one of six grades: A1, the lowest, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2, the highest grade. Most universities require a level of at least B1 or B2 for students who wish to take a full course load alongside French students. Students who score below that level are probably not capable of understanding course content well enough to succeed, and those students should probably enroll in language classes at the Sorbonne or an American study-abroad program that offers speaking and grammar-intensive coursework.

As always, check on the website of the program in which you wish to enroll to make sure that the test you plan on taking will be accepted. While they are mostly interchangeable, some programs, such as Sciences Po, have specific requirements and like to have the scores directly reported to them. Score reports are usually available by mail within six to eight weeks of the test date. Test des Connaissances du Français Demande d Admission Préalable (TCF-DAP) If you want to enroll in L1, L2, or architecture school, you must take the TCF-DAP, a test specifically for foreign students wishing to enter the French university system. The test takes three hours to complete, and is taken in two parts. The first part is a multiple choice section with thirty questions of listening comprehension, twenty questions on grammar and syntax, and thirty questions on reading comprehension. For the listening part, a brief conversation is played twice and the test-taker must select the correct reply from a series of possibilities. For the other two parts, the student has the full time allotted (1.5 hours) to complete the test in any order he or she likes. The second part of the test is a written part, with two exercises. Both parts must be completed to receive a score, and there is a minimum number of required words that the response must contain. The test will also not be graded if the essay does not answer the question. Words joined with a hyphen (c est-à-dire) or an apostrophe (s il) count as one word. In 2010, the TCF-DAP cost 63 in France, so expect to pay at least $100 if you take it in the US. The CIEP site has a sample test, guide for completing the test, and a few sample essay topics for those who would like to practice:

<http://www.ciep.fr/tcfdap/index.php> Test des Connaissances du Francais (TCF) Like the TCF-DAP, the TCF evaluates a student s level of French and readiness to take university classes. The TCF is for students who want to enroll in L3 or above, or who want to study at Sciences Po. Also similar to the TCF-DAP is the exam layout. The obligatory section of the exam consists of three parts: oral comprehension, grammar and syntax, and written comprehension, and is made up of multiple-choice questions. This part of the test lasts about 1.5 hours, and is in common with the TCF- DAP. In fact, the two exams are usually administered at the same time and at the same test sites. The TCF also has two optional components: the oral and the written exams. Test-takers can choose to sign up for one or both of these exercises upon enrolling for the test. The written exam takes place right after the multiplechoice exam, usually with a ten-minute break. There are a variety of written exercises demonstrating the ability to write in different types of situations: an informal postcard, an informational essay, a formal letter of introduction to a professor, etc. This part of the exam takes 1.5 hours, and the student completing the written section must complete all of the exercises in order. If a student skips an exercise, the ones that follow will not be evaluated, so if, for example, a student were to skip the second question but complete the rest of the test, he would still only receive a score on the first question, probably failing. The questions get progressively more difficult, and the exam is graded by two professors on a scale of 20. The average score from the two graders is the score that is awarded.

The oral exam is also optional, and takes place individually with the test administrator after the written section has been completed. The test proctor has a several questions at each of six varying levels of difficulty, and asks one question from each section at random. The student is recorded by a tape player and graded once by the test administrator and once by another professor, who listens to the tape and assigns another score. Like the written exam, the questions elicit a variety of speaking styles, from informal and friendly to polite and academic. The test is designed to evaluate not only whether you can understand French and produce thoughts in the languages, but also if you can use language and grammar structures appropriate for different situations. For both the written and oral exams, if the two independent scores are very different, a third grader will evaluate the test. The TCF usually costs the same as the TCF-DAP (about $100), but the supplemental sections may cost extra. Practice exercises and sample written and oral exam questions are posted on the CIEP website. DILF/DELF/DALF These three tests are the DILF, Diplôme Initial de Langue Française, the DELF, Diplôme d Etudes de Langue Française, and the DALF, Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Française. While they test the same skills, the DILF presumes only a low level of French language, while the DALF assumes an Advanced level. Students who take the DILF are generally people who have recently arrived in France and begun their study of French. They often want to take the exam to become employed. This test will not really concern university students wishing to study in France.

The DELF is for students who have taken a few years of French classes and who have an intermediate level. This test has several different variants, including for children and teens who are going to spend a few months in France in a public school. University students can take the DELF tous publics or the DELF Pro, designed for those who want to live and work in France. The DALF is for those with an advanced level of French, but is a similar test. The DELF and the DALF are independent, so you can take both. The cost of taking the exam is set by the exam center and the consulate in the United States, and by the rectorat, or regional education office, in France. To know the dates and cost of the exam, contact the nearest consulate (see the next section) in the fall before you wish to enroll.

Chapter 2 Setting Up a Life in France Pre-Departure Administrative procedures Any stay in France or Europe for longer than 3 months requires a significant amount of paperwork, because you ll need a visa to study and (possibly) work. There are many steps to each process, and you ll need lots of different documents in order for your visa and residency permit to be approved, and this section will guide you through each step of the visa and carte de séjour process, identifying the documents you ll need to get, the fees you ll need to pay, and the appointments you ll need to make. This section will be updated regularly, since French immigration and extended-stay laws are constantly changing, but you should also double-check information on official French government sites before going to any official appointments. Securing Your Visa Since 2007, France has eliminated short-stay visas for students who wish to stay in France for fewer than 90 days. If you re completing a summer studyabroad program, you will not have to go through the CampusFrance procedure or obtain a visa, provided that you have the right to enter the Schengen Space without one. Students planning to stay in France longer than 90 days still need to follow all of the administrative steps outlined in this section.

CampusFrance Every student going to France must register with CampusFrance before applying for a visa. This online process takes two to three weeks from start to finish, and once you have the email receipt, you can go to your visa appointment. In order to register, you must first create an account on the CampusFrance website and fill out the online form. After completing this step, you must send a copy of your acceptance letter from your French or American university, along with a money order for $70. The letter must have your name on it, and only money orders are accepted. Once you send these documents, you should receive an email confirmation within three weeks. You must print this document for your visa appointment. If you are studying in France independently, you must apply to a university and receive a letter from them before creating your CampusFrance profile. You can also apply to certain French universities through the CampusFrance system; in that case, you are required to submit your university application through the CampusFrance site, and complete a telephone interview with a CampusFrance agent before your file will be considered complete. If you are accepted by a French university and have a letter before beginning the CampusFrance process, you are not required to complete an interview. The fee for independent students is $140, which must be paid by money order. CampusFrance, 4101 Reservoir Rd., Washington D.C., 20007. <www.usa.campusfrance.org>

French Consulates in the US There are ten French consulates in the US, and you must obtain your visa at the consulate designated for your state of residence. If you attend school in a different consular zone, bring proof of your student resident status when you go to your appointment to show that you are eligible to get your visa in that consulate. The consulates are: Atlanta (AL, GA, MS, NC, SC, TN): The Lenox Building, 3399 Peachtree Rd. NE, Suite 500, Atlanta, GA, 30326. <www.consulfrance-atlanta.org> Boston (MA, ME, NH, RI, VT): Park Street Building, 31 St. James Ave., Suite 750, 02116. <www.consulfrance-boston.org> Chicago (IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, OH, ND, NE, SD): Michigan Plaza, 205 North Michigan Avenue, 37 th Floor, Chicago, IL, 60601. <www.consulfrance-chicago.org> Houston (AK, LA, OK, TX): 777 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77056. <www.consulfrance-houston.org> Los Angeles (AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV): 10390 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 410, Los Angeles, CA, 90025. <www.consulfrancelosangeles.org> Miami (FL): Espirito Santo Plaza, Suite 1050, 1395 Brickell Avenue, Miami, FL, 33131. <www.consulfrance-miami.org> New Orleans: The French consulate in New Orleans does not issue visas. Residents of Louisiana must go to the Houston, TX consulate. New York (CT, NJ, NY, Bermuda): 934 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10021. <www.consulfrance-newyork.org> San Francisco (AK, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY, American Samoa, Guam): 540 Bush St., San Francisco, CA, 94108. <www.consulfrance-sanfrancisco.org>

Washington, D.C. (DE, MD, PA, VA, WV): 4101 Reservoir Rd, NW, Washington, D.C., 20007-2185. <www.consulfrance-washington.org> Your Appointment Visa appointments at all consulates must be made online several weeks in advance. All consulates require personal presence to issue a visa, and most take your passport and mail it back to you in a prepaid (by you) USPS envelope. To obtain your visa, you ll need the following documents, with at least one photocopy of each: Passport with at least 2 blank pages, valid for at least 3 months beyond the end of your trip. 2 passport-size photos. Fee of 50. (about $63) Receipt from CampusFrance. Acceptance letter from university with dates of attendance. Financial Guarantee from your parents stating that they will provide you with at least $800 per month for the duration of your stay in France. They may ask for proof of your parents ability to pay, in the form of a bank statement or pay slips, so it s a good idea to bring along some financial document. If you take out a student loan to cover your year in France, you can bring that along as well. Flight reservation. Proof of accommodation for the first month. If you re not a US citizen, copies of your visa or green card.

The last two on the list are new since I last applied for a visa, and they seem a bit odd to me, especially since the consulate site reminds you elsewhere NOT to make travel arrangements until you have received your visa. Is this a way of encouraging students to purchase way-more-expensive refundable plane tickets on, say, AirFrance? Call me cynical. In general, as long as you have all of your paperwork in order at the time of your appointment, you shouldn t worry about getting your visa refused. I ve made non-refundable reservations before scheduling a visa appointment, and never had any problems. If you re going with an American program, your school will usually find you housing and should be able to provide the necessary documentation. If, however, you re going on your own, it s pretty near impossible to find a good, honest deal on an apartment from far away unless you have friends or family who can look for you. We ll get to this in the next section, but for the purposes of visa acquisition, the best thing is probably to reserve a bed in a hostel for a month online, so you have a printed receipt of your reservation. You can usually get a bed for about 10 per night, which is less than what you would pay for one month s rent in most studios. Once you arrive in France, you can look for an apartment during the first few weeks, and then cancel your hostel reservation once you find a place to stay. You may have to pay for an extra night or two, but it will save you a lot of worrying about being homeless in France. OFII Paperwork Once you re in France, you ll need to declare your presence and your address within three months of your arrival to the OFII, or the Office Français de l Immigration et de l Intégration. This process is very simple. Once you have a place to live, you must fill out a form with your address and send it, along

with a photocopy of your passport, visa, and the stamp of your entry into France, to the OFII office. The paperwork should be sent recommandé avec avis de reception (we ll discuss this in the section on the post office) as soon as you re able to fill out the entire form. The OFII will then enter you into their system and send you a letter, requesting your presence at the medical visit. For more information: Office Français de l Immigration et de l Intégration. 48, rue de la Roquette, 75011 Paris. Phone 01 55 28 19 40. <www.ofii.fr> The Medical Visit Once you receive a letter with a date and time for your OFII medical visit, clear your calendar for that day. Sometimes they ll send you an appointment notice after the appointment has already passed (or with only a few days notice), but it s hard to get one, so you should do everything in your power to make it to the first one. The day of the appointment, you ll need to bring the following documents: The letter they sent you with the appointment date and time. Your passport, with visa and entry stamp. A justificatif de domicile less than three months old. Must be either an electricity or gas bill for your apartment in your name, or one of those in your landlord s name, accompanied by a copy of his national ID card (front and back) and a note explaining that you live in his apartment. Passport-size photo. OMI 55 stamp. Available in most Tabacs.

The medical visit is very simple, and once you ve presented your documents at the welcome desk and been admitted to the waiting room, the process should take less than two hours, depending on how busy the office is. The OFII processes about three hundred people per day, so they re very efficient. When you arrive, you ll be given a file with your name and information, and you ll be asked to answer some questions about your medical history in the waiting room. Once you ve gone into the exam room, your file will be placed in order, and a doctor will call you for each part of the exam, always in line. In the first room, you ll be weighed, measured, and have your vision checked. Next, you ll be called into a hallway with three doors. This is where they ll x-ray your lungs to check for tuberculosis. When someone exits the door in front of you, you go into a dressing room, lock the door behind you, and remove all jewelry and clothing from the waist up and put up your hair. When it s your turn, a doctor (of the same gender) will open the door and escort you to the x-ray machine. It takes about 30 seconds for the x-ray to be complete, and then you can get dressed and wait for the next step. In the final step of the process, a doctor will call you into an office and ask you questions about your medical history, vaccinations, and health insurance while in France, according to the questions you answered on the form. If you have a complicated medical history or a chronic illness, you may want to bring additional documentation from your primary care physician to avoid problems at this step. In general, French doctors realize that Americans have good health care and have low risk for communicable diseases, and this step doesn t last very long. At the end of the interview, the doctor will sign your file, saying that you fill the sanitary requirements necessary to remain in France, and your medical visit is complete. When you present the signed file to the front desk, the receptionist will attach the 55 to the file and place a yellow sticker in

your passport to validate your visa. This sticker serves as your first titre de séjour, and you are considered a legal resident in France. Renewing Your Carte de Séjour Since June 2009, France no longer requires students to obtain a Carte de Séjour for their first year in France. After completing the medical visit, the OFII puts a yellow sticker in your passport, which has the same dates of validity as your visa and serves as your first titre de séjour. If you want to stay in France and must apply for a CDS, what you ll actually be doing is a renouvellement. Renewing Your Student CDS Two months before your visa s expiration date, make an appointment to renew your CDS online, on the Prefecture s website, to go to the Service Etudiants at their Boulevard Ney location. They re pretty merciless if you have trouble making an appointment, and they ll send you away without seeing you if you don t have all your documents, so make sure you ll have everything you need before going. You ll need to bring the following documents, with at least one photocopy of everything (I always bring three copies, just to be sure.) Appointment confirmation sheet. Print this out when you make your appointment online. Your passport with visa, titre de séjour étudiant, and the stamp of your first entry into France or the EU. No explanation necessary, I believe? Three passport photos.

Your birth certificate with official translation into French. Medical Exam certificate from the OFII office. The OFII provides a document at the end of the medical visit certifying that you meet the sanitary conditions necessary for remaining in France. You ll need it to show you completed the medical visit. Proof of residence. You ll need to bring either an EDF (Eléctricité de France) or GDF (Gaz de France) bill in your name, less than three months old, to prove that you live where you say you do. If the electricity or gas is in your landlord s name, he or she will need to write a note saying that you live in their apartment, and provide a copy (front and back) of his or her national ID card and electricity or gas bill, again less than three months old. No other bills are acceptable. Certificate of enrollment and proof of completion of your schooling from the current academic year. They want to make sure that you were actually a student somewhere, and that you took your exams and passed your classes. If you can t get an actual grade report from your school, try to get an attestation d inscription from your department or program. If you haven t yet taken your exams, you have to prove that you re scheduled to take them. Pre-enrollment for the following academic year. If you want to stay with a student visa, you ll need to prove that you re still going to be a student. An attestation de pré-inscription or a letter from a professor who has accepted you for the following year should suffice. Proof of resources in France. Bring your three most recent pay slips if you work, and recent French bank statements. I highlighted recent deposits from working under the table, and deposits I made after withdrawing money from my American bank account. You ll also need to bring copies of any other money transfers to you from other sources

Proof of resources in the US. Print out copies of your online US bank statements and highlight withdrawals that you made in France. If your parents transfer money regularly into your account, highlight those as well. Parental Guarantee. You need to prove that your parents (or some other relative) will bail you out if you re in financial trouble, and that you won t become dependant on the French state. Have one of your parents sign a note saying that they ll give you a certain amount of money each month, and attach one of their bank statements or a few recent pay slips to prove they have the means to support you. Parents must provide (or claim to provide) a minimum of 450 for undergraduates, and 536 for graduate students. Of course, if you have additional documentation, it s best to err on the side of caution. Bringing more documents and photocopies than you need is better than being sent away to find them! The day of your appointment, arrive at the center early, at least half an hour before your appointment. People begin lining up outside by 7:30 AM, even though the offices don t open until after 8:30. First, your documents will be checked by someone at the front desk, who will give you a copy of the Demande de Titre de Séjour, which you can fill out while you wait, and a number. At the end of your appointment, you should leave with a Récipissé de Demande de Carte de Séjour, a document proving that your CDS application is being processed. If your visa expires, this document gives you the right to re-enter France for three months. If you are renewing your visa in the spring or summer before you re officially enrolled for the following year, you ll also be given a new appointment, about three months later, to bring more paperwork confirming your enrollment in school. You ll need to bring your passport, récipissé, and a certificate

of enrollment and student ID card for the new school year to prove your student status and to pick up your card. During this appointment, the agent will take your document, review your file, and submit it to the head of the center for approval, and you ll have to wait while someone supposedly decides whether or not you re allowed to stay in France. In most cases, this is just a formality, but if you did poorly on your exams and coursework in the previous year, your application could theoretically be rejected. In this case, you should try to enroll in make-up exams at your university and bring documentation showing that you are signed-up or that you are awaiting exam grades. Your application may be put on hold pending your exam results. If your application is approved, you will leave with another récipissé, also valid for three months, and a convocation to pick up your carte de séjour within five or six weeks. You are not required to go on that day; you can go any time after the date on your convocation, and picking up your card is a very quick process. You ll need to bring two 15 OMI stamps, your passport, and the récipissé to pick up your card. If there is a long wait at the student center, don t go to the back of the line, since they occasionally call Any card pickups? and give you a number right away. Your card will be valid for on year from the date of your second appointment. If you live in a different department, the procedure will be the same, but you ll have to go to the capital of your department rather than Paris, and call your center to make an appointment. For more information: Prefecture s web site: <http://www.prefecturedepolice.interieur. gouv.fr/vos-demarches/ressortissants-etrangers> To make an appointment to renew: <http://www.ppoletrangers. interieur.gouv.fr/?motif=renetu>

Préfecture de Police, Centre de réception des étudiants étrangers, 92 boulevard Ney, 75018 Paris, Metro Porte de Clignancourt. Phone 08 91 01 22 22. Changing from a Student to a Work Carte de Séjour In theory, any student with a master s degree or higher can apply for jobs in France and change their status from student to salarié. In practice, this procedure can be difficult and take up to six months, especially in the busy Paris and Ile-de-France préfectures. Those wishing to change their status must first be hired by a company; the bigger the company, and the more specialized the position, the better. There is no law prohibiting companies from hiring foreign students directly, but it helps your case if the job is tailored to your skills (like being a native English speaker) and the company can claim that they couldn t find qualified French candidates. Your future employer will have to file a «promesse d embauche» with your dossier for the préfecture, outlining your contract, pay, and benefits. Your file will also have to include information about the completion date of your studies, your birth certificate, and other information you needed for your student carte de séjour. Once you file your paperwork, processing can take anywhere from two to six months, and you may get a récipissé without an «autorisation temporaire à travailler,» prohibiting you from working while they process your documents. When you request the status change, you re also no longer able to work the hours you were authorized under your student visa, since it no longer applies? It s best to be financially prepared for this situation, and if your boss can file the paperwork for you, the process generally goes more smoothly.

Travel Insurance Despite all of the strikes, which are often blown out of proportion in the media, France is a fairly civilized country with very little violence. Unless you have a medical condition, it s highly unlikely that you ll have to be urgently repatriated. Some American programs provide their students with a travel insurance card as a matter of procedure, or they may recommend that you purchase insurance for yourself with a particular company. Compare the insurance company s offerings with your personal situation (Do they pay for your ticket in case of the death of an immediate family member, and your aunt has cancer? Do you have a medical condition that could require expensive treatment, and your health insurance won t reimburse you for several months if you re abroad?) and question your current insurers about their medical expense policy. In some cases, if you were to get in an accident in France, you would have to pay expenses out of pocket and be reimbursed. Some travel insurance companies will pay medical costs up-front, waiting to be reimbused by your insurance, and saving you from big bills you can t pay. If you re healthy and not so risk-adverse, you may want to forego the extra expense of travel insurance, since the risk of something bad happening to you are about the same in France as they are in the US. If you decide to travel to a less modern or less stable country while you re staying in France, you can purchase short-term travel insurance for the length of your trip for a relatively low fee through student insurers SMEREP an LMDE, or from your bank in Paris. Packing France is a modern, industrialized country that imports and sells many American products. If you brought just clothes and your laptop, you could certainly find everything else you d need. In some cases, though, the things

you would buy in the US are qualitatively different from the products sold in France, and in these cases, I d recommend you bring a six-month or year s supply of your favorite brands. Here s a quick guide. What to Bring - Plug adaptors. These can also be bought in France, but are cheaper in the US. Basically, they allow your electronics to run on Europe s system, which is 220v rather than 120v. - Your laptop, external hard drive, and any software disks. All computers (and most electronic devices) can run on 220v electricity with just an adaptor rather than a converter. To make sure, check the small box on your laptop s power cord to verify that it lists both currents. Bring any backup copies of software you may need if your computer crashes, and a copy of your warrenty. If you have a Mac, for example, you ll be able to bring your computer to the Apple store in the Louvre for repairs. - Deodorant. Anyone who s taken the Paris métro in July can attest to the fact that French deodorant just isn t up to snuff. Bring a stick or two of your favorite brand. - Shampoo and conditioner. Most brands, from Herbal Essences to Fructus, are available in France, but if you use a special kind, like sulfate-free or organic, you may want to bring a bottle or two. Organic shampoo has recently become available in supermarkets, but bottles are generally much smaller and more expensive than regular brands. I d recommend Trader Joe s 16 oz. mint shampoo and conditioner, which lasts a good three months.

- Face wash and toothpaste. Again, I bring these things because I use a particular brand. The most common brands - Neutrogena, Clearasil, Colgate, Sensodyne - are all available in France, but again, the containers are smaller and more expensive. Bringing a tube of American toothpaste will last twice as long as its more expensive European counterpart, but obviously, if you don t have room, don t fret. - Over-the-counter medications. France has a powerful pharmaceutical lobby, and all medications are sold in pharmacies, even the over-the-counter ones, and they are sold much more expensively in very small quantities. I always bring generic bottles of asprin or acetomenaphen, ibprofen, a topical antibiotic like Neosporin, a topical antihistamine like Benadryl, some Tums, and Halls cough drops (cough drops are available, but more expensive and weaker than their American equivalents). - Prescription medications and copies of your prescriptions. If you re on prescreption medications, including the pill, try to bring enough to last the length of your stay, with some to spare just in case. For all medications, make sure you bring the original bottle with your name on it, as well as a copy of your prescription signed by your doctor. If your insurance company won t cover enough for your entire stay, have the doctor write the drug s scientific name on the prescription so a French pharmacist or clinician can refill it for you. - Your favorite (junk) foods. After traveling to other European countries that happily import American delicacies like Jelly Bellys and peanut butter, I remain convinced that France willfully imports only the most undesirable American produts so the French can maintain their superiority complex. I always bring some peanut butter, buttered popcorn, mini marshmallows, and fun-sized Milky Ways and Baby Ruths in my checked luggage. If you re a New Englander like me, and want to bring some marsh-

mallow Fluff, poke a couple pinholes in the plastic top, tape down the top, and wrap it in a plastic bag to prevent it from exploding. Remember that cheeses, meats, fruits, vegetables, and plants won t make it through customs. What NOT to Bring - Hair dryer, electic razor, electric toothbrush. Unless you have a current converter, these devices won t work when plugged into a French outlet, and will probably be fried. Depending on the quality of the device, it may not even work correctly with a converter. You can probably live without these items for a few months; if you re staying longer, you can buy them in France for about the same price you d pay in the US. - Heavy novels, French dictionaries, grammars, phrasebooks, and guidebooks. I m certainly not one to discourage you from bringing books to France, and I ve lugged dozens of research books back and forth across the Atlantic in my carry-on luggage. But with the plethora of French language resources available for free online, don t waste precious space and weight bringing dictionaries or grammar books. Most of the information found in guidebooks - and let s face it, this is the best one you ll get - can also be found online. If you really need books, there are several English language bookstores where you can get your fix.

Housing Options Finding housing in Paris, or anywhere in France, isn t easy, and it s especially hard to do if you re far away. Here s a quick guide to the different places you can look for housing, and what you ll need to secure an apartment. With Your American Program Most American study-abroad programs will find housing for their students, either in apartments, in host families, or in one of the few dorms or foyers in Paris. Programs that offer housing usually offer the same accommodations from year to year with the same landlords and families, and the relationships between the renters and the schools allow for lower rents, in many cases, and contracts built on trust and bonne foi. The trade-off is often that these families do not declare the extra rent income on their French taxes, which makes the rent not eligible for the Allocations familiales, which we will discuss in a later section. The advantages of having housing established upon arrival in Paris and of having the school to mediate conflicts between you and your landlord are invaluable tools, however, when faced with a real estate market that is otherwise very competitive for renters. The other advantage is that the schools often pay agency fees for finding the housing (if they use an agency), and the security deposit is only one month s rent instead of the usual two or three months. Landlords renting through American programs often speak English (many are Americans living abroad with a relationship to the school), and understand that as a student, you may leave at the end of May or June, without necessarily staying through the summer.

Apartments Apartments are often the preferred choice for students, who want privacy and are done living in a family. The three types of apartment rentals are chambre de bonne, studio apartments, and regular, multi-room apartments. If your school is providing the housing, they will surely only offer furnished rentals, so the prices I ve given below correspond to reasonable prices for furnished apartments. A chambre de bonne is a former maid s quarters, and is a small room, usually 10-15 square meters (90-135 square feet), often on the last floor of an apartment building. As its name implies, it used to be the maid s room, connected to the apartment in which she worked. Equipped with a bed, a table, a small fridge, a few hot plates, and a sink, it usually doesn t have its own private bathroom. Some have showers inside, and the bathroom is in the hall and shared with other apartments. A (very) few require the occupant to use the bathroom in the landlord s apartment. A (reasonable) month s rent for a chambre de bonne is between 350-450, although prices can go up to 600. Studio apartments differ from chambre de bonne in that they are usually bigger (20-30 square meters, or 180-270 square feet) and have their own bathroom. They usually still have a very small kitchenette in the corner, and many have loft beds to make more room for other furniture. Some have separate kitchens. Most are big enough that they could feasibly be shared, but it s best to make sure that you REALLY like the person you ll be living with, and even better if you can share a bed to save space. Prices for studios vary widely depending on size and location, but most are between 600-800 per month. Regular, multi-room apartments don t really need an introduction, except that few are in the price range of students. Some schools rent one-bedroom apartments to two people, especially if there s a pull-out couch in the living room, but some landlords refuse to rent these apartments to non-couples

because the risk of problems is too great. If you re studying with several friends, it may be cheaper to get a two, three, or four bedroom apartment to share between you, as bigger apartments are slightly cheaper per square meter than smaller ones, and there is far less demand. The one disadvantage of larger apartments is that many of them are luxury apartments designed for rental to tourists, so finding them can be difficult if you re on your own. Count on spending 800-1000 per month for a one-bedroom, 1500-1800 for a two-bedroom, and 2000 or more for a three-bedroom. Host Families Many American programs require their students, especially college juniors, to live with host families during their time abroad. Most schools continually offer the same host families from year to year, which means that the relationship between the parties is good, but a bad year can ruin this relationship and make your time in France miserable. Most host family arrangements require the family to give you your own room and workspace, access to the kitchen and bathroom, and a small cabinet and space in the refrigerator for your food. While you have access to the whole apartment in theory, you usually need to negotiate phone and kitchen use when the family isn t using them. Overnight guests are usually out of the question (depends on the situation), and you must ask for permission before inviting friends over for the afternoon. For independent people used to being on their own, it can be a tough readjustment to family life and rules. The other thing to know about host families is that they aren t necessarily families: people who decide to host students often do so because they have an extra room in their house and would like to make a little money from it. Young families with children often don t fit the bill, or, if they have an extra

room, they use it for a full-time babysitter. Host families can be a middleaged or old couple, or an old person, or a single person as well as families in the traditional sense. Not to discourage those of you who want to immerse yourselves in the cultural experience of living with French people, but don t count on having company if you choose this route. I personally think you give up a lot of freedom for what can be only marginal cultural benefit. But that s me. Depending on your school s protocol, the host family will usually provide you with a few meals per week (outlined in your rental agreement), and the price will be included in your rent. Extra meals may be charged at the rate the family sets in advance. The advantage, of course, is that sometimes, you don t have to cook, but when you need to cook, you have to use the kitchen around your host s schedule. Rent in a room in someone s apartment (10-12 square meters, or 90-110 square feet) is usually 550-700, including 2-3 meals per week, but this can vary greatly depending on the family and the school s agreement. Fondation des Etats-Unis (Cité Universitaire) The Fondation des Etats-Unis is a dorm in the Cité Universitaire, located by the Parc Montsouris in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. It welcomes American students during the school year (September or October 1 through June) and international students during the summer. Rooms can be reserved online beginning in April, but you must meet eligibility criteria and be selected to live there by the admissions committee. To be eligible, you must have completed an undergraduate degree, be enrolled in a university program for the coming academic year, and be an American under 29 years old. Some university programs reserve rooms for their

students in advance, or reserve other rooms in the Cité Universitaire for students who have not yet completed their undergraduate degrees. To apply, you must email the admissions committee with the following information: Full name Birthday, birthplace Nationality Full contact information (address, phone number, email) Requested dates for residency Project for the academic year Rooms in the Fondation are about 10 square meters, and are furnished with a bed, desk, chair, closet, and sink. Sheets, pillows, and blankets are provided, and sheets are changed every two weeks. Each room also has a telephone, which can be used with credits purchased from the Fondation. There are a number of practice rooms and artists studios within the Fondation for resident use, as well as common rooms, a library, and a computer room equipped with Wifi. Each floor has communal bathrooms and a kitchen with an oven, sink, and microwave, and there is a laundry room in the basement. Because the room is your own, guests are not a problem, although some of the common spaces like practice rooms may not be open to non-residents of the Fondation. The Cité Universitaire campus also has a gym with a pool, student restaurant (Crous), post office, and other amenities available to all residents. The stop on the RER B, Cité Universitaire, is at the Paris city limit, but is only 10 minutes from Chatelet-Les Halles in the center of Paris. The Fondation is one of many nationality-based dorms in the Cité Universitaire, so the common spaces are full of international students from all over the world, and it s a great place to meet people from other countries. There are also lots of cultural activities throughout the year, in the Fondation des Etats-Unis as well as the other cultural centers on campus, making it an enriching and interesting place to live.

Rent for 2011-2012 is 500 /month. For more information: <www.feusa.org> To apply by email: administration@feusa.org Foyer Foyers, or dorm-like residences similar to the Fondation des Etats-Unis, are also available to some students through American programs or independent study-abroad students. Usually comprised of single or double rooms, they are most often affiliated with the public University of Paris system and only available to students enrolling in public university or the Sorbonne s civilization and French language courses. For this reason, we won t spend much time on them here, especially since there are many throughout Paris and it is impossible to list and evaluate them all. Foyers may be similar to dorms, but they often have a religious affiliation in addition to the public university requirement; thus, they are usually allmale or all-female, and rarely do they allow guests (especially overnight visitors). Those that I ve seen online had rooms available for monthly rent only between October 1 and June 30, with the summer open only for short stays. Rooms are usually about 10 square meters, with a single bed, desk, chair, and refrigerator. Sheets, towels, and blankets are often provided by the foyer, although it depends on the place. There is usually a small kitchen on each floor, but cooking utensils are not generally provided. Average rent for a single room is 550-600 /month. For a double room, count 350-400 monthly.

On Your Own Finding housing on your own can be quite a challenge, as I learned this year when I apartment-hunted for the first time in Paris. Since renting for under a year is illegal (supposedly to relieve the housing crunch), there aren t nearly enough possibilities for student renters, and those who do rent short-term prefer to illegally rent to tourists, who will pay a month s rent for a weeklong stay. If you re new to France, have never worked there, and don t have family, it will be very difficult to rent a place without an agency or a connection of some kind. Individual rental requires some serious paperwork, and many landlords are unwilling to rent to foreign students who may decide to leave mid-year or who have foreign guarantors, who are more difficult to pursue in court if you don t pay your rent. The pre-rentrée rush begins in mid-august, so if you need to find your own housing, your best bet is to arrive early and reserve a room in a hostel or a foyer until September 1 while searching. You can try contacting your university s international student center, or looking on campus for signs from landlords or other students seeking roommates. I would caution strongly, though, against rooming with people you don t know. When you re looking for apartments online, look for the description good for students, because these apartments are often cheaper and come with more flexible landlords than most places. When you visit apartments, you ll need to bring all of the paperwork for your application; if you don t leave it right away, you can forget about the apartment. You ll need the following documents: Copy of your passport and visa Last three months pay slips Written guarantee from a parent, with pay slips

Work contract, if you have one If you ve taken out a loan to study abroad, you can try using a bank statement with the loan funds as proof of sufficient funds to pay for the year s rent. Unfortunately, any landlord is going to prefer French students with French guarantor parents to an American student, for the simple reason that it will be easier for him to collect his money if you default on your rent. Otherwise, finding the right apartment and landlord is a combination of luck and chemistry, and if you re persistent enough, you will find someone somewhere to take you in. The earlier you start, though, the better. The following websites can be useful for your apartment search: <www.pap.fr>: Particulier à particulier puts landlords and potential renters in direct contact. Rents can be 10% more expensive than average, since there s nobody telling landlords that their prices are too high, but there can also be some good deals. You can search on the site by location, price, size, and furnishings, and have emails sent to you when apartments are posted that fit your criteria. During the busy season, reply immediately to postings. Leave messages and emails at your own peril: it s better to talk to a person to set up a visit. <www.seloger.fr>: Similar to Particulier à particulier. <www.craigslist.org>: This site mostly has scams and expensive apartments for tourists. Whatever you do, don t send money to someone to reserve an apartment without seeing it. Use caution; there probably are some legitimate postings, but many of them seem like scams. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Guide to Arrondissements and Suburbs If you ve been to Paris before, you probably have a good idea of the city s layout, and you may even know some of the arrondissements. Finding an apartment is different from finding a hotel, though, and the neighborhood you choose to live in can make a significant difference in your living expenses and budgeting. You ll want to think carefully about where you want to live for the most convenient access to your university or program, the best rent, and the most culturally and financially interesting food and restaurant choices. If your program is selecting housing for you, you may not have much of a choice in where you live, but you may be able to list your preferences on a housing survey. If you re apartment hunting on your own, you can be selective, but apartments are so scarce that you probably don t want to rule out any areas entirely. In that case, the best thing to do is to visit all apartments in your price range and check out the neighborhood, since there can be reasonable neighborhoods even in expensive (and boring) areas. When I did my own apartment search, I looked everywhere except the 16th (too expensive and few amenities) and the 20th (good neighborhoods but inconveniently located). As you can see in the map, Paris is laid out almost like a snail shell, with the smaller-numbered arrondissements in the middle. The other arrondissements wrap around the middle ones in a spiral. Here s a quick guide to the arrondissements of Paris to get you started.

1 through 4 The 1st through 4th arrondissements are the smallest, the most centrally located, and possibly the most expensive. In the exact center of Paris on the Right Bank, they include the Louvre museum, the Bourse (stock exchange), the shopping centers on Rue de Rivoli, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Because this area is popular with tourists, there are lots of hotels, touristappropriate restaurants, and souvenir shops, but few affordable boulangeries, supermarkets, and small apartments. Many short-term rental apartments are also located in this area and are leased to visitors for anywhere from a week to a month for exhorbitant rates, so it s difficult to find a one-year furnished rental here. If you do choose to live here, you ll have convenient access to all of the major tourist sites, including many of the museums, and great shopping, but it won t be so great for your budget. A good place to visit, but not an ideal place to live. 5 and 6 The 5th and 6th arrondissements are located in the Left Bank, right across the Seine from Notre Dame, and since many Parisian universities and Grandes Ecoles are in the area, it s a popular student hangout. If you live in this area, you ll be near the Jardin des Plantes Museum of Natural History, the Institut du Monde Arabe, with its impressive library and museum, the Mosquee de Paris with its delicious mint tea and pasteries, and the famous Latin Quarter with its many low-end restaurants and bookstores. Apartments in this area can be hard to come by, since it s a popular student and tourist destination, but when they are available, they are usually affordable.

7 and 16 The 7th arrondissement on the Left Bank, like its neighbor the 16th from across the Seine, is the neighborhood of choice for many American and British expatriates, who love its old architecture, good schools, and abundant parking. But other than these arrondissements proximity to the Eiffel Tower, they don t have many qualities or amenities that would appeal to students. In most neighborhoods, there are few choices of bakeries and supermarkets, and the only restaurant options - geared towards tourists or wealthy residents - are prohibitively expensive. When I lived in the 7th during my first year in Paris, I had only one supermarket, one boulangerie, and one epicerie within a three-minute walk. If I walked another three minutes, I could go to another supermarket and maybe two other boulangeries. While that doesn t seem like much of a difference, consider that in my current neighborhood in the 14th, I have four different supermarkets, four different banks, five boulangeries, and a dozen restaurants within five minutes walking distance of my apartment. Apartments in these neighborhoods aren t necessarily hard to find. While the buildings mostly have larger, multiroom family apartments, they are usually older, Hausmannian structures with maids quarters or chambres de bonne. American and British families that spend part of the year in their home countries often rent to students through the FUSAC magazine or American university programs, and they make good landlords because there s less of a cultural and linguistic barrier. If the best housing you can find is in the 7th or 16th, don t dispair - if anything, find out when the city organizes bulkyobject pickup days. You can find some treasures in your neighbors trash.

8 and 9 The 8th and 9th arrondissements border the 3rd and 4th arrondissements to the north. Because they are slightly farther from the center and major tourist attractions, rents are slightly lower than their southern neighbors, and rents get cheaper the farther north you go. Pockets around Opéra, Madeleine, and the Champs Elysées have more expensive amenities, if not significantly higher rent, as the presence of the Theater District and lots of boutiques et famous Paris brands (think Fauchon) make this area a chic place to live. 10, 11, and 12 The 10th, 11th, and 12th are the Right Bank s answer to the 5th and 6th, and have a good combination of residential areas, shops, and bars and nightclubs. République, Bastille, and the Cimetière Père Lachaise aren t so much tourist destinations as fun places for students and young people to go out, and there are plenty of reasonably-priced restaurants in this are. Bordering the 3rd and 4th arrondissements to the northeast, these areas are sufficiently far from the center of town to be cheaper than their neighbors, yet sufficiently well-connected that transportation to any other part of Paris is surprisingly fast and easy. Place de la Nation between the 11th and 12th arrondissments, for example, has connections to the 1, which goes from East to West through the major tourist areas, the 6, which loops through the Left Bank, and the 2, which loops around the north of Paris. The 10th arrondissement is home to one of Paris s major train stations, Gare de l Est, and the area is not only relatively inexpensive, but it is also a vibrant neighborhood close to Montmartre, and it boasts immigrants from many different countries and thus a large variety of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores.

13, 14, and 15 The 13th, 14th, and 15th arrondissements are Paris s southernmost areas, and they have been becoming increasingly popular places to live. A bit more pricy to their counterparts to the north, they are well-connected and generally combine residential areas with shops and restaurants. While the 14th is home to the Catacombs, parts of the Montparnasse district, and a shopping area near Avenue du Maine and Alésia, there can be some areas of the 15th and 13th that are more deserted and far from restaurants and even basic amenities like grocery stores. While some parts of the 13th are near Chinatown and the lively rue Tolbiac, there are other neighborhoods in which you have to walk for 10 minutes to get to a bakery. Be sure to check out the area in person and on Google Street View, and make sure you feel safe walking home from the subway at night if you plan on living in a less-lively area. 17 and 18 The 17th and 18th are the northernmost arrondissements, and because they include Montmartre, Clignancourt, and Place de Clichy, they are among the liveliest and most culturally diverse areas in Paris. Because they are far from the city center, they are also among the least expensive. On the streets, counterfeit goods and youth selling cigarettes are common, and Boulevard Barbès, which follows the line 2 from east to west, counts numerous sex shops. On the other hand, produce is significantly cheaper in this area s outdoor markets, and the presence of so many people from all different cultures in the streets (and the police deterring undocumented immigrants and sellers of counterfeit objects) makes it feel safe at night.

19 and 20 The 19th and the 20th are in the northeast of Paris, and they are more outof-the-way and have fewer amenities than most other parts of Paris. In the 19th, the sprawling Parc Buttes Chaumont drives up prices in the neighborhoods closest too it, but otherwise, these areas are also relatively inexpensive. The northern 19th, for example, near Crimée on line 7, is primarily a business area, and while it is lively during the day, it is rather deserted after business hours. When I was apartment hunting in the summer, the 20th is one of two arrondissements I never considered living in, because it is not well served by the subway lines I use most to go to work and school. Housing Insurance and Responsabilité Civile For any apartment you rent, you must subscribe to an insurance policy within ten days of moving, which will cover any damages to the apartment, theft, and even late night or weekend locksmith visits if you lock yourself out. If you re new to France, your policy will also need to cover your responsabilité civile, or the general national insurance policy that prevents the French from suing each other like crazy like we Americans. It covers any accidental harm that you may cause to others. If, for example, you throw a cigarette out of behind you and a woman s skirt catches on fire, her injuries would be covered under your policy. If, on the other hand, you punch someone in a bar fight, those damages would not be covered since your actions were intentional (no matter how drunk you were). Policies that include both can be purchased at most banks, and also with independent insurance companies, which are sometimes a bit cheaper and more comprehensive. If your American program organizes housing, they ll probably propose an insurer for you; in this case, the school has usually researched the best plan for its students and possibly gotten a deal for buy-

ing a certain number of policies, in which case, you should probably go with your school s insurer. If you ever have any problems, your school s administrator should be able to help you negotiate with the insurer, using the leverage of the school s relationship with the company. Policies can also be purchased with the student sécurité sociale suppliers, notably, SMEREP. Located on the Boulevard Saint Michel by the Sorbonne, it is one of two major student insurers, and has reasonably priced policies that can be purchased on its website. LMDE, the other student mutuelle, also offers assurance d habitation plans that are relatively inexpensive. Proof of insurance, dated less than 3 months old, can also serve as a justificatif de domicile, and you can go back to your insurance company to ask for a new copy of the contract every time you need one. For more information: <www.lmde.com> <www.smerep.fr> Housing Assistance: Caisse des Allocations Familiales (CAF) Allocations familiales are housing aid given to any person in France who qualifies, and, since most students have low incomes and high rent in Paris, most do. In order to apply, you ll need to enter information about your situation (student, whether you live alone or with roommates) and print off the form on the CAF website. To fill out the form, you ll need information about your income from the fiscal year two years prior (i.e. I needed 2008 information to fill out the CAF in 2010; for 2011, you ll need 2009 information, etc.) If you live with roommates, you ll need to include all of their information on the form, and they may need to apply directly for their own aid as well.

Aside from the normal personal information, you ll need to include your global net revenue for the tax year in question (2009 for 2011, like I said previously). If you had a job in the US, this means your net wages (after taxes) will go on the top line, and the second line, frais réels, will be 10% of that number. The rest of the lines are mostly about social security and disability benefits received, so they will all be 0 unless you have a medical condition or dependents. After you ve completed your section, you ll need to have your landlord fill out the attestation de loyer, with his personal information and information about the rental: whether it s furnished or unfurnished, the length of the lease, how many square meters it is, what the rent and utility payments are, etc. Note that if your landlord signs this document, it opens him up to inspections by tax authorities, who want to ensure that he is declaring all of his revenues fonciers on his taxes. If he is not declaring the income, as is the case with some host families and people who rent directly to American programs, he may refuse to sign it. If you re in a no-caf situation, though, the rent has usually already been lowered to what you would have paid after receiving the CAF. When you apply for the CAF, you ll also need to include a copy of your carte de séjour, which you won t have at the beginning of the year. You can either include a copy of your visa, which will set the process in motion, and follow up with a copy of the yellow OFII sticker serving as the premier titre de séjour once your receive it, or just wait to send the whole file once you have all of the paperwork complete. In either case, you won t be reimbursed for the first month you lived in your apartment: if you move in on August 30, you ll receive a stipend for September, but if you move in on September 1, your first month of eligibility will be October. In any case, you will not receive any funds until your file has been completed and reviewed, so you may not see any money until after Christmas, but it can be worth applying to get about a month or even two months of free rent after the holidays.

If you live as a couple (married, PACSed, or just cohabitation), and your partner makes significantly more than you do, you probably won t be eligible for very much CAF aide. In all cases, you can do a CAF simulation to see approximately how much money you ll be reimbursed on the CAF website, although the actual figure may vary. For more information: <www.caf.fr> Tenant Rights and Responsibilities As in the United States, landlords are prohibited from discriminating against potential renters based on race, national origin, religion, affiliation, and a host of other obvious qualities, but a recent study published in Le Parisien found that almost all student apartment leases had at least one illegal or abusive clause. If you re renting on your own, it s important to understand your rights. On the other hand, the housing market is tight in the fall and it s a seller s market, so insisting too much can prevent you from finding a place to live. The right to a decent lodging: closed, covered, and in good repair. The right to use your lodging as you see fit: a landlord may not prevent you from (or charge you extra rent for) hosting a friend, for example. The right to pay only the agreed-upon rent and utilities. The landlord is required to pay for repairs and agency fees related to the rental (this does not include the finder s fee, usually one month s rent). The right to have the security deposit reimbursed no more than two months after returning the keys. The landlord may deduct outstanding utilities bills, fees for necessary repairs, and taxe d habitation (renter s tax) from the deposit. The landlord may not include the taxes foncières (property owner s tax) in the fees.

The right to a receipt, a quittance de loyer, for all rents paid, which cannot be billed to you. The landlord cannot require you to allow him to hold a visit (for renting or selling the lodging) on holidays, or for more than two hours on workdays. The landlord may not require you to pay the rent by automatic withdrawal on your account, and the renter may not authorize it. The landlord may not require the renter to make advanced payments for repairs before the cost is assessed by both parties. The landlord cannot cancel the lease for reasons other than non-payment of rent, a security deposit, or the non-adherence to a renter s insurance plan. The landlord cannot automatically assume the renter is responsible for any degradation of the lodging, or automatically assess fees to renters collectively for the degradation of something in a common area. The landlord cannot require you to pay for the état des lieux, unless it is carried out by a bailiff. The lease may not contain a clause absolving the landlord from responsibility and preventing the renter from bringing him to court if necessary. The landlord may not ask for more money than what is in the contract. House Parties Under French law, noise disturbances are taken seriously, but you still have the right to entertain in your own home, at night, up to once a month. If you re hosting a party, you must first alert your neighbors and post a notice in the entrance of your building. Specify a beginning and end time to your party (no later than 1 AM), and include a clause at the bottom in small print

inviting the neighbors. They can t complain, since they ve been invited, and none of them would ever show up (they would find it presumptuous to go to a party in the home of someone they don t know). Make sure the party ends when you say it will, and you should have no problems with your neighbors or gardien (superintendent).

Chapter 3 Living in France Working in France French social protections and job security that make it difficult to lay off employees during recessions are great for French people with jobs, but they also mean that it s very difficult for companies to hire young workers, and that job openings are hard to come by. As a native English speaker, the easiest jobs to get in France are teaching English, babysitting, and tutoring; there s also the occasional freelance translation job posted. Other jobs are available, but they are best obtained through connections, and internships, which we ll discuss later in this section, differ significantly from their American counterparts. When you begin working in France, your employer has to register your contract with the French Préfecture. Your boss needs to send the following information: Company name (or individual s full name, if your employer is a person), address, and business ID or social security number (used for paying social taxes). Your full name, nationality, date and place of birth, and the number of your carte de séjour. You must also include a photocopy of your CDS. Job description, complete with length of the contract, number of hours to be worked annually, and start date.

This information, with the relevant documents attached in.jpg or.pdf format, can be sent by email to the following address, at least 48 hours before the beginning of the contract: PREFPOL.DPG-SDAE-6B-DECLAR-PREALABLE- ETUDIANT@interieur.gouv.fr Declared/Undeclared The first thing you should know about looking for any kind of job in France is whether you re looking for a declared or an undeclared job. Since a 2008 law eliminating the requirement that foreign students request an autorisation de travail, a student visa grants the right to work up to about 964 hours per year in France, which is about 20 hours per week for 48 weeks, or 27 weeks of full time (35 hours/week). It should say on your visa that you have 60% Autorisation de travail à titre accessoire, but the amount is calculated on the year, which means you re free to take on a short-term fulltime job with no problems. Your employer just has to declare your employment and the terms of your contract to the local Préfecture, but shouldn t have to pay any of the fees usually associated with sponsoring a work visa. Of course, if you re lucky enough to have a European Union passport, this limitation doesn t apply to you. Fortunately, this 964-hour limit is high enough for most students not to worry about exceeding it, which is good, because of the clear advantages to having a declared job. The French get tax breaks for everything from housecleaning to tutoring for the kids, so even working in a private home is likely to be declared. If you plan on extending your visa and staying in France for any length of time, pay slips will help you to justify your resources to the

authorities and to prospective landlords. As I learned recently, you even have to show a pay slip to adopt a cat. Aside from the advantages of declaring your income, there can be some drawbacks. While you won t have to file or pay income tax if you make less than 10.000 per year, French social taxes are much higher than American ones, and you ll wind up paying social security through your paycheck even if you have American insurance or already paid the student enrollment rate during registration at your university (about 200 ). Even working French students end up paying twice. French students usually live at home and have a bigger course load than American students, and fewer of them work; therefore, there are lots of resources available for students on a limited income. Having declared income also means that your application for the Caisse d Allocations Familiales (or CAF), which we discussed earlier in this chapter, will be based on that income rather than being a poor student. If you don t make much, you might not have a problem, but you could compromise your eligibility for housing subsidies with a higher income. Finally, the IRS requires that American citizens report all income earned while abroad, though there are tax exemptions and exclusions for those who make less than a certain amount. Depending on your salary, you may be required to declare income earned in France on your American federal income tax return. Ultimately, it s up to you to decide what kind of job to look for, and how you will report your income to tax authorities if necessary. Types of Contracts

If you decide to seek a declared job, there are two types of contracts that you ll come across in job postings, CDI and CDD. CDI means Contrat de Durée Indéterminée, and, like its name suggests, it is generally a long-term, full-time contract for people who intend to remain in a particular job for several years. Outside of government jobs, full-time is 35 hours a week, and that s what you would be expected to work in most cases, although part-time CDI contracts do exist. The contract should also indicate salaire brut, or salary before taxes, and salaire net, after taxes, as well as any vacation time and holidays earned. Also note that French business hours are later than American business hours, generally from 10-6, with hardly anyone in the office before 9 AM. Students who are in France temporarily will be more interested in jobs with a CDD contract. CDD means Contrat de Durée Déterminée, and, like its name indicates, it is a short-term job for a specific time frame. These types of contracts can be used to replace parents on maternity or paternity leave, but they are mostly for filling a company s need for a project. Most teaching and babysitting jobs are CDD for the period of the nine or ten month school year. Similarly, the contract should indicate the hours, vacation periods, and salaire brut et net, as well as whether you or the company has the possibility of renewing the contract or converting it to a CDI at the end of the contract s term. Common Jobs for Americans Strict laws in France regulating hirings and firings mean that there are few positions open for the French, and unemployment has been around 8 or 9% since even before the financial crisis. Americans with student visas, which only give the right to work part-time, imperfect French, and a busy schedule will often have trouble finding jobs, especially jobs outside of the fields of teaching or tutoring English. Fortunately, such jobs are usually part-time,

since they are designed for foreigners and students, and abundant, since most students stay for a short period of time and there is constant turnover. Unfortunately, these jobs are usually low-paid and unpredictable. In this section, we ll discuss some of the jobs that Americans typically find in Paris, their advantages and disadvantages, and a few options for making money without binding yourself to a teaching contract. Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) Having worked for two years as an elementary-level English assistant in Paris and in neighboring Drancy to fund my life as a student in Paris, I could dedicate an entire chapter to the ins and outs of applying for and working as an English teacher in French public schools. I won t. I d like to mention just a few things about the program that may be useful for those considering teaching in order to pay for being a student in a French city. The English Assistant program places a few thousand Americans between the ages of 20 and 30 in positions teaching English in the French school system every year, for seven or nine months, working twelve hours per week, for about 793 after taxes (961 brut). They can be placed in elementary, middle, or high schools, and course load and responsibility depends largely on the school itself, varying greatly between regions and individual establishments. Applications for the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) are online, and are due on or around January 15 of each year. Notification of acceptance occurs in April, and school assignment is during the summer. The most important thing to know about the assistant program is that when you apply, you have no control over what city or town you ll be working with. Though Paris is one of the biggest academies with many job openings, it is also one of the most highly requested, meaning that there s absolutely no guarantee you ll get placed there, even if you put it as your first

and only choice. You re more likely to get placed in one of the surrounding departments than in Paris proper. While there s nothing wrong with most of these schools (note: you probably don t want to work in a collège or a lycée in Seine-Saint-Denis), it does make for quite a long commute, and you often have no options if you have lots of time between classes. If you re studying in another French city, it s probably not worth applying, since most other departments have assistant jobs in small country towns rather than metropolitan areas near universities. There are two ways to get around the placement issue. The first is to include a letter from your American program when you apply stating that you ll be studying and living in Paris. This is, of course, impossible if you re directly enrolling in a French university, since teaching applications are due in February and you won t have a letter from the university until July. If you have family or friends in Paris, they can also write a letter saying that you are staying with them for the duration of your time in France (even if that s not exactly true). When I applied in 2007, such a letter meant that if they accepted you, they would automatically place you in that region and would not consider any alternative placement. When I reapplied in 2009, however, they seemed to have backed off of that guarantee, saying that you would be considered a priority for the region you requested but that they reserved the right to place you elsewhere. Though technically they ask you to guarantee that you ll accept whatever placement they give you when you apply, you can always reject their offer when you receive your school assignment in the summer. You cannot ask for a transfer or switch assignments with another assistant. Because there are so many applicants who don t necessarily intend on going, and many more who drop out of the program after receiving their school assignment, every school district in France struggles with vacancies at the beginning of the school year. This brings me to the second way to get around the placement issue: applying in September. Each Rectorat hires a certain

number of local recruits towards the end of September to replace the teachers who don t show up. Going to the Rectorat of Paris (or another major city) towards the beginning of September to fill out an application will get you towards the top of their list. You ll still have to accept whatever assignment they give you, and it may not be the level you want to teach, but they can only assign a school in their own district. It also allows you to explore all of your job options for a few weeks while in Paris before making a commitment. For more information on the Teaching Assistant Program in France, you can check out the following resources: Official site of the program at the French Embassy in Washington: <http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?rubrique424&tout=ok> Official site of the CIEP program: <http://www.ciep.fr/en/assistantetr/> English Assistants in France Forum: <www.assistantsinfrance.com> Teaching Assistants in France Survival Guide: <http://en.wikibooks. org/wiki/ Teaching_Assistant_in_France_Survival_Guide> How to Teach English Abroad as an Assistant in France, by Allison Grant, Matador Travel Network: <http://matadorabroad.com/howto-teach-abroad-as-an-assistant-in-france/> The Rectorat de Paris, where you can apply directly as a local recruit, is located at 94, avenue Gambetta, 75984 Paris Cedex 20. Phone: 01 44 62 40 40. Metro Gambetta. English Teaching Many Paris-based companies recruit native English speakers to teach English to children or adults in private centers, homes, or businesses. These companies, like Wall Street Institute, Les Petits Bilingues, and Berlitz, just to name a few, recruit in magazines like the FUSAC and on the metro.

Sometimes, they want classroom teachers, and other times, they seek to be intermediaries between tutors and students, taking a significant percentage of the fee paid by the student, and still requiring the tutor to travel to the student s home. Since it s quite easy to find private tutoring clients without one of these companies, I would tend to steer clear of them. Other companies are notorious for requiring long training programs, usually unpaid, and then requiring teachers to somehow pay back the cost of the training, usually by working. This practice seems to be particularly frequent for those who decide mid-training that they don t actually want to teach English at said company, and quit before the training period is up. I applied for a job at one company that wanted me to pay several hundred euros to train on their particular method before being interviewed for the job. I guess they didn t understand the concept of working to make money. Not all companies are bad, though, and if you have a TESOL or TEFL certificate, you re more likely to come across lucrative jobs and be able to better market your skills. If you don t have any qualifications, but would still like to try teaching English in France, try to talk to other teachers from the company before signing a contract. You can check out Dave s ESL Café website, which has testimonials from former ESL teachers, and warnings about places that don t treat employees well. For more information: Dave s ESL Café: <www.eslcafe.com> Babysitting Babysitting jobs are very easy to come by in France, since most children end their school day at around 4:30 in the afternoon, and business hours extend until 6 or 7 PM. Many middle- and upper-class families like to hire

English native speakers, either to reinforce already-acquired English skills or to provide some basic English lessons to complement the school curriculum. In general, babysitting jobs are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 4:30 to 7:30, plus Wednesdays from early morning until 7:30 (Most French elementary schools are closed on Wednesdays). The jobs consist primarily of picking the children up from school (usually in their neighborhood) and helping them with their homework until the parents return from work. Wednesday is the day that most children are enrolled in extra-curricular activities, such as sports or music lessons, and they may need to be accompanied to these activities, brought to the park or a museum, or otherwise entertained. The going rate for babysitters in Paris is 8-10, and can be declared or undeclared, but if you have lots of experience or good references you might be able to request more. Other things to consider are whether or not the family is able to offer housing as part of your salary, whether they plan to go away during vacation periods or whether you will be responsible for the children full time whenever schools are closed. Most families expect a commitment through the end of the school year on June 30, although there are some families that also like to bring their babysitters on summer vacation. Finally, babysitting jobs begin in September with the rentrée, and it s impossible to know French university class schedules until classes actually begin at the beginning of October. American programs will generally be more organized about releasing their class schedules on their websites during the summer, so you might find that you can organize your classes in advance in order to take on a babysitting job.

Tutoring Finding an English tutoring job in Paris isn t difficult, but keeping it is, for the simple reason that most people who hire English tutors want miracles. The rivalry between the English and the French dates back to before the Hundred Years War, and speaking English poorly is almost a point of national pride. France consistently ranks among the worst countries for learning foreign languages, and even though English is obligatory for students at every level of education from second grade through PhD few French people can speak fluently. But because France is so close to England, and desperately wants to be competitive in the English-speaking market, English is a valuable skill that companies want their employees to have, and many French workers seek out English tutors to improve their language skills. Languages are difficult to learn if one wants to learn them, and they are even harder to learn for those who lack a profound desire to learn. When I ve tutored English, I ve had no trouble finding clients, but after a session or two, the start to get antsy. One didn t want to do the grammar exercises I d brought him, but wanted to watch a football game and have me give him the vocabulary. Another tried the exercises, found them too hard, and decided he was looking for more of a conversation class. Neither wanted to study the lists of vocabulary I d prepared on different topics so we could have conversations about politics or sports, nor read the short newspaper articles I d found to enrich discussion and provide vocabulary. They wanted me to take out my magic wand and impart my English speaking ability through osmosis. Tutoring clients are generally though not always people who don t want to make much of an effort on their own. They may pay you 20 an hour, but they ll also expect you to go to them at their convenience, losing an hour of time on the subway, plus an hour for the lesson, plus the preparation time. In some cases, it can work out to barely minimum wage (8,42 ). One

option is to have an hour and a half or two hour minimum for lessons, but that can be exhausting for clients whose English is very poor, and it means you ll have to do a lot of prep work to fill those two hours. Another option, then, is to pick a café near your apartment, set up times that you want to teach, distribute flyers in your neighborhood, and try to fit clients one after the other. You ll have to have a strict lateness and cancellation policy, since English classes are usually something that can be canceled at the last minute if the client is a bit tired, got on the wrong subway line, or wants to go to the beach. You CAN find good clients who truly do want to learn English. You ll just have to decide how much time and effort to put into finding them, traveling to them, and preparing for them. Once you figure out your business strategy, you can post free ads online on Craigslist and annonces.ebay.fr, or pay about $25 to post an ad at the American Church or in the FUSAC magazine. Internships in France Internships in American companies can be extremely varied, and can include paid and unpaid opportunities anywhere from a few hours a week to full-time during the summer. In the US, companies that offer internship programs must adhere to a certain number of guidelines, making the internship an opportunity for job training. Conditions can vary, and don t always lead to full-time employment, but they are usually premised on the idea of exchange and training. In France, a high minimum wage and strict hiring and firing laws make the internship less about exchange and more about the employer taking advantage of a poorly paid worker. Students in French universities generally have

to hold one or two internships for course credit or professional training during the course of their studies, especially if they continue through master 2. Companies aware of this fact, and of the fact that most students live at home with their parents and can opt to take courses in «contrôle terminal» (more on that later) hire interns, or stageaires. Unlike flexible American internships, a stage is typically a full-time position for a predetermined amount of time. New laws require stageaires to be paid about 400 per month, plus half of transportation costs, for the privilege of working for the company. While some internships provide learning opportunities, most are a way for a company to replace workers who have taken maternity leave or gone on summer vacation, and stageaires are often expected to discharge the duties of the person on leave for less than 20% of that worker s salary. Often, companies will claim that the internship can lead to a full-time, permanent position, but anecdotal evidence suggests that s rarely the case. French students know that most internships are dead-end, but they do them anyway because they re either required to for their degree, or because they would otherwise be unemployed. The vast number of students and recent graduates working in internships not only helps companies avoid hiring workers (they know they can just find another intern), it also hides a significant number of unemployed and under-employed youth, skewing unemployment figures, and contributes to social problems in France. Because so many internships are full-time, it s probably not a good idea to try to complete one during the academic year; you can always look for parttime paid opportunities or do some volunteer work. If you have the financial means to work basically for free during the summer though, an internship in France can look good on your résumé and show international work experience and language skills. Since you ll be doing real work and not just making coffee and photocopying, you can get good experience and probably get a good letter of recommendation. Just be aware that it won t be easy,

you ll probably be taken advantage of, and no matter how many promises they make you, you probably won t get a full-time position from the deal. Finding a job or Internship Jobs can be tough to find, but here are a few leads on the best places to look for jobs geared towards native English speakers. Your American Program The French know that American study abroad programs are a good place to find American students looking for jobs, so most programs have bulletin boards for job postings or forward requests to student listservs. If you re in an American program and would like to find a job, talk to the administrator of your program, who will probably be able to point you in the right direction. Lots of programs have relationships with schools or families, and consistently recommend students for certain jobs, which can increase your chances of being hired if your program administrator knows the right people. Craigslist Craigslist in France is a lot less popular than Craigslist in the US, and the job posting section hasn t really caught on yet. On the bright side, this means that the jobs that are posted on the site are usually posted by American companies seeking Anglophone employees, or by a few French companies who want to hire native English speakers. There are several postings daily in most categories, especially in Education and Childcare. Unfortunately, this isn t a good place to look for nonprofit work. You can also post your own ads for

free to offer your services, and the French do seem to know that Craigslist is a good place to look for EMT (English Mother Tongue) childcare, tutoring, and translating services. <www.craigslist.org> FUSAC The French USA Contacts magazine was founded to give Anglophones resources in Paris, back in the days before everyone could connect through the internet, and it s still a great resource because it s geared specifically towards English speakers. While the FUSAC does have a website with housing, job offerings, and cultural events in Paris, its magazine, which comes out every month, is much more useful. The job postings generally focus on English training companies looking to hire business English teachers, but most of them don t have requirements beyond being a native English speaker, although teaching experience helps. There are also administrative job postings for people with a wide range of ability in French, and ads from shops and restaurants in tourist areas seeking staff. The magazine can be found at many locations in Paris where Anglophones are known to gather, like the American Church, Shakespeare and Co., and Indiana Café locations, just to name a few. <www.fusac.com> American Church in Paris 65 Quai d Orsay, 75007 Paris, metro Invalides or Pont d Alma. The American Church in Paris has several bulletin boards and makes daily postings of job and housing offerings in Paris, and also posts notices from people offering services or seeking housing. Most of the job postings are for bilingual families seeking after-school babysitters, sometimes in exchange for a studio apartment, but there can be other types of jobs as well. Call early after you see the job postings, because there s always a crowd.

Ebay Annonces Formerly kijiji.fr, the French equivalent of Craigslist, annonces.ebay.fr allows you to post free ads under Services. It used to have a job postings component, but it seems to have disappeared. This site seems more wellknown among the French than Craigslist, so advertising your services here babysitting, tutoring, teaching language or an instrument, or any other service you may be able to provide may bring you responses. Delete and repost your ads frequently, because only ten or fifteen show up on the first page, and you ll want to have yours there. <www.annonces.ebay.fr> Applying for Jobs and Internships For most jobs, you ll need to send a lettre de motivation and curriculum vitae, or cv, both of which should be in French. Here s a guide to writing them, and don t forget to have someone read them before sending them out! Lettre de Motivation A lettre de motivation in France is the equivalent of an American cover letter, and its goal is to match your skills with the job description as best you can. For any letter you write, you should always start with a generic Monsieur, Madame, if you don t know whether the recruiter is male or female. Remeber, cher and chère are familiar, and you shouldn t use them while writing to someone you don t know. If you prefer, à qui de droit is the equivalent to to whom it may concern, and can also be appropriate.

In the first paragraph, you want to state what job you re applying for and why, in a few words, you re the perfect candidate for the job. Keep the first paragraph short and to the point. In the second paragraph, you want to elaborate on the experience you have that relates to the job posting, in this case, teaching experience. Highlight some of the projects you ve completed at your previous jobs to show your capabilities. Next, outline your education and your career objectives to show how this job is a good match for you and contributes to your professional development. While it s true that you should try to line up your professional objectives to the job posting s language, this is the place to explain anything bizarre about why you re applying for a teaching job when your experience is in, say, zoo animal care. Finally, you should identify any attachments (fichier joint) or documents you ve included (pièce joint if it s a real letter). Sign off with a polite conclusion, and sign your name. Sample Lettre de Motivation à Paris, le 13 août, 2010 Monsieur, Madame: En réponse à votre annonce dans le magazine FUSAC le 20 juillet 2010, je vous écris pour poser ma candidature pour le poste de enseignante remplaçant d anglais dans votre école. Puisque je m intéresse beaucoup à l en-

seignement des langues, ce poste correspond parfaitement à mes objectifs professionnels. Assistante d anglais dans des écoles primaires en France pendant deux ans (Académie de Paris en 2007-2008 et Académie de Créteil en 2009-2010), j ai également créé un cours intensif de langue française pour des enfants âgés de 4 à 9 ans dans le Massachusetts en 2008. Puisque j emploie beaucoup de méthodologies diverses dans l organisation de mes cours, ces élèves ont appris par cœur des poèmes tels que «Sonnet 116» de Shakespeare et «Dreams» de Langston Hughes, et ils ont chanté «Imagine» des Beatles lors de leur spectacle de fin d année. Dans les petites classes, l usage de la chanson et du jeu ont été d une importance capitale pour engager les élèves et leur donner envie d apprendre. Diplômée de Columbia University et de Middlebury College, j ai terminé mon M2 en arts, esthétiques, et littératures comparées à l Université de Paris VII Denis Diderot, où j ai écrit mon mémoire sur des contes libertins du Maghreb, pour lequel j au eu Mention Bien. Cette année, je poursuivrai mes études en anthropologie à l École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, pour compléter mes recherches sur la tradition orale, et pour travailler sur le bilinguisme et biculturalisme des enfants issus de l immigration maghrébine et sur leurs connaissances de la tradition orale du pays d origine de leurs parents. Je souhaite devenir écrivaine et faire mon doctorat dans une université américaine afin de continuer mes recherches dans les domaines du folklore, de l histoire postcoloniale, du bilinguisme, et de la littérature. Je mets en fichier joint mon cv, et je me tiens à votre disposition pour un éventuel rendez-vous, au cours duquel je pourrai vous montrer mon portfolio des leçons et de projets. En vous remerciant de votre aide, je vous prie de croire, Monsieur, Madame, à mes sentiments les plus distingués.

Allison Grant Writing Your Curriculum Vitae in French If you apply for jobs or internships in France, you ll need to translate your résumé into French and create a French curriculum vitae, which differs slightly from its American equivalent. In the header, you ll have to include your name, address in France, phone number, and professional email address, and provide personal details about yourself and your right to work. Employers generally ask for your age (which is perfectly legal in France) and nationality, which should be listed right under your name. If you re anything other than «célibataire,» you should note that as well: pacsé(e), marié(e), divorcé(e), and how many children you have, if any. You should also include a passport-sized photo in the top-right corner of your cv. Though it s not required, I typically put an asterisk next to my nationality, and then write, underneath, «*visa étudiant avec autorisation de travail 964h/an.» That way, if the person reading your résumé is unaware of the current regulations on hiring foreigners, he or she won t automatically disregard your letter. Under your personal information, you ll have to include a career objective, or a «projet professionnel.» This can include your current status, like «Student of literature and anthropology,» as well as your future goals, such as «researcher in folklore and oral tradition.» It should be short, and it doesn t necessarily have to be a whole sentence. Next comes the body of your cv, which includes your work experience. Unlike a chronological résumé, your work experience should be organized into categories: teaching, research, administrative, writing, etc. Within each category, your most recent jobs should appear at the top, with older ref-

erences appearing below. Each job listing should include the dates and a brief, one or two-line job description. If you have several categories of work experience, you can either start with the most recent or the one that is most applicable to the job you re applying for. After you ve included all of your work experience, the next section is education, or Formation. Here, you ll want to list the degree, from most recent to least recent, the department, school, city, country, and graduation or expected graduation date. If you complete a thesis or significant research project, you can list that as a bullet point with the title, advisor, and year. In the next section, you ll want to list the languages you speak. If English is your first language, it should go first, with «langue maternelle» followed by any other languages you speak fluently, listed as «bilingue.» If your French isn t perfect, don t list it as «bilingue,» since the recruiters will be able to tell from your cv, lettre de motivation, and phone conversations how fluent you actually are. If you can read, write, and speak without too much difficulty, you can list it as «lu, écrit, parlé.» The next level down is «bonnes connaissances,» which can describe a language you ve studied and have an intermediate level in. The lowest is «notions,» which shows a very basic level. Below your languages, you should include an «informatique» section listing all of the computer programs you can use proficiently. Finally, if you choose, you can include a «centres d intérêt» section, which lists your extracurricular activities and hobbies. These are mostly relevant if they can be used in the context of the job you re applying for. In all, your curriculum vitae should be a bit longer than a résumé, about a page and a half or two pages long.

Sample Curriculum Vitae Due to the limits of e-readers, please consult parisunraveled.com for a sample CV. Money & Banking Moving to a new country entails a lot of preparation, a lot of administrative work, and, unfortunately, a lot of paying too much because you have no idea what things are supposed to cost. For students on a budget, money is a valuable resource, and spending too much on groceries can mean the difference between a weekend in Prague and a day trip to the Louvre. In this section, I ve tried to provide an idea of what things cost, as well as what you can expect to spend during your time in Paris. I ve also tried to give you ideas on ways to manage your money and how to find the best exchange rates, so you can maximize your available cash even when the exchange rate is unfavorable. Budgeting Budgeting can be a difficult task, especially before you go abroad, since it s hard to know what exactly things cost and how much you ll be cooking for yourself as opposed to eating out. Like any personal finance advice article will tell you, making your own tea and coffee is cheaper than going to Starbucks or your neighborhood café, but in France, cafés are part of the cultural experience, and you ll definitely want to meet friends there. Similarly, French food is at least part of the reason you came to France - you re going to want to eat out! In this section, I ve tried to give an overall view of the cost of some basic items, and tried to give an idea of the best places to buy different goods, from the necessities to some more frivolous items.

What Things Cost If you re used to living in a big city like New York or Boston, Paris won t seem that expensive. The prices of goods groceries, clothes, restaurants are on-par with or slightly cheaper than their big-city counterparts in America in terms of raw numbers. By that, I mean that what costs about $2 in New York also costs between 1,50-2 in Paris. The problem, of course, is that the value of the dollar fluctuates daily. In 2008, the average rate for the euro was $1.47, and it got up over $1.56 for days at a time. In 2010, in the wake of the Greek and Spanish economic collapses and the great recession, the euro has dropped to between $1.25 and $1.33, making goods more affordable for those of us who have US savings and checking accounts. If you re not from a big city, though, almost everything will seem more expensive in Paris. Complicating the price comparison is the difference in measurement systems: a liter is slightly larger than a quart (a gallon is 3.78 liters), a kilogram is 2.2 pounds, and don t even get me started on the equivalence from grams to ounces. So the best I can do is to give you a list of the prices at my neighborhood grocery store (full disclosure: it s Monoprix on Avenue Général Leclerc) in October 2010. Prices can, of course, vary from one store to another (even, ironically, among Monoprixs), and are slightly cheaper outside of Paris. In any given week, I spend about 40-50 on groceries, less than I spent when I lived in New York. Milk: 2L, = ½ gallon 1.50 Sugar, 1 kg (2.2 lb) 1.39 Eggs, 12 2.61 box of Frosted Flakes or Cheerios cereal 2.37 4 Monoprix brand vanilla yogurt 0.99 2 pieces of chicken (1/2 lb) 3.45 1 kg bananas (about 7-8) 0.99

1 kg apples (5-6) 3.95 1 box pasta 1.19 1 kg carrots (8-10) 0.95 Clothing companies, on the other hand, often set their prices so the amounts will be equivalent in several different currencies, meaning the prices in Euros will definitely be lower than the price in dollars. Something that costs $10 at H&M in the US will almost certainly cost around 7 in France, although the styles might be slightly different. When shopping for clothes, you can be pretty sure that you re not paying (that much) more than you would otherwise pay at home, which can be a relief for those who want to adopt a more European look while abroad. Shopping for shoes in France is the one area in which the prices can be quite different. There s no equivalent of Payless or DSW, and shoes tend to be either really cheap (and don t last very long) or relatively expensive. A few stores by Chatelet-Les Halles and all around Paris are primarily Asianowned boutiques that sell shoes, handbags, and accessories less expensively than other places, between 13 and 20 for a pair of flats or simple heals. While the shoes look nice, they are not necessarily good quality, and when I ve bought shoes from those stores, they usually haven t lasted more than a few months. Definitely don t wear them out in the rain! In many other French chains Etam, San Marina, André the shoes are nice and of good quality, but expensive. A pair of flats is minimum 39, and a pair of stylish boots like all the French girls wear will run in the 150 range. Unless you re a biblioholic like me, the one place you ll really save money is in the bookstore. Writing is more of a calling than a profession in France, and writers make a pittance in royalties; as a result, most books, even the recently published ones, can be purchased at any bookstore for less than 8. Works in the public domain basically, anything you d be reading in a French literature class are available for 2 in a high-school edition. As a French major, I once spent $25 in a bookstore in New York for a Pocket clas-

sic that goes for 4,50 in France. When you move back to the US, the post office also has special rates for sending used books, so you can send up to 12 pounds (5 kg) of books for about 14. They ll take about a month to arrive, and you must package them at the post office to prove that you re only sending books, but it s a lot cheaper than buying French books in the U.S. Sample One Month Budget Rent 500 Gas/Electricity (if not included in rent) 40 Internet 30 Cell phone 30 prepaid / 50 plan Carte ImagineR 33 Groceries 250 Dinner in restaurant, 3 times per week @ 180 15 /meal Café, 3 times per week @ 4 /drink 48 Sandwich and soda for lunch, 3x/week @ 5 / 60 lunch Movies, 1x/week @ 7 /ticket 28 Total 1199 Where to Shop on a Budget For groceries: Monoprix and Franprix are the two major chains, and neither is particularly expensive, especially for the store-brand products. The best prices, though, are at Ed. The only disadvantage of Ed is that their stores have far fewer products than the other chains, so the selection is not as great; you ll have to decide whether the savings you get from visiting multiple grocery stores is worth the effort. Picard is a frozen-food store that

also has great prices if you have a freezer you can spend a couple euros for a kilogram of frozen soup or vegetables that will last all week. For household items: Bazaar stores in almost every neighborhood have everything from Tupperware to tools are usually the cheapest places to get whatever knickknacks you need for your apartment, whether it be a new showerhead or curtain or a few extra coffee cups. There s no particular chain, so just look for stores with displays of random objects outside. Tati, a department store chain that sells mostly children s clothes, also has things like towels and sheets for relatively inexpensive prices. For clothes: Because of the exchange rate, clothing usually seems cheaper than in the US, but the best places I ve found to shop are Camaieu, Mim (girls only) and Côte à Côte. Camaieu is basically the French Old Navy, with lots of basic styles in lots of colors, all for a pretty good deal. Like Mim, Camaieu often has special offers on these basic styles, discounting them when you buy two or three of the a similar product. While Mim and Camaieu are more mainstream and basic chains, Côte à Côte, a store on the Boulevard Saint Michel, is a bit more eccentric. It s not only a place to buy inexpensive shoes (see previous warning), but it also has some more fashionable styles. H&M also has many stores in France. Bank Accounts Opening a bank account in France is not particularly difficult; like everything here, it just takes a bit of energy and a lot of paperwork. Banks are generally open Tuesday through Saturday, and if you go at lunchtime, you re bound to find a long line and a reduced staff. So when you re ready to open an account, go early in the morning, have all of your paperwork, and the whole process should take about 45 minutes.

As for everything in France, you ll need a justificatif de domicile and a copy of your passport and visa. Be sure to ask for a student account, since those come with special offers, a savings account linked to your checking account that earns interest, and a lower monthly fee (about 2 instead of 5 ). You ll need to choose whether you want a card with overdraft protection or one that blocks purchases once your account is empty. There s no price difference, and no outrageous fees like in the US; as long as you have a positive balance at the end of the month, it doesn t matter if you occasionally drift into the red. The starter debit card that most banks propose has a weekly withdrawal limit of 500 and a monthly swiping limit of 1000. If you withdraw 500 (say, to pay your rent), you ll need to wait until the 8 th day before withdrawing more cash. There s no such limit for checks or automatic withdrawals, so you can always pay your rent by check, but if you think you re going to need more cash than that, ask to see the other debit card options with higher limits. At BNP, the next option up is for 1500 / week and 2500 /month, and the monthly fee actually went down to 1,85. There ll be a bunch of paperwork to fill out, after which the banker will give you your RIB. A RIB, or Relevé d Identité Bancaire, is the most important document your bank will give you, and you ll need many of them while in France. This document is required for almost any type of service contract: a cell phone plan, a Carte ImagineR, an internet plan, an unlimited movie pass. Any type of contract that requires a monthly payment will require a RIB so that the company in question can withdraw money from your account. It s the document that gives them permission to do so. To get more RIBs, you ll need to use your online banking account to print some off; you can also photocopy the one you have or go to your bank to get more. After your account has been opened, the bank will send you your online banking ID and password in two separate letters, and it will take about a week for your debit card and checkbook to be prepared (be sure to ask for both when you open your account). When they are ready, your bank will

first send you a slip with your PIN code (learn it you can t choose your own or change it) and two separate notices in the mail. You ll have to bring that notices to the bank where you opened your account, sign it in front of the teller, and she will give you your card or checkbook in exchange. Before using your card to make purchases, you must make a withdrawal in an ATM in the bank, which will activate the card. Your Branch Unlike in the US, where you can complete any banking transaction at any branch of your bank, you must use your own branch in France, the branch where you opened your account. Any time you would like to update your account information, you must go in-person and speak with your banker. Withdrawing cash or cashing a check at the counter is not usually an option, as most bank branches do not have access to cash, so you ll have to use the ATMs. If you would like to try to withdraw cash or make a deposit with a RIB (before you have your checkbook and debit card, for example), ask your banker how to do so when you open your account. Otherwise, keep plenty of cash on hand until you have access to your card. Closing Your Account When you re preparing to leave France, you must close your bank account, as you cannot legally put a non-french address on the account. Go to the bank a few weeks before you plan to leave to ask what you need to do; if you have to withdraw the remaining cash, it s better to have a few weeks to do so in case there s a possibility of exceeding your weekly withdrawal limit.

Before you close your account, you ll want to cancel any internet and cell phone plans that may automatically withdraw money each month. To do so, you ll have to send a letter recommandé (we ll discuss this next) to the company explaining your departure abroad, including a copy of your plane ticket and carte de séjour. You ll also want to stop payment to these accounts at the bank itself, so you won t come back to France to find that you owe money. After putting the necessary blocks on your account, you ll have to turn over your debit card and checkbook to be destroyed before your departure. If you leave France without closing your account, the bank will send notices to your last known address in France for a few months, notifying you that there was no activity in your account and asking if you d like them to keep it open. If you don t reply, the account will automatically close after three months. If there was still money in the account, you ll have to return to France and do a reclamation, which takes several weeks, in order to claim it. Even if you have the original account documents, the bank branch will have to look in its archives for your information. Transferring money from the US There are very few easy ways to transfer money from the US to France, but being able to access your American funds is important, especially for the first few months when you have a lot of expenses. The H-France academic listserv asked its members in June 2010 to identify the easiest and least expensive ways they ve transferred money between the countries. Some of the responses are included here; others are from my own experience.

Western Union Western Union allows its customers to transfer up to 7600 per day and per person for a withdrawal in a Western Union center or at the Banque Postal in France. This service is very expensive, and fees can vary. It s not a recommended way to send money. Paypal If you have a US Paypal account and a French bank account, you can set up a French paypal account and transfer money between the two. You ll have to send French Paypal a RIB, and this will take a few days to set up, but after that, fees are relatively low. XE XE and other currency trading sites are good for people who need to frequently transfer money from the US. If your parents are going to give you money every month, this may be the way to go. Initially, there s a lot of paperwork involved, but after the account has been set up, you pay only the current exchange rate. Wire Transfer Wire transfers from American accounts to French accounts normally take several days, and fees can range from $30-50 on the American end, and 30 on the French end. It s an expensive way to do business, but in a pinch, it s relatively fast.

Check Cashing Check cashing can be an inexpensive way to transfer money, usually costing around 10, but it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the bank. When you open an account, ask about fees and how long it would take, and name the American bank that the check will be drawn on. The timeframe may depend on whether the two banks have a business relationship. HSBC HSBC has branches in the US and all over Europe, and they offer their clients accounts in U.S. dollars and Euros, among other currencies. If you bank with HSBC in the US, ask about opening a Euro account before you leave, because transferring between your two accounts within the same bank will undoubtedly be the easiest option. Bank of America Bank of America and BNP Paribas have an agreement by which Bank of America customers can withdraw money in any BNP location for no fees. Use your Bank of America debit card to withdraw money at a BNP ATM, and you ll only pay the Interbank exchange rate, by far the best deal you can get. I raised my daily withdrawal limit significantly before leaving the US, and had no problem transferring all of my funds within a few days. You ll have to call Bank of America Credit Protection every few months to remind them that you re living abroad, but this is a very easy way to go.

Tax Filing Obligations During your time in France, you are considered a fiscal resident for tax purposes, and if you work, you may need to file a French tax return in addition to your US tax return. In this section, we ll discuss the filing requirements for tax returns in France and in the US. In France If you live in France for more than 183 days during the tax year (between January 1 and December 31) and earn more than 6.000, you may be required to pay income taxes in France. If you were paid on French payroll, the taxable amount is the net imposable that shows on your last payslip for the year, or on an official letter that your employer will send you in the beginning of the new year showing how much you made in the previous year. In France, the amount you paid in social taxes taken out of your payslip is non-taxable. If you are required to file French income taxes, you ll probably receive a déclaration préremplie in the mail with the amount you earned already filled out. If you earned interest from a French bank account, or had any income from US sources, you ll need to fill that out on a special «déclaration complémentaire.» The tax return filing deadline is in mid-may for French residents, and the end of June for non-residents. You ll have to file your taxes by this date, after which the French government will process your return and send you a tax bill in the mail. You ll pay your 2011 French taxes in the fall of 2012. Because there is no payroll withholding, you ll have to have funds available at that time.

French tax returns are much simpler than American ones, but if you ve never done one, you may need some help. There are several accountant offices in Paris that offer such services for Americans, and a listing can be found on the American Embassy s website. In the United States US citizens are required to file tax returns regardless of where they live, and they are taxable on all income they earn worldwide. The IRS has a far reach, and tax treaties between the US, France, and most countries in Europe allow tax authorities and share information. While the IRS generally doesn t target poor students with pithy incomes, it could obtain information about your activities in France and decide to audit you. The best thing to do is to declare your French income on your US tax return. If you re in France for an extended period of time, or move there permanently, you won t be liable for US taxes, as the Foreign Earned Income exclusion prevents the IRS from taxing you on the first $91,400 of income (this is the 2009 exclusion figure, which increases every year). One way to be eligible for this exclusion is reside abroad for a full year (not necessarily January 1 - December 31, but 365 consecutive days), and spend fewer than 30 days total in the US during that period. This is known as the Physical Presence Test, and can be claimed using tax form 2555, which requires you to identify all of your travel dates to the US as well as time spent in foreign countries. The other way to claim this exclusion is to become a Bone Fide Resident, but to do so, you must live in France for more than one full tax year. If you moved to France on September 1, 2010, for example, you would be able to claim Bona Fide Residence for the 2011 tax year, but you would have to wait to file your tax return until after January 1, 2012. This exclusion is also

claimed on tax form 2555, and you are required to declare all days spent in the US. If you re a student, however, you will probably not be earning $91,400 during the year, and you will probably not be in France long enough to qualify for Bona Fide Residence or the Physical Presence Test. This means that your income is technically taxable in the US. To determine whether you are required to file a US tax return, answer the following questions: - Are you single and a dependant? You must file a tax return if you make more than ~$5,000. - Are you single and not a dependant? You must file a tax return if you make more than ~$9,000. - Do you have an investment account that sold stocks during the tax year? You must file a tax return. To determine your taxable income, you must take your BRUT SALAIRE from your last payslip of the year (NOT your «salaire net imposable,» which is used for French tax returns) and multiply it by the year s exchange rate. Each January, the Federal Reserve publishes the average exchange rate for the previous tax year (in 2009, the Euro was worth, on average, $1.3935, in 2008, this figure was $1.4726). This will give you the salary that you must declare as wages on your return. Check this figure against updated IRS filing requirements on the IRS website to determine whether you re required to file a tax return. Even if you re required to file a return and you make more than $91,400, your French taxes will be credited against your American taxes, so you won t necessarily owe any money, unless you have significant income in the US. Because the forms required to claim the exclusions and credits are complicated and can be manipulated to decrease your overall tax burden, you may wish to contact an accountant to complete your US tax return for your time abroad.

There are many accountants in Paris who complete US tax returns for American clients, and a list can be found on the US Embassy s website. (Full disclosure: I currently work for Horton Tax Services preparing US tax returns). Communication During your stay, however brief, you will probably need phone and internet access, you will definitely need to send important documents to the OFII immigration office, and you may even receive or send packages to the US. In this section, we ll discuss the different ways to get a cell phone, a landline, and internet access, and the most important aspects of using the post office. Post Office Like for most Western countries, the French post office is relatively reliable, and mail sent anywhere in France will arrive at its destination within a day or two. Mail sent to other countries in Europe can be sent with the same stamps (currently,57 ) as mail sent within France, while mail sent to the US can take up to 7 days to reach its destination, and costs,87 for a simple letter of up to 10 grams. Stamps can be purchased in a tabac or in machines at Post Office branches, and prestamped envelopes for up to 20 grams (a page or two) are sold in most grocery stores in packs of 10. If you are sending important documentation (anything official) or objects through the mail, read the following sections on sending a letter Recommandé and sending and receiving packages.

Recommandé avec avis de reception Any time you send a letter to a company, or especially to the French government, you want to send it recommandé avec avis de reception, without exception. This service sends you a written confirmation that your letter has been received, a proof that you ll need to keep if there s ever any doubt that you sent the document in question. To send a letter recommandé in France, you ll need to go to your local post office to pick up a yellow form. Fill it out with your own name and address and the recipient s address, and stick it on the back of the letter. Use one of the extra lines in the recipient address box to write specifically what it is that you re sending (i.e. OFII paperwork and passport copy). Take it to the counter, and the agent will tear out a receipt and stamp it with the date. Keep the receipt at least until you receive the proof of receipt in your mailbox two-three days later (although I would recommend stapling the two together and keeping both). Once you ve stuck the recommandé slip on the back of your envelope (addressed normally), you ll have to weigh it on the machine, specifying that you are sending the letter recommandé avec avis de reception. There s also an option for sending it recommandé without proof of receipt, but I would never recommend using that option. If you re sending a regular-sized envelope, the stamp should cost around 4,70. If you re sending an international recommandé, it should cost about 5,30 more than the price of the stamp. I ve learned the importance of recommandé the hard way: in 2008, when I left France, I sent a letter canceling my internet service, but I did not send it recommandé. This basically gave the company permission to ignore my letter, and they continued to charge me for service for several months after my departure. Even though I had never given them my US address until I sent them the cancellation letter, they began sending me bills at my parents house, and I couldn t stop the bills from accumulating until I returned to

France and went into a boutique. They couldn t refund the money they had taken from my account without the proof of receipt. Moral of the story: send your letters recommandé, and save the receipts forever. When I arrived back in Paris in 2009, I sent my OFII paperwork within a week of arriving, and I waited. Months passed, and I never got a letter with my appointment for the medical visit. Finally, I went to the OFII office, only to find that I wasn t in the system, and that they had lost my paperwork. Showing them the recommandé receipt from September proved that I had sent my documents in a timely fashion, and could have been used in my defense if I had ever been accused of not sending them in within three months of my arrival in France. I also got an appointment more quickly than I otherwise would have. Sending mail and packages A stamp in France costs about,57 for a letter sent in Europe, and about,85 for a letter or postcard sent to the US. Stamps can be purchased either individually or in books of 10 in all post office locations using automated yellow machines. If you re sending packages, you ll have to use the yellow machines to weigh them, and if they re going to the US, you ll have to fill out a customs form to stick on the package, available from any teller. On the form, you ll need to be sure to mark that it s a gift, and that the value is under 35. Note that the US will reject any packages containing food, including chocolate and candy. You can mark something like personal effects, small toys and gifts or something equally generic so your recipient doesn t know what they re getting before opening the package! Letters and packages take about a week to arrive at their destination in the US.

Receiving Gifts If you re receiving gifts in France, you need to make sure that senders know to mark a value of less than 35 on the package, and to be sure to label the package unsolicited gifts. If the value exceeds that amount, or if it s not labeled gift, French customs is going to assume that they are commercial goods to be taxed, and you ll have to pay any fees before picking up your package. You should get a notice in the mail if this happens, but I personally have had two packages lost because they were not marked gifts, and I never received a notice or knew how to figure out where they went. One of the packages was insured, but could still not be traced after it entered France. Internet and Land Lines Internet, phone service, and cable TV are always bundled in France, and are a lot cheaper than their counterparts in the US. There are four main providers: France Telecom/Orange (formerly the national public phone service with a legal monopoly), Neuf Télécom, Bouygues Télécom, and Free. All four are available in all but the most secluded villages in France, which may still be open only to France Telecom lines. Setting up an internet account takes about ten days, although the process can take less time if your apartment has previously had a phone line, and more time if it has never had one. To start the process, you ll need to get the phone number of the previous occupant from your landlord. If you don t have access to this information, usually you ll have to call one of the operators and pay-per-minute to get the number. If you re setting up your account with Orange, Neuf, or Bouyges, you can go into any store (Neuf is owned by SFR) to set up your account. You ll need a RIB and a justificatif de domicile, and for Orange, you ll need to sign a con-

tract for 12 months or risk paying cancellation fees. Neuf, Bouygues, and Free don t have cancellation fees or minimum contract durations. Note that they are legally obligated to cancel your contract without penalty if you are leaving the country; in this case, you ll have to notify them by lettre recommandée, as I previously mentioned. Setting up the account is fairly simple. If your apartment has never had a phone line before, a technician may need to come out to set one up, and the process will take a little longer. The store will give you the router right away, usually in exchange for a deposit, and as soon as they activate your account, you can set it up. If you re setting up a Free account, you ll have to do so online, as Free has no stores. Free will activate your account and set up your phone line once you put in your personal information, and then send you the router by UPS. They ll email you once they ve sent it, and you ll have to stay at home between 9 and 7 PM on the day of delivery, as they can t give you a more precise delivery time. As of October 2010, the prices for internet service is as follows: Orange 19,90 (Internet only) 32,90 (Internet, TV, phone with international calls) 37,90 (Internet, TV, phone with international calls, 3G USB internet key) Neuf 17,90 (Internet only) 29,90 (Internet, TV, phone with international calls) Bouygues: 19,90 (Internet only) 29,90 (Internet, TV, phone with international calls) Free 29,99 (TV, internet, phone with unlimited international calling)

Cell phones Cell phone service is expensive in France, but if you re here for a few months, there s no way to avoid purchasing a phone. On the bright side, you pay only for calls and texts you make, not the ones you receive, so there are no unexpected charges if telemarketers call you. From the US, it costs about $.20 per minute to call a French cell phone from a landline or through Skype, and even calling from French landlines is not free. Using Your US Phone For a year or even a few months, using your US cell phone and plan is too expensive to be worth it. While you may want to have your phone unlocked to be used abroad in case of emergency during the first few weeks while you re getting settled in, you ll probably want to buy a French phone. Before leaving for France, you can also put your contract on hold, paying a fee of $5-10 per month instead of your usual monthly rate, and your contract will resume once you return to the US. If you choose this option, the end of your contract will usually be extended by the length of time you had your account on hold. I was unable to cancel my Verizon contract despite proving that I was leaving the country, but other operators may be different. If you have a US operator that sometimes uses SIM cards, you should have your phone unlocked by that operator before leaving. You ll be able to get a French SIM card and keep the phone you already have. If not, you can purchase a phone in France for anywhere from 1 when you sign a 12- or 24-month contract, to 30-40 for a low-range phone with a prepaid card purchase. Prices go from 1 all the way up to the 739 unlocked iphone.

Contracts Cell phone contracts are for either 12 or 24 months, although like internet services, they can be canceled by recommandé if you prove you re leaving the country. Contracts are for minimum 1 hour of talking, and if you have a smartphone, they usually include unlimited texting and internet access from your phone. Minutes roll over, and the operator notifies you by text if you ve gone over or about to go over your monthly usage. Using the phone to connect your computer will cost extra, though. There are so many different phones and plans that it s silly to try to list some examples here. The monthly minimum is generally between 40-50, or a bit more if you have a smartphone. Some operators, like SFR, have a discount for students under 26 (with SFR, it s 10% off). If you re only in France for a year and would like to sign a 12-month contract, the price per month is usually about 5-6 more than for the 24-month plan, depending on the operator. If you can avoid it, don t go to the store on a Saturday. You ll need a justificatif de domicile and a RIB in order to open your account, and the rest is not very complicated. As always, if you have to cancel your contract before the end of the 12 months, send a letter recommandée to the company explaining why you are canceling your contract (for leaving the country) and remind them that they cannot charge you cancelation fees for that reason. Prepaid Phone Cards Prepaid credits are available on any phone and operator. You ll have to buy a French SIM card for about 15 to get a French phone number, and then recharge the card according to how much you use it. Texts cost about,10 each to send, and calls can be about,35 /minute, again depending on the

time of day, the operator, and the amount you charged the card with. There is a number you can call or text to check your balance. To purchase a phone and the cards, you can either go directly to the operator s store, or you can go to the Phone Store, which has many locations in Paris and throughout France, and which sells prepaid cards for all of the carriers and lets you compare plans. Once you have your phone, you can buy credits to recharge your account at Monoprix, the Phone Store, and other grocery store locations. Unlocking Your Phone When Apple released the iphone with only France Telecom, the other cell phone operators sued to be able to cell it. The French court system found that Apple was breaching anti-trust laws, and that it could not restrict availability to only one operator. In France, the iphone and all cell phones are available on all cell phone plans. When you buy a phone from a particular operator, though, the phone is still locked to that one company, making it difficult to switch the phone from one company to another. But French cell phone companies are required by law to unlock ALL phones after 6 months, for free, without hassle. Even iphones. If you re in France on a 7-month teaching contract and buy any phone, you can return to the US with it and use it with any carrier.

Transportation Within Ile-de-France The Paris public transportation is fast, clean, and relatively reliable, especially compared to its American counterparts in New York and Boston (I can t speak for Washington, D.C. or Chicago since I haven t lived there). Using a combination of subway, bus, and tramlines, you can get most places in Paris in about 30-40 minutes, and regional rail lines in the RER system can take you to most suburbs in Ile-de-France in less than an hour. The RATP The RATP is the metro, bus, tramway, and regional train system of the Paris region, and it is a very efficient way of getting around Paris. In fact, you can get almost anywhere in the city within about a half hour. During the day, and especially during rush hour, you should only have to wait 3-5 minutes for a train, or 5-8 minutes for a bus or tram, depending on the line. The RATP has an iphone application for,79 that can give you the quickest route to your destination in real time, which I would highly recommend to anyone with an iphone. Otherwise, the RATP website can also map out the best routes for you. For more information on transportation passes, including up-to-date rates: <http://www.ratp.info/>

Metro Tickets / Carnet Individual métro tickets can be purchased in machines at the most entrances to train stations, or at the ticket window at some entrances. They cost 1,70 for zones 1-2, and they can be used in the subway, the bus, or the RER within the two zones for 1.5 hours after they are first validated, including transfers. A «carnet» of 10 tickets can be purchased for 12. Tickets purchased on the bus are 1,80 and cannot be used for transfer to other buses or the subway. If you have a Carte ImagineR or Orange, but need to travel outside of the zones programmed on your card, you ll have to purchase an extra ticket. The cost of individual tickets and carnets of 10 tickets are listed below. I ve listed the average price for stations in the zones, but please note that you need to indicate your destination on the machine when you purchase your tickets. Charles de Gaulle Airport, for example, is in Zone 5, but RER tickets there cost more than regular zone 5 stations. Similarly, if you use other means of public transportation (the Opera buses or the AirFrance buses, for example), the ticket prices can also vary. You are required to keep your ticket with you at all times while on public transportation ; «contrôleurs» can ask you to show your ticket or make you pay a hefty fine. Ticket prices as of October 1, 2010: 1 ticket carnet Zone 3 3,05 24,40 Zone 4 3,80 30,40 Zone 5 4,40 35,20

Airport CDG 8,70 69,60 Carte ImagineR The Carte ImagineR is by far the best deal for students living in Paris for more than a few months. It is an unlimited metro and bus pass for students under 26 that gives you access to Ile-de-France for about half the cost of a Carte Orange. To order a pass, you ll need to pick up the form at any metro station, attach a passport photo, a photocopy of your student ID or certificate of enrollment, and send it to the center with your RIB (for a monthly automatic withdrawal) or a check for the yearly fee. About ten days later, you ll receive a pass in the mail with your picture on it, all ready to use. The starting date for the pass can be September 1, October 1, November 1, December 1, or January 1, so you re still eligible if you arrive in mid- to late- September. When you order your pass, you ll need to check off which zones you d like to use. If you live, go to school, and/or work in Paris, your best bet is zones 1-2, which cover all of Paris proper and the suburbs that touch the Périphique (the highway that goes around the city). If you have a job as a language assistant outside of Paris, you ll need to check to see what zone your school is in before ordering your card. The rates for the different zones are as follows for 2010-2011 Annually Zones 1-2 32,30 298,70 Zones 1-3 45,13 414,20 Zones 1-4 58,00 530,00 Zones 1-5 70,90 646,10 Zones 1-6 79,50 723,50

The Carte ImagineR is personal and nontransferable, and you must have it with you at all times and validate it when entering public transportation. RATP agents, or controleurs, can stop you in the train or the station and ask for your ticket. If you have a Carte ImagineR, they wave it on a small machine to check if it was validated, and then you re on your way. I ve always kept my card in my wallet, and I have never been asked to show the card with my picture when I ve been controlé. The best part about the Carte ImagineR is that on weekends, holidays, and during school vacation periods, you can go to any zone you want without paying extra. Traveling during the Toussaint break? Use your card to go to the airport on the RATP buses or in the RER at no extra cost. Want to go to Disneyland or Vincent van Gogh s apartment on a Saturday? The train ride is free. The Carte ImagineR also provides proof of being a student, and comes with a lot of discounts for young people. It can be used in movie theaters, McDonald s, and many venues throughout Paris and Ile-de-France to get reduced ticket and meal prices. Some places only require showing the card itself, while others require you to show the Carte Bons Plans (Discount card) that will accompany it in the mail. The card also comes with a pamphlet outlining the discounts for the year, which can vary. The Carte ImagineR is valid for one year from its start date, but if you re staying in Paris for more than one year, you can renew your card easily by mail. You ll receive a renewal form in the mail in May or June, or you can pick one up at the agent s window at any subway station. If you use the form that s been sent to you, it should already be filled out with your name, address, and bank information, in which case you only need to fill in what s changed. Attach a RIB or check, and a certificate of enrollment for the next school year, and send it in at least two weeks before your card expires to ensure that your service is not interrupted.

Carte Orange (or Pass Navigo) The Carte Orange is similar to the Carte ImagineR, but without the requirement of being a student under 26. It s the metro pass for les grands. A Carte Orange does not have to be ordered by mail, but can be obtained at the ticket window of any subway station. Pay for the first month, plus a 5 fee to purchase the card, and have a passport-sized photo on hand to attach to the card, and it will be ready to go tout de suite. On the first of each month, you ll have to renew your card by paying the monthly fee at the ticket window or a machine. This card does not have any of the benefits of the Carte ImagineR. Rates for as of October 1, 2010 are as follows: Weekly Monthly Zones 1-2 18,35 60,40 Zones 1-3 73,85 78,20 Zones 1-4 29,05 95,50 Zones 1-5 35,40 109,90 Zones 1-6 37,60 123,60 Medical Care & Emergencies Even if you don t have an illness or medical condition before leaving for France, it is important to be famililar with France s medical system in case of an accident or sudden illness. For all of the scare tactics certain politicians use to scare Americans away from a French-style social security system, France s healthcare is consistently ranked among the top programs in the world. Healthcare in France is paid out of everyone s payroll at a certain

percentage of salary, and it is safe, effective, and most importantly, inexpensive, covering a vast majority of French people and other Europeans living in France. Socialized Medicine While European governments have largely agreed to cover each other s citizens, no such agreement exists between private American companies and France. As an American student planning on living in France for a few months or a year, you may be exempt from buying coverage if your American university program requires you to purchase health insurance and can obtain an exemption for students in its program. If you enroll directly in a French university, you ll be required to pay for a year of basic social security through one of these centers, and currently, the fee is 200 for the year. Unfortunately, there is no way to get out of paying the 200 fee. Once you enroll, you are free to enroll in a mutuelle at any time by agreeing to pay a monthly fee for the level of services you require. If you re a US citizen under 26, you can also choose to remain on your parents health insurance and forego supplemental coverage, but you ll have to make sure your insurer will pay foreign hospitals directly so you won t have to pay large sums of money out-of-pocket in case of illness or an accident. This 200 fee doesn t cover everything, and only pays for the most important medical procedures and primary care visits, so if you need more than the most basic coverage, you may want to consider enrolling in a mutuelle, a form of supplementary health insurance. Basically, everyone who is enrolled in state-run social security must be enrolled through a payment center, which processes the adherant s payments, ensures coverage, and reimbuses for out-of-pocket expenses. Employers generally choose the center that will cover their employees, and employees can purchase supplemental insurance

through the payment center, which offers a certain number of «mutuelles,» either through the company convering their employer or through an independent provider. Any given mutuelle will have several different rates for different prices and levels of coverage, expressed in percentages, and can offer special deals for employees of the companies it covers, or for certain types of public service workers. The cheaper, and more basic mutuelles will generally cover 80-90% of prescription medications (some of which are not reimbursed by social security, including newer drugs and more modern versions of birth control), dental and eye coverage. More comprehensive plans cover 100% of prescriptions, glasses and contacts, and offer payments in case of serious illness. SMEREP and LDME SMEREP and LDME are the two student «mutuelles,» and they also serve as supplementary insurance plans that complement regular coverage, paying for glasses and contacts, brand-name prescription medications, and certain procedures not otherwise covered by social security. If you plan on purchasing mutuelle coverage while in France, by all means compare the pricing and coverage for both companies, but if you don t anticipate needing a mutuelle, both centers have comparable pricing and plans, are good deals for students, and offer other types of insurance such as short-term travel insurance and housing insurance. Choose the one that s closest to your apartment or school, in case you need to bring receipts for reimbursement.

Carte Vitale and Mutuelle Reimbursements Once you sign up for sécurité sociale through your university, your coverage begins immediately. You should receive a temporary card in the mail within a few weeks, along with a letter instructing you to send other documentation (usually your birth certificate with official translation) in order to receive your carte vitale. Before you receive your carte vitale, you ll have to pay any medical expenses out of pocket, but you should ask for a «feuille de soins» from the doctor in order to get reimbursed for the cost of the visit. One of the advantages of France s social security system is that you won t pay more because you pay in cash; everyone pays the same amount. Once you receive your carte vitale, you can use it to pay at the doctor s office and the pharmacy. For any expenses not covered by your carte vitale, you can ask for a facture, either to get reimbursed by your American insurer or by your French mutuelle. Even if you have mutuelle covereage and your expenses are covered, you ll probably need to pay out of pocket and submit the receipts, but you can check with your provider for the procedure, since it may vary. Clinics and Primary Care If you have a non-urgent health concern and need to see a doctor while in France, there are many inexpensive clinics in every neighborhood that are open daily. Clinic visits are generally quick and cost between 20-30, and the doctor will be able to provide any prescriptions you may need. The French generally see their doctors frequently and get at least one or two presciptions when they go to the doctor, so you may get an antibiotic if you go with a headcold. On the other hand, many medications that are available

over-the-counter in the US must be prescribed in France (like Ibprofen), so that explains some of the excess prescriptions. Most clinics are walk-in, but you may want to call in advance to confirm the hours, and to see if a doctor on staff speaks English if you re uncomfortable being examined in French. A list of clinics in France can be found on the website listed below: - <http://www.annuairesante.com/as_13_75_centres-de-sante_ Paris.html#> SOS Médecins SOS Médecins is a home-care service serving all of France, and its doctors are on-call 24 hours a day. SOS Médecins typically serves anyone who can t leave the house to seek medical care, either because the patients are elderly and have limited mobility, or because they potentially have contageous illnesses such as the flu. If you re too ill to leave your apartment, you can call SOS Médecins for a consultation, and they ll evaluate your case over the phone to assign a priority rating and send a doctor, usually within a few hours. You ll have to pay a fee, around 60 if you call during a weekday, or around 80 if you call at night or on a Sunday. You can get reimbursed for this visit by sécurité sociale or your American insurer. For more information: - Call 3624 from any phone. The call will cost,12 /minute. - Call 01 47 07 77 77

Emergency Care There are good hospitals in virtually every neighborhood in Paris, and in case of an emergency, the ambulance will bring you to the nearest emergency room. Since English is a widely spoken second language among medical personnel, you should never have a problem finding an interpreter, no matter where you go. The American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine is just outside of Paris, and while not all of the staff is American, they are mostly bilingual. The hospital is the only one in Europe to be accredited by the Joint Commission, which accredits the best hospitals in the United States, as well as France s health commission. If you are treated at the American Hospital, you should know that it is a private hospital and does not accept direct payments by third parties, meaning that you will get a bill upon leaving, pay for services up front, and be reimbursed by sécurité sociale and your mutuelle or by your American insurer. For more information: - <www.american-hospital.org> - Patient Services: 01 46 41 27 71 Food The intricacies of French cuisine with all of its delicacies are largely outside the scope of this book, and there are many travel guides and restaurant guides (listed in Chapter 7) that will guide you to the best of Paris and France. But while French cuisine may have an international reputation, the many opportunities to get cheap, healthy food in Paris don t, so here s a guide to getting a good meal for a better price anywhere in Paris.

CROUS Crous, a chain of government-subsidized student cafeterias, is the by far the cheapest way for a student to eat in France. In Paris alone, 14 Crous restaurants serve thousands of students a full meal daily, all for the ridiculously low price of 3. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can get a full, balanced meal: bread, entrée, plat, and fruit or dessert by showing your student ID. The food, though low-priced, is generally good quality, and some locations have grill, pizza, and salad bar options in addition to the entrée and main dish of the day. Most locations are only open for lunch from 11:30-2:00, but some locations, like Cité Universitaire, are also open for dinner. I ve included this information below when available. Although there are Crous throughout Paris and France, they are concentrated around university areas, with many in the 5th, 6th, and 13th arrondissements. Some locations allow students to pay for meals with cash, while others take «Moneo» cards that can be recharged, usually with a machine near the cafeteria s entrance. Many student ID cards have a Moneo chip, so you can put a certain amount of money on your card using the machines with a debit card; otherwise, you can purchase a Moneo card at any Crous restaurant for 2, and it will be valid all year. At a few Crous locations, tickets can be purchased at the entrance and then exchanged for meals. Since most students take advantage of the Crous offerings, plan to get to a Crous restaurant on the early side. You may wait a while in line, but bring a book, and the wait will be well worth it. Crous restaurants are generally only open during the school year, from September to June, and closed during the summer. One usually remains open during the summer, and the location is disclosed towards the end of the year.

The following Crous restaurants are located in Paris: - Bichat, 16 rue Henri Huchard, 75018, Metro line 13, Porte Saint Ouen. Open 11:30-14:15 Monday through Friday. Offers the normal CROUS menu, plus sandwiches and pizza. Accepts Moneo or cash. - Boulogne, 71 avenue Edouard Vaillant, 92100 Boulogne, Metro line 9, Marcel Sambat. Open 11:30-14:00 Monday through Friday. Traditional restaurant menu. Accepts Moneo or cash. - Bullier, 39 avenue Georges Beranos, 75005, RER B, Port-Royal. Open Monday through Sunday, 11:30-14:00 and 18:15-20:00. Traditional restuarant menu, with pizza on Saturday at lunch, and Sunday brunch beginning at 10:30. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Censier, 31 rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 75005, Metro line 7, Censier Daubenton. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:30. Pizza stand, exotic food stand, and grill. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Châtelet, 10 rue Jean Calvin, 75005, Metro line 7, Censier Daubenton. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:30. Pizza, grill, and salad bar offered in addition to or as part of traditional menu. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Citeaux, 45 boulevard Diderot, 75012, Metro 1 and 14, RER A and D, Gare de Lyon. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:30. Pizza, grill, and traditional menu. Accepts Moneo and tickets. - Cuvier, 8 bis rue Cuvier, 75005, Metro lines 7 and 10, Jussieu. Enter through Paris 6 or Quai Saint Bernud. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:30. Jussieu space: fish, pasta, pizza, salad bar offered in addition to or as part of traditional menu (main courses and desserts). Garden area: grill, rotisserie, soup or dessert. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Dauphine, 2 boulevard Lannes, 75016, Metro line 2, Porte Dauphine. Open Monday through Friday, 11:20-14:15. Traditional menu and Tex-Mex. Accepts Moneo or cash.

- Halle aux Farines, 3 voie piétonne F6, 75013, Metro line 14 or RER C, Bibliothèque François Mitterand. Enter through Paris 7. Pizza, grill, soup and salad bar offered in addition to traditional menu. Accepts Moneo and cash. - IUT Descartes, 143 avenue de Versailles, 75016, Metro line 10, Chardon Lagache. Open Monday through Friday 11:30-14:00. Traditional restaurant menu. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Mabillon, 3 rue Mabillon, 75006, Metro line 10, Mabillon. Open Monday through Friday 11:30-14:00 and 18:00-20:00. Traditional restaurant menu on 3 floors, pizza on ground floor. Accepts Moneo and cash. Closed for renovations until September, 2011. - Mazet, 5 rue Mazet, 75006, Metro lines 4 and 10, Odéon. Open Monday through Friday 11:30-14:00. Traditional menu, pizza, grill. Accepts Moneo and cash. Open from Monday to Friday 18:15-20:00 until Mabillon reopens. - Rabelais, 2 avenue de la Porte de Clignancourt, 75018, Metro line 4, Porte de Clignancourt. Open Monday through Friday 11:15-14:00. Traditional restaurant menu. Accepts Moneo and cash. - Tolbiac, 17 rue de Tolbiac, 75013, Metro line 14 and RER C, Bibliothèque François Mitterand. Open Monday through Friday, 11:00-14:00. Traditional restaurant menu. Accepts Moneo and cash. A brouchure listing Crous locations and their hours is published annually and made available in every university at the beginning of the academic year. For more information: - <www.crous-paris.fr>

American Food in Paris Americans don t generally come to France to eat American food, but if you re living abroad for an extended period of time, it s only natural to get homesick. Luckily, there are a few stores that sell American grocery products, including everything from Reese s peanut butter cups to Betty Crocker cake mixes and Stoffer s stuffing. Prices are several times what they are in the US, but for the occasional treat or the authentic Thanksgiving dinner, it can be worth it. The Thanksgiving Store The Thanksgiving Store is an grocery store located in the 4th arrondissement that carries many different American products year-round. Around Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving Store takes orders for cooked and uncooked turkeys, and sells other pre-made dishes like apple, cherry, pumpkin, and pecan pies, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. The Thanksgiving Store also has a restaurant, which closes for about a month around Thanksgiving. - 20, rue Saint-Paul, 75004 Paris, Metro Saint-Paul - For more information: <www.thanksgivingparis.com> The Real McCoy Like the Thanksgiving Store, The Real McCoy is an American grocery store with an adjacent restaurant serving American meals. - 194 rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris, Metro Ecole Militaire - The store has no website.

Breakfast in America Breakfast in America is a restaurant serving authentic American meals, from bacon and eggs to cheeseburgers, and they are open daily. They have two locations: - 17, rue des Écoles, 75005 Paris, Metro Cardinal Lemoine - 4, rue Malher, 75004 Paris, Metro Saint-Paul - For more information: <www.breakfast-in-america.com> Other American Specialties Items like peanut butter can generally be found in the international food aisle of any supermarket, and some chains stock a few random products on a rotating basis. I once found root beer in the G-20 near my apartment, but it didn t last very long. Grocery stores in the 7th and 16th arrondissements are more likely to have a bigger variety of American products, since many Americans live in these areas. If you re spending Thanksgiving in Paris and want to make an authentic meal, consider ordering a turkey from your local butcher rather than purchasing one from an American grocery store. The one I ordered this year was half the price (at 6,42/kg) that the Thanksgiving Store would have charged. If you don t have an oven, though, you ll have to pay the premium for a cooked turkey, and order at least four to six weeks in advance. Other American delicacies like butternut squash and sweet potatoes have begun to make appearances in fruit and vegetable markets and even in some chains like Monoprix. Check with a few different vendors starting a few weeks in advance to avoid paying the American stores expensive prices.

Worship Mosques, synagogues, and Catholic churces are abundant in Paris, and they generally conduct worship in French or their sacred language; there isn t necessarily one place to go for services in English. Since tourist maps show places of worship, you can go to the one nearest you and ask someone at the information desk if they offer services in English or know of a nearby mosque/temple/church that does. The three churches listed below are not listed for ideaological reasons, but because they are affiliated with American institutions, have services conducted primarily in English, and offer other services and activities for American expatriats. American Cathedral (Anglican-Episcopalian) The American Cathedral is an Anglican/Episcopalian church with worship services at 9 AM and 11 AM on Sundays. The Cathedral also offers a Sunday evening Bible study and prayer group, and has a choir. For more information: - 23, avenue Georges V, 75008 Paris - <www.americancathedral.org> American Church in Paris (Protestant) The American Church in Paris is a multidenominational Protestant church, with traditional services at 9 AM and 11 AM and a contemporary service at 1 PM on Sundays. In addition to worship, the ACP has an active youth group, Bible study, women s groups, youth music, young adult, and adult

choirs, and classrooms for various English-language activities from Alcoholics Anonymous to Yoga. For more information: - 65, Quai d Orsay, 75007 Paris - <www.acparis.org> Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Paris The UUFP holds Unitarian Universalist worship services once a month, on Sunday at 3 PM, near the Musée d Orsay in Paris. Because it has no permanent office, the only other service it offers is childcare during the service, and occasional Saturday workshops. For more information, including worship schedule: - Temple de Pentemont, 106 rue de Grenelle, 75006 Paris, Metro Solférino - <www.info.uufp.info> Exercise and Working Out Gyms Paris has many municipal gyms with gymanasiums for sports teams and rooms with standard exercise equipment, but the amenities at each gym vary widely. Unfortuantely, this means that there s no comprehensive information available on equipment and pricing.

A full list of gyms can be found online, but you ll have to check out the one nearest to you to see if it suits your needs: - <www.equipement.paris.fr> Activities and Club Sports In every arrondissement of Paris, there are dozens of non-profit associations and clubs organizing activities from Acrosport to Yoga in the municipal gyms. Schedules, membership, and pricing varies widely since all of the groups are privately run, but a complete listing of registered groups can be found online or in your arrondissement s mairie. Most groups will allow you to attend once or twice to test it out before paying the membership fee, so you should ask if you re unsure. For a complete list of groups: - <www.associations-sportives.paris.fr> Swimming The City of Paris has 38 Olympic sized municipal pools open daily from 7 AM to 8 PM, and most pools have a «nocturne,» one night per week that they are open late. In addition to being open to the public, most pools offer swimming lessons and «aquatic activities» for a low rate.

Students living in Paris (showing a Paris university ID, an American program ID, or another justificatif de domicile) can pay the reduced rate of 1,70 for a single entry, 14 for a card worth ten entries, or 19 for a trimester (September-December, January-April, or May-August). Aquatic activities such as water aerobics are held according to the individual pool s schedule and cost 6 for a single activity or 53 for ten activities. A schedule is published at the beginning of each trimester and can be picked up at your neighborhood pool. Pool patrons are required to shower, wear sandals in designated areas, and wear a swimming cap. For pool locations and hours: - <www.piscines.paris.fr>

Chapter 4 Taking Advantage of Living in France Pariscope & l Officiel des spectacles These two magazines can be found in any newspaper stand, and they are indispensible guides to living in Paris. Both guides are released on Wednesday and outline all of the events and goings-on in Paris from Wednesday to Tuesday. The sections in these magazines list current movies, organized by film and by movie theater location, conferences, museums, expositions, concerts, plays, tourist sites, and even restaurant specials with dates, hours, and ticket prices. Pariscope costs,40 and l Officiel des Spectacles is,35. For students, the site www.parisetudiant.fr is also a good resource for events in Paris. Museums in Paris All museums in Paris and the suburbs are listed in the Officiel des Spectacles along with location, hours, and rates (if not free). In the Officiel des Spectacles, the student rate will be designated with TR (Tarif Réduit) or -26 (under 26). A note on the International Student ID Card sold by the STA travel agency: unless the card comes with offers specific to French museums, it s unlikely that this card will help you get a discount anywhere. Since the expansion of

the Shengen space, the European Union has decided to offer free entry to students under 26 who are residents of the European Union, and in some cases, citizens. You re far more likely to get the discount showing your French student ID, your Carte de Séjour, or an ID from an American program located in Paris than you are to get a discount with such a card. Free for Everyone Certain museums are free daily for everyone, and some are free from October 1 to May 1, during the off-season. A list can be found online, with a link at the bottom to the winter freebies: - <http://www.parisinfo.com/paris-guide/argent/gratuite-et-bonsplans/> Many museums are open after hours one night per week for free, and on the first Sunday of every month. It s often very crowded, but for some of the more expensive museums, it can be worth it. Here s a link to an online list: - <http://www.parisinfo.com/paris-guide/argent/gratuite-et-bonsplans/dossier/gratuite-et-bons-plans-dans-les-musees-et-monuments_gratuits-le-1erdimanche-de-chaque-mois-toute-l-annee> Free with American Program in Paris ID Many museums have recently changed their policies, and now give the reduced rate or free admission only to students who are residents of the EU. Although this is technically your case, they enforce that requirement by accepting only student ID cards from French or other European universities. If you don t have a French university ID (or before yours is issued), your

American program should be able to provide you with a list of museums that are free with their ID card. If you take an art history class in your program, your school might be able to give you an Art History Student card, which will get you in to some museums for free that otherwise have a reduced rate for students. And if you have such a card, it never hurts to try to use it. Free <26 years old Most national museums, as well as some private ones, are free for students under 26. A list can be found online: - <http://www.tout-paris.org/musees-monuments-gratuits-moins- 26-ans-1478> Movie Theaters There are many movie theaters in Paris, and compared to movie theaters in the US, French movie theaters actually have discounted rates for students. Though this listing contains pricing for the three major chains, prices can vary slightly between the chain s theaters. Concessions such as popcorn, candy, and soft drinks are sold at most theaters for movie theater prices. Complete movie listings, including listings for independent movie theaters and ticket prices, can be found in the Pariscope or the Officiel des Spectacles weekly.

Gaumont Gaumont Cinemas offer student tickets for 8 for students, 6 with the Carte ImagineR Monday through Thursday, and 7 with the Carte ImagineR Friday through Sunday. Anyone can subscribe to Le Pass and see an unlimited number of movies for 19,80 /month. To subscribe to this program, go to any Gaumont theater from opening until 9 PM with an ID and a RIB. For more information: - <www.cinemasgaumontpathe.com> MK2 MK2 Cinemas are artsy and sophisticated, show primarily foreign films, and are located in student areas like the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Latin Quarter. Student tickets are about 7. For more information: - <www.mk2.com> UGC UGC Cinemas is another mainstream movie theater company, but sadly, it offers no special rates for students. It does, however, have an unlimited movie card called UGC Illimité, which costs 19,80 /month for one person or 35 /month for two people, plus a 30 registration fee. The card can only be used in UGC theaters that accept it, and the list of these movie theaters

is posted on the UGC website. You can also purchase the card UGC 5 for 30, which is 5 movie tickets valid from 7 PM on Sunday through 5 PM on Friday, or the UGC 7 card for 40, which is 7 movie tickets valid at any time. You can sign up for any of these cards online or in certain UGC theaters, which are also listed on the website. For more information: - <www.ugc.fr> Live Performance Tickets Students who want to see ballets or operas at the National Opera generally need to purchase tickets months in advance, beginning in June for the following year. Student rush tickets become available one hour before the scheduled performance time and can be purchased for 5. For more information: - Opéra Bastille, 130 rue de Lyon, 75012 Paris, Metro Bastille - <www.operadeparis.fr> School Vacation Periods Because many French families actually go on vacation during the school vacation periods, France is divided into three zones, which each have separate (if slightly overlapping) vacation periods. Paris is located in Zone C, along with Bordeaux, and its vacations are listed here. If you re an English teacher, these are your school vacations; however, most universities begin in late September or early October, and thus don t have Toussaint or Winter vacation periods. While Christmas, spring, and sum-

mer vacations are universal, you ll have to check with your particular school or program to see if you ll get a few days off in the fall or winter. Some programs and universities hold a reading week at this time, during which, as one of my professors put it, students and faculty read very far away from Paris. In 2011-2012: Toussaint Vacation: October 22 November 2, 2011. Classes begin again on Thursday, November 3. Christmas Vacation: December 17, 2011 January 2, 2012. Classes begin again on Tuesday, January 3. Winter Vacation: February 18 March 4, 2012. Spring Vacation: April 14 29, 2012. (Sometimes called Easter Vacation whether it s around Easter or not). Summer Vacation: July 5 September 4, 2012. In 2012-2013: Toussaint Vacation: October 27 November 7, 2012. Classes begin again on Thursday, November 8. Christmas Vacation: December 22, 2012 January 6, 2013. Classes begin again on Monday, January 7. Winter Vacation: March 2 March 17, 2013. Spring Vacation: April 27 May 13, 2013. Summer Vacation: July 4 September 3, 2013.

For more information, the national school calendar can be found on the Ministry of Education s website: <http://www.education.gouv.fr/> National Holidays (Jours fériés) In addition to its generous vacation periods, France also has a national holiday about once a month. Everything is closed, classes are canceled, and transportation runs on a Sunday schedule on the days listed below: All Saints Day: November 1 (Tuesday in 2011, Thursday in 2012) Armistice: November 11 (Friday in 2011, Sunday in 2012) Christmas: December 25 (Sunday in 2011, Tuesday in 2012) New Year s Day: January 1 (Sunday in 2012, Tuesday in 2013) Easter Monday: April 9 in 2012, April 1 in 2013 Labor Day: May 1 (Tuesday in 2012, Wednesday in 2013) Victory in Europe Day: May 8 (Tuesday in 2012, Wednesday in 2013) Ascension: Thursday, May 17 in 2012, Thursday, May 9 in 2013 Pentecost Monday: May 28 in 2012, May 20 in 2013 Bastille Day: July 14 (Saturday in 2012, Sunday in 2013) Assumption: August 15 (Wednesday in 2012, Thursday in 2013) For more information, a list of bank holidays can be found online: <http://www.joursferies.fr/>

Special Events Journées du Patrimoine (September) The Journées du Patrimoine are a national event held on a weekend in September during which a number of national buildings and monuments not usually open to the public hold visits and guided tours. Some of the buildings opened up during this weekend are private residences of historical significance and government buildings like the Sénat, so this is not an event to miss. Most visits are free, although privately owned buildings can charge a small fee. All of France, as well as other European Union member countries, participate in the Journées du Patrimoine and hold public events. In 2011, the Journées du Patrimoine will be held on September 17 and 18. For more information: - <www.journeesdupartrimoine.culture.fr> Nuit Blanche (October) Nuit Blanche, like the Journées du Patriomoine, is an international event with free activities throughout France and Europe. Held on a Saturday in October, Nuit Blanche is an outdoor festival, with large-scale modern art expositions in Paris s many parks and gardens, and some musical and performing arts performances in the streets. It begins around 8 PM, once the sun starts to set, and lasts until the wee hours of the morning. Several lines of the subway stay open late to accomodate those who participate in the festivities.

In 2011, Nuit Blanche will be held on Saturday, October 1. For more information: - <www.nuitblanche2011.paris.fr Nuit des Musées (May) Like its name suggests, Nuit des Musées is an evening in May during which all museums throughout France and Europe are free and open to the public from closing time (about 6 PM) to midnight. Many museums hold special conferences, performances, and exhibitions during this time. In 2012, the Nuit des Musées will be held on May 12. For more information: - <www.nuitdesmusees.culture.fr> Fête de la Musique (June) The Fête de la Musique is an annual nation-wide concert held on the summer solstice. Throughout Paris, bands, choral groups, and other musical ensembles perform in parks, gardens, and concert halls, and all of the events are free and open to the public. The Fête de la Musique is always held on June 21. For more information:

- <www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr Paris Plage (July and August) After Bastille Day, when most Parisians flee the city for a month of vacation, land-locked Paris becomes a beach. City officials truck in sand, close down part of the highway running along the Seine by the Louvre, and turn it into a beach, complete with volleyball, tents, chairs, and concessions. Beginning in 2007, the city also started turning a portion of the Bassin de la Villette into a beach as well, with kayaks, rowboats, and beachside restaurants. While there s no swimming in the river, there are also several pools installed that offer water aerobics classes. Access to the beach is free, but equipment can be used on rental basis. Paris Plage opens around July 20 each year and lasts for four weeks. For more information: - <www.paris-plages.fr> Transportation and Travel If you re spending anywhere between four months and a year in Paris, and especially if it s your first extended stay in Europe, traveling is practically obligatory. In my first year in Paris, I traveled to five other countries (Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Germany, and Italy), and I traveled less than many of my peers in my program, who were jet setting practically every weekend. While I wouldn t recommend leaving Paris every weekend - you ll miss out on many cultural events in your own neighborhood - living in Europe makes traveling to other countries much more affordable and accessible. And since

getting away from home and schoolwork can be a much-needed break, I wouldn t recommend only staying in Paris during your whole stay, either. Before you leave, set a budget for travel and make a list of the places you most want to visit; once you ve been in Paris for a while and know your actual budget, you can start pursuing airline and train ticket sites for good deals for weekend getaways. France also has abundant and frequent vacation periods to take advantage of, which we ll discuss in Chapter 5, «Taking Advantage of Life in Paris,» which will give you opportunities to travel for extended periods. Be warned, though, that some French professors consider vacations to be a «reading week» or «week for working - away from Paris» and assign work to be completed, you may want to stay in Paris at least a few days during your breaks. Of course, there are many exciting tourist sites in Paris and the Ile-de-France area, and public transportation serves all attractions well. The RER, for example, or regional train line of Ile-de-France, can bring you to the Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte (line D), Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh lived, painted the church, and committed suicide (line B), and the Chateau de Versailles (line C), all within thirty minutes. Travel Outside of Ile-de-France Travel within France and even within Europe has become cheaper and easier with the expansion of low-cost airlines to compete with the state subsidized train systems. While train travel can be as expensive in France as it is in the US, it is usually still your best bet for travel within France, since the time it takes you to get to an airport and to go through security reduces any flight time and price advantage flying may have. A train trip from Paris to another European city, however, can take a minimum of 2 hours (to London or Brussels) and more than 12 to Spain, Italy, or Germany, while even Eastern

European cities can be visited in a long weekend by plane. The SNCF often has sales to rival growing airline competition, though, so check both sites for travel time and price comparaisons for any destination in Western Europe before purchasing. SNCF The national train system in France is the SNCF, and it links major French cities as well as most small towns to Paris. Even though Paris is in the northern third of France, the easiest and quickest way to get to other cities Bordeaux to Marseille, or Rennes to Lille is to go through Paris. Though the SNCF is partially funded by the state, ticket prices are relatively expensive, and you can count on spending 50-60 for a one-way ticket from Paris to any major city. On the bright side, the trains that run on most routes are TGV, so you can get to any other city in under four hours. Bus routes connect the smallest towns to towns with train stations, and taking the regional train to a major hub is the best way to get around. Ticket prices vary, of course, depending on the day and time of travel, how far in advance you buy your ticket, and whether it s a vacation period or long weekend. If you re under 25, be sure to search for tickets in the 12-25 sans carte option to get a 25% discount on some fares. If you sign up for emails on the website, you ll receive special offers and advance notice of low fares for vacation periods. Like in the subway and buses, you must be sure to validate your train ticket by having in punched in a small yellow machine before getting on the train, or risk paying a fine. Sometimes, if you forget, you can present your ticket to a conductor on board and pay a smaller fee than you otherwise would have,

but it s best not to forget. While the ticket controleurs are on most major routes out of Paris, they are not always on the trains. Sometimes, when taking the TGV, two trains will be attached at the quay that will detach sometime during the route, often in completely different directions. The two trains will have different names when you buy your ticket on the website, and both trains will be marked on the screen above the departing trains. In this case, it is especially important to check your car and seat number, to ensure that you are in the correct train with the correct destination. Once you are in your train, it is impossible to switch, as the two are not connected by a car with doors. Carte 12-25 The Carte 12-25 is the SNCF s discount card for young people. It costs 49 and can be purchased with your first train ticket through the SNCF website or at any station ticket window or machine. With the card, you can get a 50% discount on all fares, but you must affix a passport-sized photo to it and carry the card with you at all times while on the train. When ordering your tickets, select the carte 12-25 option to get the best rates. Low-Cost Airlines Europe s two low-cost airlines are EasyJet and RyanAir, both of which fly out of Paris. While both are cheap, they are also no-frills: no checked luggage, no snack, and no customer service without paying for it. The reason why these airlines can offer such cheap service is because they often fly out of airports farther away from big cities (Ryan Air), thus paying less in fees, and they also have a faster turn-around time for the airplane,

making an extra flight or two per day. This means that the first flight in the morning is very early, the last flight is very late, and if there are any problems at any time during the day, you can expect long delays and not much information or help from the staff. And if your flight is canceled at the last minute, they re required to help you get on another flight, but it can be quite a while before seats are available on another plane. If you plan on taking a low-cost airline, you won t necessarily have a bad experience I have personally had some good and bad experiences on both EasyJet and Ryan Air. You can, however, expect to spend a little more time traveling, and possibly encounter more inconveniences than with major airlines (not that you can t have problems with Air France, either!). If you re traveling on one of these companies, try to get a flight early in the day (less of a chance for delays), and don t have too many expectations for your arrival time. EasyJet flys out of Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Corsica, Grenoble, Marseille, Nice, and Paris, and has the distinct advantage of flying out of both Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, depending on your destination. It flys to 49 destinations out of Paris alone. Ryan Air flys out of Biarritz, Bordeaux, Brest, Corsica, Grenoble, Marseille, Montpelier, Nice, Paris, and Tours, but does not fly out of Charles de Gaulle or Orly. Instead, it flys out of Beauvais airport, near Amiens, about an hour s bus ride from Paris. It also flys out of a small airport, Paris Vatry, near Disneyland, but only offers flights to Stockholm and Oslo from that airport. Getting to Beauvais can be complicated, especially for an early morning flight, so buses leave every 15 minutes from Porte Maillot, in the west of Paris (lines 1 and RER C). You must take the bus 3 hours and 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time, and bus tickets are available for 15 at the station. When comparing prices between airlines, add 15 each way plus an additional hour of travel time to the cost of your ticket.

For more information: <www.easyjet.com> <www.ryanair.com> For the Beauvais Bus schedule and information: <www.aeroportbeauvais.com> Club International des Jeunes de Paris The Club International des Jeunes de Paris is a non-profit organization founded for students in Paris, and the group organizes several trips in France and Europe yearly. Some past and recurring excursions have been to the Loire Valley, the Mont Saint Michel, and Brussels, and prices are low for the trips, which include transportation, lodging, breakfast, and sometimes one other meal. The trips can be one or two days, depending on the location. The group also organizes outings and excursions within Paris, many of which are free for club members. You can join by sending in a membership form, along with 12, to the club s office, and you ll receive an email newsletter with updates and upcoming activities. For more information: - <www.club-international.org>

Chapter 5 Being a Successful University Student Explaining the French school system Ecole maternelle Lycée To understand the French university system, it is also necessary to know a little bit about the French public education system, how it raises students, and the relationships between students and teachers in France. Since the Jules Ferry laws of the 1890s, French education has been free, compulsory, and secular, and today, education in France is available for all children starting at age 3. There are very few private schools in France (most are religious), and homeschooling is illegal, so the vast majority of French people have gone to an école publique. From preschool through high school, the official school year is from September 1 or 2 through the first Friday in July. French education begins in the école maternelle, a preschool-kindergarden school, which, like American schools, is more focused on playing than on counting and reading. The classes are called Petite section, moyenne section, and grande section, with children of the same age grouped together and graduating to elementary school at the same time.

Elementary schools have five grades: CP (Cours préparatoire), CE1 (cours élémentaire 1) CE2 (cours élementaire 2), CM1 (cours moyen 1) and CM2 (cours moyen 2), and they are equivalent to American grades 1 through 5. Students in CP are about 6 years old, while students in CM2 turn 11 sometime during the year. For maternelle and elementary schools, the school day runs from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, with a 15 minute recess at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, and a two hour lunch from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. Students have about 5 ½ hours of classes per day, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and most elementary schools are closed on Wednesdays. Starting from a very early age, French schools are very serious, focusing mostly on math and French grammar (small French children have to do hundreds of hours of conjugation exercises to learn their language too!), and the educational model is very far from the hands-on learning and group project model that many American classroom teachers implement. Desks are usually arranged in rows beginning in CP, and there s no rug for storytelling or class meetings, and no big colorful bulletin boards for displaying student work. Classrooms are austere, with some posters for verb tenses and spelling hints, and a teacher s desk and a chalkboard at the front. Grading is from 0 to 10, with a red pen. I ve never heard of a French teacher having a Star Student or recording random acts of kindness as we did in a classroom where I worked in New York. Punishment and public humiliation, not reward and recognition, are common motivators in the French system. While the maternelle teachers, like American preschool teachers, are among the sweetest and kindest of the French school system, neither they nor elementary teachers have any desire to appear affectionate towards the children. Kids can be yelled at in a way that would shock American parents, and the society s need to raise self-deprecating children appears to outweigh any concept of self-esteem. (Full disclosure: as an English assistant, I ve worked in four different elementary schools with dozens of colleagues. As an American future parent, I would willingly send my child to a class with maybe a quarter of the teachers from these schools).

This is not to say that all teachers are horrible and mean people. There isn t a Matilda model for the French school system, but there is no coddling of students. Students are tutoyé, but must vouvoyer their teachers, showing a degree of respect unknown in American schools. They also have upwards of 25 students in a class, few materials, and a strict photocopy limit. For all of the rhetoric about the importance of education, and discussions in American textbooks about how education is more valued in socialist France, with excellent salaries and benefits for teachers, one needs only to step into a French classroom to see the difference. Crowded classes, outdated computers (with Windows 98 in 2010, nonetheless!), elementary education in France is in a tough spot. Some (though certainly not all) teachers are in it for the benefits and the job security rather than the warm, fuzzy feeling they get from helping children understand the imperfect subjunctive or long division. If you teach in an elementary school as an English assistant, be prepared to have ideas about education that are very different from those of your colleagues, who for me, were stuck in the 1960s at best. Middle school, or collège, in France lasts four years: 6ème, 5ème, 4ème, and 3ème, and at the end of 3ème, students must take a national exam known as the brevet to be placed into a high school track. As early as 6ème, students have a homeroom teacher, but have most classes two or three times a week, in a college-style schedule. School no longer has a fixed schedule, like elementary school, so students can be done with class and go home at 2:00 on Mondays, but stay until 5:00 on Thursdays. The schedule can differ from year to year, and depend on an individual student s classes rather than the school itself. While there are general requirements in all subjects, students start taking specialized classes for the baccalaureat track they want to complete during middle school, taking up a second and even a third language or extra chemistry and physics classes depending on their career goals. Students who do not succeed in elementary schools are generally directed towards

vocational middle schools and high schools, where they complete special degrees to become secretaries or mechanics assistants. High school, or lycée, is three years: 2nde, 1ère, and Terminale, and students take only core courses and courses required for their bac. Like middle school, the students schedule varies depending on their courseload, and students are often free to leave campus when they are not in class. Classes are generally big lectures with 40 or more students, and teachers may not know everyone s name. If you don t do well on a paper, a teacher won t ask to see you after class to ask you privately what happened. Instead, when he hands back the papers, 4 out of 20 again, Grant? Your paper was completely offtopic and riddled with spelling and grammar errors. If you want to pass my class, you ll have to do much better next time. Since the schedule of French schools varies so much, after-school activities with faculty sponsors are rare, and most activities take place outside of school grounds. Centres de loisirs (activity clubs) and private groups are abundant, and students who wish to pursue music or art lessons do so on their own time. Of course, French high school students get in to college based only on their exam results, not on their extracurricular activities. At the end of high school, all students must take the Baccalaureat, a very difficult exam at the end of Terminale that determines the student s fate. Students must get an average score of 10/20 on all of the sections in order to pass, and they can achieve mention assez bien, mention bien, and mention très bien if they get higher scores. It is very common for students to fail the bac the first time and to retake it once, or even several times before passing. On the other hand, advanced students in high school have the opportunity to take the bac early, continuing their education with prépa, or college-level courses to prepare them for entry to the grandes écoles.

Licence / Master / Doctorat Entry into the French university system is predicated only on passing the bac, and students can attend any public university they like if they have their diploma. A lack of control over how many students enter university means that the number of students can vary greatly from year to year, while university budgets don t. Since public universities, which charge about 300 maximum for a year of tuition, cannot control the number of students they take, they control instead the number of students that can advance to the next level. Since the university reform in the early 2000s, the LMD system, or Licence- Master-Doctorat progression has been implemented in all public universities. A licence is a normally 3-year degree, with a set number of courses and curriculum for each department (known as a UFR). Students take an average of 8 courses per term, with challenging exams at the end of each semester, and grades, on a scale of 1-20, are posted on bulletin boards in the department s hallway. Students who fail the first exam can take it a second time, either in a few weeks for the fall semester, or in September for the spring semester exams. Students who fail both times, or who fail to achieve a 10 average in all of their courses, must repeat the year. Some schools require a minimum grade of 10 in each class to pass. In 2010, Jean Sarkozy, the son of the Président de la République, made the news when he finally passed his L2 in Law on the third try, and he had attended some of the best public schools in France. Once a student validates a particular year in school, he or she can pass to the next year. Since students often try multiple times to pass, every class can have students of varying ages, and many of them work jobs on the side. France even has a special system for working students, called dispensation du contrôle continu, which allows students to take an oral exam at the end of the course without completing other coursework or attending class. It is

notoriously difficult to pass exams in this way, as students have to get the precise notes from others and know several of the works from the syllabus by heart to pass. A student who drops out of school after failing a year is not considered a failure, and there are job opening specifying bac+1, bac+2, indicating that they accept applications from students who have completed some university coursework. Students who pass L3 are awarded a License diploma and may apply for masters programs, which are a bit more competitive and which require a professor to accept a student s research project proposal before the student can enroll. Students who successfully complete their M1 year may apply for M2, usually with the same professor and project, although they must write a significantly longer thesis. Students who complete M2 are eligible to take exams required for teaching jobs or to apply to do a 3-year doctoral program with the same professor or another professor in any university. From the outside, French universities seem really competitive, and in some programs (Literature at the Sorbonne, for example) fewer than half of the students complete an L3. Of course, take this with a grain of salt. Because universities admit everyone, the level of work required isn t comparable to a seminar at a small, private college in the US with a US News and World Report ranking. I was shocked when one of my professors in a relatively intense L3 class at Paris VII distributed a list of corrections to our papers, and warned us not to confound est, et, and ait, or se and ce. Foreign students, she said, looking at me and some of the other Americans in the class, often take more time to correct their work and write better papers than the French students. If your level of French is relatively good, and your schoolwork has been reasonably challenging, there s no reason to think you wouldn t succeed in a French college class. Students enrolled in American programs are usually not as restricted as French students in their choice of courses or level, and can often take classes in multiple departments in L1, L2, or L3. Program advisors can often steer

you to good classes and professors who particularly like American students or who have a good relationship with program coordinators, increasing the likelihood that you ll enjoy the class and succeed. Advisors can also steer you away from professors who don t tolerate language mistakes, or those who are anti-american or impossibly demanding. Pay at least as much attention to the quality and character of the professor as you do to the subject of the course. Grandes Ecoles The Grandes Ecoles are the highly competitive first-tier education track of the French university system, and students who want to enter these schools often take private classes and take the exams several times before being accepted. Ranging from Sciences Po to the Ecole Nationale d Administration, which trains almost all of France s government officials, these schools are both highly selective and highly expensive. Unlike the universities, which accept all students with a bac and charge only a few hundred euros for tuition, the Grandes Ecoles can cost upwards of thousands of euros per year, though they almost guarantee good jobs for life. Understanding the Different Types of Classes In American universities, the two main types of classes are large lectures and smaller, discussion-based seminars, and most universities advertise the nature and size of the class before enrollment. In France, the educational system is much more focused on students learning from experts, and far less concerned with students having an interactive experience or contributing to a class discussion.

To that end, no French universities have viable programs in place to obtain and review student feedback, and course evaluations are unheard of in French schools. Similarly, most French professors believe that students are incapable of having original thoughts before they begin working on their doctoral dissertation - and many believe that students should not try to think for themselves. Much of the work that is done in French universities, then, is preparing students for eventually thinking critically, rather than teaching students how to think, and the course structures in different universities show how this is the case. Most coursework is designed to get students to understand one text or one limited question, with the expectation that students will accumulate a knowledge base about the authors they ve studied. Unlike American curriculums, which are often flexible and require students to take 4 or 5 courses per semester, French curriculums, especially during Licence, are intense and demanding, usually requiring 8 courses per semester with little choice. Most American programs only require their students to take one or two classes in a French university, and Master s programs have lighter courseloads since students have to write a 40 or 100 page thesis. Here s a brief guide to the types of classes you can expect to see in a French university s course bulletin. Cours Magistral vs. Travaux Dirigés At first glance, a cours magistral (CM) with its five or six corresponding travaux dirigés (TD) seems to be the equivalent of the American lecture and discussion section setup. However, the CM/TD organisation is quite different from its American counterpart because the CM and TD are actually both lectures.

In this type of class, both the CM and the TD are obligatory, and students scramble at the beginning of each semester to sign up for the TD that fits best into their schedules. Typically, the CM is a large lecture of several hundred students, taught by a senior professor who is an expert in the course subject. During the CM, the professor will cover the historical and philosophical context of the topic, refering to many different authors and scholars who wrote about the time period or idea that the class is studying. On the other hand, the TD can be taught and run by a junior faculty member, usually a professor who has just passed the teaching exams or received her doctorate. The TD will be a lecture on the readings specifically assigned for the course. An introductory course on Anthropology, for example, will have a CM that discusses the major themes in anthropological research and the history of the field, while the TD will cover some important texts written by the most prominent anthropologists. TDs are typically lecture-sized classes with fifty or sixty students, so discussion is generally not a possibility. Most CM/TD courses are introductory level classes, sometimes required classes, and they require a significant amount of reading and outside work. In most cases, there will be a final exam scheduled during the CM, and students will also complete either an exposé or a written paper for the TD professor. Like a graduate teaching assistant, the TD professors complete all of the grading. Also, unlike American classes, a CM or TD does not usually have a defined syllabus with the coursework and grading expectations outlined at the beginning of the class. Professors will discuss assignments during class time, and it will be your responsibility to pay attention, take notes, and know when assignments are due. Most will, however, distribute bibliographies with the most important works for the semester, and you should pay close attention to the lectures and your classmates to figure out what you re supposed to read. In some schools, like the Sorbonne, students are expected to have done all of the reading for a class before it even starts, and then to reread the books several times during the semester so they know the material well

enough - complete with memorized quotes - to pass the exams. Other professors will distribute long bibliographies with the expectation that students will read a few of the most important texts and consult some of the other texts for their papers. The senior French professors that teach CMs don t have office hours, and many don t give out their email addresses, and you shouldn t try to contact them for information about assignments, due dates, how many pages, etc. If you re unsure about something, ask a few French students for clarification first; if you can t get a satisfactory answer, you can ask your TD professor very politely after class, using the excuse that you must have misunderstood something because of the language barrier. French students are expected to be very independent and to complete their work without being reminded, so don t expect reminders about assignments or strict guidelines either. If you do decide to ask questions, most professors are understanding of the fact that you come from a different system and country, but it gives the impression that either you haven t been paying attention or that your French isn t good enough to keep up with the work. A note on attendance: most schools don t have an attendance policy, and students can attend or not attend CM and TD at their own peril. But, because most professors will only explain assignments in class without giving written instructions, it s not a good idea to miss class. Some professors and schools have policies stating that if you miss a certain number of classes, you won t be allowed to take the final exam, so you should also check that policy before missing class. Some universities, like the Université de Paris VII - Denis Diderot, which I attended, have eliminated the CM/TD setup. In these schools, departments will offer one three-hour cours, taught by one professor, who will combine the philosophical topic overview with some key points about the readings.

Séminaire Séminaires are classes usually held at the master s level, and they are somewhat of a hybrid between a CM, a TD, and an atelier. Most séminaires are two hours long, and the professor spends the first half (or slightly longer) presenting a lecture on the topic s theme before opening up to questions and class dicussion. Since the classes can be quite large, the dicussion doesn t exactly take the same form as an American-style class discussion, but it s a slight improvement over a regular cours magistral. In this type of class, professors will occasionally invite guest lecturers who have non-academic careers in the field, providing a sort of professional development for students. For most séminaires, students will «valider,» or obtain course credit, through «contrôle continu,» attending class regularly and completing one assignment, either an exposé or a paper (usually a dossier). Regular attendance is required, and student who work can opt out, but this is rare and difficult. More on this later. If you d like to do an exposé, or if you re required to do one, you ll have to sign up for a text and a date during one of the first two class periods. Students who don t want to do exposés complete a written assignment. At this level, most professors are very flexible about the type of paper and the topic you choose, and will expect students to develop a paper topic and complete their own assignment thouroughly without any help. Students select a work, an author, a theme, an idea - anything related to the course - and do a written presentation of it. Most professors ask students to check their paper topic with them before beginning work, but almost all topics are approved. Minimum guidelines are given as to length and organization, and students are left largely to themselves, receiving few if any reminders about the assignment.

Atelier An atelier is very similar to a séminaire in terms of organization, the primary difference being that most ateliers are student-run in the presence of the professors. While the professor may conduct the first few classes, students are typically expected to do one or more exposés, to decide amongst themselves the works they will study, chosen from a long bibliography provided by the department, and generate class discussion themselves. Most French professors, especially the older ones, are too old-school and gregarious to make it through the whole class without intervening, and they frequently contribute to discussion by explaining concepts and answering questions. Classes like this are more common at places like Sciences Po and the grandes écoles, where students are expected to be more advanced and to do the required work ahead of time. Communicating with French professors While professors in American universities are generally held accountable to students through course evaluations, office hours requirements, and email, French professors are less well paid, teach many more hours, and have more outside obligations than their American counterparts. Not only are French professors not evaluated by students, they consider that students individual concerns are among the least of their worries. Remember how we discussed the fact that French primary school teachers don t have the same affectionate outlook on their students? French professors also expect students to be independent, and they aren t interested in getting to know you or your situation. They re not cold, they re just over-worked: most have several hundred students in lectures, master s seminars, or as thesis and dissertation advisees during any given semester. Many also have professional appointments in research committees, magazines, and museums, in addition to completing their own research and articles on the side. Aside from their other profes-

sional obligations, French professors, and French adults in general, were raised with the idea that there s a certain degree of separation between people in the public and professional spheres, a barrier that cannot - and should not - be crossed. Interactions between people of different statuses should be as brief and polite as possible. I say this because you, as the American student, are going to be annoying and rude. I don t think you ll mean to, but your status as a foreign student in an American program creates extra work for your professors. Some American programs require students to complete tutoring sessions with the professor, and others arrange for their students to take exams at a different time, or do an extra written assignment. At Columbia, we had a rule that students had to complete 3 assignments per class, ostensibly so a low grade could be weighted less and so students got to practice their French doing several different types of assignments. This type of policy helps you, as the student, but it also creates more work for your very busy professor. And in every university class I ve taken, I ve seen overly enthusiastic American students offend the professor without meaning to because of the way they approached him: as a friendly, approachable person. (NB: The extent to which professors are actually distant and cold varies greatly depending on the atmosphere of the school and department you attend, the professor s age, the course level, and the professor herself. Older professors in more prestegious universities are more likely to be crochety than younger professors in modern departments. A science or literature professor is more likely to be cold than a social sciences professor, whose work depends on interacting with people. And generally, the higher the class level and the smaller the class, the more open and kind the professor. Most professors are not actually like this! However, for the purposes of interacting with professors one-to-one, I always assume that they re going to be somewhat annoyed, and I try to be as polite as possible.)

So, when you have to interact with your professor, what should you do? First of all, don t make the mistake - no matter how open the professor seems during class - of thinking that he cares about your personal life. He doesn t care why you miss class, why you re in France, what problems you re having understanding the course material - none of that. You should only approach your professor about something directly related (intellectually) to the course material, and requests/questions about assignments. When you have these discussions, here are some tips to make the encounter go as smoothly as possible: - Excusez-moi, Madame (or Monsieur). If you re waiting to talk to the professor during a pause or after class, wait up by wherever she s standing, and wait for her to make eye contact with you and say, Oui? before speaking. Never interrupt another student, or especially another professor. - VOUS: Always, always, always use vous. Never, ever make the mistake of using tu. Most professors will hear your accent, know French is your second language, and forgive you if you slip up, but they ll also get a bad impression about you (and about American students in general). The meaner ones will correct you icily. So don t slip up. Practice using vous and conjugating with your friends, if you must, but never, ever, ever tutoie a professor. You d be surprised at how many American students do this, and it just looks bad. Don t. - Je voulais savoir s il serait possible de travailler sur La Belle au bois dormant pour le dossier. Always make requests or ask questions using the imperfect je voulais savoir and the conditional s il serait possible, si je pourrais, si vous auriez reçu mon mail, etc. These are the most polite forms of spoken French. If you want to be extra-special polite, use the past conditional construction: J aurais voulu savoir s il serait possible de...

- D accord, merci beaucoup: Don t forget to agree with the professor and thank him before returning to your seat or leaving. And what if you re interacting with your professor by email? Obviously, you should follow the same rules outlined above, plus these: - Begin the email with Madame: or Monsieur. In French, cher or the feminine chère are familiar, and should never begin emails to professors or to anyone who is not a friend. If your professor replies with Chère Allison, you can then write Chère Madame, but let the professor take the lead on the introductions. - J espère que vous allez bien. Begin the email with a sentence or two of polite small talk before going directly to your question. - En vous remerciant par avance de votre aide. Always thank the professor for his help before you end the email. - Bien cordialement or Bien à vous. These two phrases are the professional equivalent of sincerely, and you should use one of them to sign emails. - Patience. Wait several days before expecting a reply, if you get one at all. Most French professors (and French in general) are not constantly connected to their email, and they get dozens of messages a day. If you don t get a reply right away, don t send a follow-up unless it s extremely urgent. (And it s never extremely urgent.) If you don t get an answer, ask your question in person during the next class.

Understanding Grading From middle school on, French students are graded on a scale of 1-20, but this system does not correspond at all to the American system of percentages. Because few professors give feedback or comments, or even return papers and quizzes, it s often difficult to know where you stand compared to your classmates and what you have to do to get a good grade. Here s a quick guide to the factors that affect grading and how to understand the grades you receive. Contrôle Continu vs. Contrôle Terminal Contrôle Continu is the term used to describe the set of assignments that students complete in order to get a grade for a course, and it usually includes attendance, an exposé or paper, and sometimes a final exam. Most students are evaluated in this way. Another type of grading, known as «Contrôle Terminal» is offered to students who are also full-time employees or handicapped, and who are unable to regularly attend class. In this arrangement, students complete a written assignment or the final exam with the rest of the class, and are required to prepare for an oral exam on the course material, usually covering the topics that were discussed in the cours magistral as well as the reading assignments. Students who wish to exercise this option can have their employer fill out the paperwork, or provide proof of full-time employment. Since most American students on visas can t work full-time, this would only be an option for someone on a work visa who wishes to enroll in university classes held during the day. Those who want to take higher-level classes in «contrôle terminal» will have their efforts complicated by the fact that most

master s level courses are held during the late afternoon or early evening so most students can attend. In general, taking classes as «contrôle continu» is a really, really bad idea. Even if you re at a university that doesn t have a «notation éliminative» policy (more on that later), the oral exams that students must pass are notoriously difficult, as professors ask questions on course material discussed in class, and expect students to know the ins and outs of most of the works on the bibliography. Getting a grade in this way is significantly more work than for contrôle continu, and the vast majority of students who take one or more classes as contrôle terminal fail the class, with many failing out of the school at the end of the year. Notation Éliminative Aside from the Grandes Écoles that admit students based on exam results, the vast majority of French public universities do not screen applicants and accept or reject students as American universities do. In theory, any student who passes his baccalauréat at the end of high school can attend any university he wants just by signing up, whether it be the prestegious Sorbonne or a more modern university like Paris VII. Since anyone can enter any university, schools had to come up with a way to keep their degrees meaningful, and the most prestegious schools came up with a solution called «la notation éliminative.» In all schools, students must obtain a minimum grade of 10 out of 20 to pass a class, and the student s weighted average for all classes must also be above 10. Grading isn t necessarily easier in schools without a notation éliminative policy, but it s less comparative. In more modern schools, you won t fail because you were on the wrong part of the curve.

Essentially, this very strict grading policy means that only a small percentage of enrolled students pass their classes and receive the minimum grade required to advance to the next level. In schools like the Sorbonne, only about 20% of students in the most competitive departments - literature and history, for example - will be able to complete the three years required to get their license. In recent years, this practice has fallen out of favor in some schools, and it s far from being the norm it once was. It also explains, though, why there are so many older French people who have completed one or two years of their degree (Bac+1 or Bac+2) without completing it. It s generally not a reflection of a student s lack of motivation, but shows instead that the student wasn t quite as intellectually inclined as his classmates. To compensate for the «notation éliminative» system, all universities afford all students who fail their first set of exams the opportunity to complete makeup exams a semester later. Those who fail exams for fall semester can review the course material and retake the exam in June, while those who fail in the spring can retake exams in September. If students fail one class or two, but otherwise have high enough grades, they can sometimes get out of taking makeup exams and enroll directly in the next year. The final option for those who don t pass is to repeat the year, and there isn t much stigma associated with the necessity to «doubler.» Jean Sarkozy, like I mentioned before, repeated his second year of Licence several times. With many French students still living at home, not working, and having parents to support them, repeating a year is hardly a financial burden. This phenomenon also partly explains the age difference between students in upper-level classes.

French Grading Scale An old French proverb about the grading system says that 20 is for God, and 19 is for the King. The Président de la République gets an 18. So realistically, the highest grade that the most brillant student can hope to get is a 17. Most American programs have a standard system for converting French university grades to American transcript grades, although some programs will consider the range of grades and the professor s grading policy before assigning a final grade. If you get a 13, for example, but there were only one 15, three 14s, and five 13s in a class of 50 or 60 students, your program might convert that to an A or an A-. All grades are posted publicly, with students names, on bulletin boards outside of department offices at the end of the term. If you re still in France when that happens (it s usually at the end of January and June) you should find your name on the list and try to get an idea of how you ranked compared to other students. While some professors give preferential treatment to American students and assign them much higher grades than their French conterparts, it s relatively rare. Even if you don t do particularly well in a class, there s not necessarily any reason to panic. French universities are loathe to actually fail foreign students, as it can negatively affect the exchange program. In most cases, unless you never go to class and turn in assignments way below acceptable minimums, the lowest grade you re likely to get is a 10. And depending on your university s conversion scale, some programs consider an 8 or a 9 to be technically «passing,» which it isn t in the French system. If you end up in over your head mid-way through the semester, and it s too late to drop the class or change to «pass-fail,» you can also talk to your program advisor about making up work with a tutor. Everybody wants American students to have a positive experience so they ll keep coming, and most programs will make some minimal adjustments to help you. (Caveat: if your advisor knows you ve been skipping town every weekend and neglecting your schoolwork,

she may not be so inclined. So discretion and the aura of seriousness are the rules!) 17-18 A+ 15-16 A 14 A- 13 B+ 12 B 11 B- 10 C 8-9 D 1-8 F Doing Research Municipal Libraries Each arrondissement has, on average, 3 municipal libraries open to the public from 10 AM to 7 PM from Monday through Saturday, and all municipal libraries are equipped with wifi. Accessing individual libraries is free and easy, but if you want borrowing privileges, you can sign up for a free library card, valid in all libraries in Paris, by bringing a copy of your ID (passport and visa or carte de séjour). Your library card will give you the right to borrow up to 20 items for 3 weeks, and to renew and reserve items online. If you d like to be able to borrow CDs and Region 2 DVDs, you can pay 61 to borrow up to three CDs or DVDs at a time for one year. For a list of library locations and hours and access to the online catalogue: - <www.bibliotheques.paris.fr>

The Bibliothèque François Mitterand As France s equivalent of the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque François Mitterand holds a copy of every book ever published in France, as well as other books, publications, and manuscripts protected by legal copyright. The BNF is an excellent place to do research, especially since it only has wifi in certain areas, leaving you free from distractions. To access the BNF, you ll have to apply for an access card, which costs 20 per year for students under 30. The first day you go to the BNF, you ll need to fill out the application, which may ask you what library resources specifically you need to use (you can look in the catalogue to get some ideas) and show a copy of your French student ID or American program ID card to get the reduced rate. You should bring your passport with visa and carte de séjour just in case. If you would prefer not to buy the BNF access card, you can buy a one-day pass for 3,50. There are no borrowing privileges at the BNF. The BNF is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 9 AM to 7 PM, and on Sunday and Monday afternoons. It is closed on holidays. For more information, including hours, and access to online catalogue: - Quai François Mauriac, 75013 Paris, Metro Quai de la Gare (line 6), Bibliothèque François Mitterand (14 or RER C) - <www.bnf.fr>

Other Research Libraries Centre Pompidou: Bibliothèque Publique d Information The Centre Pompidou has a large, free public research library open daily Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 AM to 10 PM, and Saturdays and Sundays from 12 PM to 10 PM. The library opens with reduced hours on holidays, closing only on Tuesdays and May 1. The BPI offers a significant collection of books and reading materials that can be consulted in the library, but offers no borrowing privileges. It has computer terminals and wifi access, in addition to a café in the Centre Pompidou entrance, and is surrounded by many cafés, restaurants, and shops. For more information, including the online catalogue: - rue Beaubourg, 75004 Paris, Metro Rambuteau (11), Chatelet (1, 4, 7, 11, RER A, B and D), Hôtel de Ville (1) - <www.bpi.fr> Institut du Monde Arabe The Institut du Monde Arabe s library has a large collection of French, English, and Arabic language books and journals pertaining to the Arab world. Located on the Quai de la Tournelle across from Notre Dame, the IMA offers impressive modern architecture, as well as a rooftop café overlooking the Seine in the summer. Other amenities include vending machines and restrooms in the basement, a museum, a book and music shop, and numerous events and activities.

The IMA library is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 1 PM to 8 PM, and is closed on Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. It does not offer borrowing privileges, but photocopiers are available on each floor. The library is equipped with wifi. For more information, including online catalogue: - 1, rue Fossés Saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, Metro Jussieu (7, 10), Cardinal Lemoine (10), Sully-Morland (7) - <www.imarabe.fr/bibliotheque> American Library The American Library is a privately owned library with works in French and English. It offers wifi and borrowing privileges to its members. To join the American library, you must bring your passport, a current bill, and your student ID card to the circulation desk. A one-year student membership costs 75, and a student library card allows you to check out up to 6 books, 4 magazines, and 3 audiovisual items at a time. Most items are checked out for two weeks and can be renewed online. A regular individual membership costs 100 and can be used to check out 20 books, 10 magazines, and 5 audio-visual items. Short-term memberships can also be purchased for four months (47 ) or six months (65 ), but they require an additional 60 cash deposit for borrowing privileges. Daily and weekly passes can also be purchased for 12 or 25, and their cost can be deducted from the cost of a full membership within one month. The librarians recommend that patrons check to see if the materials they need are available before purchasing the pass, as passes and memberships are nonrefundable.

The American Library is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10 AM to 7 PM, and Sundays from 1 PM to 7 PM. It is closed on Mondays and holidays. For more information: - 10, rue Général Camou, 75007 Paris, Metro École Militaire (8), Alma Marceau (9) or Pont de l Alma (RER C) - <www.americanlibraryinparis.org> University Libraries All French universities have student libraries that are generally open from 10 AM to 7 PM from Monday to Saturday, although exact hours depend on the individual library. Students with university IDs for the current academic year have borrowing privileges, although the number of items you are allowed to borrow at any given time depends on your level. Masters and PhD students can borrow more materials, and for longer, than students working on their licence. Many American programs will enroll you in one of their partner French universities even if you re not taking classes there so you can use the libraries and borrow materials. Check with your American program our on your university s website for more information.

Chapter 6 >Writing Papers in the French System Types of French Assignments French university assignments are significantly different from Americanstyle papers, and all of them follow specific formats and have rules that need to be followed in order for them to earn good grades. In the French system, students have been trained to do these types of assignments since they were in middle school, and it is expected that students will know how to organize and write these types of papers. Unfortunately, France is not a country in which professors generally award points for creativity, and failing to conform to the standards will earn you a failing grade, no matter how brilliant your analysis. Since nothing in the American system even remotely resembles most of these assignment types, this is a guide to the most commonly assigned papers in the French university. The examples given in this chapter are mostly literary in nature, but that doesn t mean that these assignments are only given to students in literature departments. While students in the hard sciences, math, and economics can expect problem sets, students in the social sciences - anthropology, sociology, history - as well as students of literature can expect to complete these types of assignments. The conclusions about the text and its importance may be different for an anthropological or historical text than for a literary text, but the methods of analysis, based heavily on literary devices and style, will be essentially the same.

The papers presented as examples in this chapter were written by American students studying abroad with the Columbia University Programs in Paris (junior year abroad) or with the Middlebury French School (Master s students having completed one intensive summer at Middlebury s Vermont campus). They have not been corrected for grammar, style, or Anglicisms, and I chose to leave them in their original form in order to give you an idea of the level of French many students have when they begin the French segment of their academic careers. There are also many resources for each type of assignment available in French, either online or in bookstores, and those resources can give you an idea of French students level of sophistication in their writing. Some of the best resources are listed in Chapter 7. Some important tips for writing papers in France: - Always follow the structure for the type of paper you are trying to write. Never deviate from it, no matter how brilliant you are. - When writing in French, try to use more nouns and fewer verbs to make a more «French-sounding» sentence. «L extrême fatigue des chats ayant consacré la journée à la chasse des souris» is a much French-er sentence than «Les chats ont chassé des souris toute la journée et ils sont fatigués,» even if both are grammatically correct. Which brings me to my next point: - Vary your use of sentence structure and vocabulary. Nothing is more boring than reading a paper that says, «L empire Ottomane a conquis l Afrique du Nord au dix-neuvième siècle. Ensuite, ils ont déclaré que toutes les mosquées devaient désormais s orienter vers la mecque, et non pas vers le sud comme la tradition maghrébine voulait. Les Musulmans de l Afrique du Nord n étaient pas content parce qu ils pensaient que le changement de direction nierait les prières de leurs ancêtres.» Spice it up a little: «Après la conquête ottomane de l Afrique du Nord au 19ème siècle, les imams déclarèrent que les mosquées devraient désor-

mais s orienter vers la Mecque, ce qui fâcha les Maghrébins, qui craignaient les conséquences pour les prières de leurs ancêtres.» - Have somebody else read your paper. Even if you have an excellent command of French, it probably still needs work if you ve never lived and gone to school in France before. Get your work done ahead of time, proofread your own work, and have a native French speaker reread it. The Problématique The problématique is probably the single-most spoken word in French universities, and it is also the most important key to getting a good grade on a written assignment in France. Every assignment, no matter how short and basic, needs to have a problématique. A problématique is basically the French equivalent of a thesis statement, except that it s not exactly the same thing. It can be a set of questions, or problems, that you are trying to answer in your assignment, or that the text poses in itself. Your job, while doing your assignment, is to draw out those questions or problems and to show some sort of conflict. In all French assignments, you are NOT supposed to argue for one viewpoint or another, but instead to explain and illustrate the different aspects of the problématique. Your analysis of any text, then, should always include a discussion of any shift that occurs. Your problématique can be one to three sentences about the main ideas in the work (and in your paper). In every paper you write, your problématique should be very clearly stated at the end of the introduction, in its own paragraph, and be followed by an outline of how your paper is going to develop.

Explication de texte Goal of an Explication de texte Like its name implies, an explication de texte is designed to thoroughly explain a brief passage of text and its primary themes and ideas. Unlike other types of university assignments - the commentaire composé or the dissertation - students writing an explication de texte are not expected to handpick their ideas according to the themes they want to draw out, but to analyze as many features of the text as they can before making some decisions about the passage s importance. In that sense, an explication de texte is training for the more difficult types of assignments, which require all of the analysis of an explication de texte, which must then be ranked according to its significance and ordered according to theme. We ll talk more about that once we get to the commentaire composé, but for the explication de texte, a line-by-line explanation of the author s word and verb tense choices, literary and rhetorical devices, and stylistic nuances will suffice. For the explication de texte like the commentaire composé, professors usually choose a passage that represents some of the important ideas in the larger work, and your analysis will have to link back to the rest of the text. The principle focus of this type of paper, however, should be the literary and rhetrorical devices the author uses to make his point and how the text functions as part of a whole. Don t be fooled by the passage s brevity. During my junior year at Paris VII, I had a professor - M. Chartier - who would come into class with nothing but his book (a translation of Shakespeare s King Lear), open to the first page of a scene, and hold a two-hour course analyzing the first few lines of dialogue. Other professors regularly expect students to write eight to ten pages on a single sonnet. The standard seems to be one page per line, but your professor

will usually give guidelines for the assignment. As with any good university level paper, the best rule of thumb is that it s not done until it s done. In the three-page essay below, written for a methodology class at Middlebury College, the assignment was to outline the paper and provide all of the details Sample Explication de texte Explication de texte sur Des Coches de Montaigne Dans son essai intitulé «Des Coches,» Montaigne commente la «découverte» de l Amérique et la première rencontre entre les conquistadors Espagnols et une tribu indienne. Il s agit, effectivement, d un essai sur des voyages lointains, une coche étant un type de transport à l époque de Montaigne. Cette partie, placée vers le milieu de l essai, est une diversion sur ce voyage en Amérique et sur la première interaction de ces deux groupes. Montaigne se concentre particulièrement sur les exigences des Espagnols concernant la religion, la souveraineté de leur roi, et leur préoccupation avec l or, et les réponses qu ont donné les Indiens à leurs propositions. L extrait peut être divisé en trois parties. Dans une première partie, de la ligne 1 jusqu à la fin de la phrase dans la ligne 13, Montaigne raconte l épisode historique de l arrivée des Espagnols en Amérique et leur première rencontre avec des Indiens ; il expose également l attitude des Espagnols envers les Indiens et leur pays, qu ils traitent de pays conquis. Dans une deuxième partie, de la ligne 14 jusqu à la ligne 32, il reprend les demandes des Espagnols dans le même ordre et donne les réponses des Indiens aux demandes. Dans une troisième partie, de la ligne 32 à la fin de l extrait, il revient au discours des Espagnols et à leur ordre de quitter les lieux, concluant pourquoi les Indiens ont quitté leur terre. C est un texte qui expose l argumentation des deux groupes et qui met en opposition les exigences, les préjugés, et les menaces des Espagnols avec la générosité, la naïveté, et surtout la raison des Indiens.

Première partie La première partie de ce texte décrit le débarquement des Espagnols en Amérique ainsi que les demandes que les Espagnols auraient faites lorsqu ils rencontraient les Indiens. A la quête de leurs mines : l assomption est que ce qu ils trouveront leur appartiendra, ils cherchaient leurs richesses aux quatre coins du monde Quand ils arrivent, ils traitent le pays comme conquis et les Indiens comme objets, qui devraient être soumis L usage du mot «mine» dans la première phrase de la première partie pour désigner les richesses du nouveau monde, c est-à-dire, l or La succession d adjectifs positifs pour décrire le pays : une contrée fertile et plaisante, fort habitée Leurs remontrances accoutumées : périphrase innocente pour signaler, selon la note de bas de page l imposition violente (de force) de la religion catholique et la domination du roi d Espagne L explication qui s ensuit semble beaucoup plus poli la réalité de la violence masquée par le langage doux, qui devient après de plus en plus violent Progression douceur à recommandations à menaces Qu ils étaient gens paisibles : qualité paisible des Espagnols mise en question par l opposition entre cet adjectif et l imposition du pouvoir qui suit «le plus grand prince de la terre habitable / représentant Dieu en terre» : Met l accent sur les qualités et le pouvoir du prince et du pape, sert aussi à justifier la prise en charge de la terre des Indiens «que s ils voulaient lui être tributaire, ils seraient bénignement traités» - le garanti du bon traitement repose sur l acceptation de la religion et sur la soumission Ordre de demandes : les Espagnols imposent leur roi d abord, et demande les choses les plus nécessaires à la fin La priorité donnée à l imposition du pouvoir (celui du roi et celui du pape, qui croyait avoir le droit de donner le pays des Indes aux Espagnols, et à qui il fallait donner de l argent)

Demandes banales qui assurent la survie des Espagnols (des vivres, de l or pour de la médecine) Imposition de la religion catholique Au demeurant synonyme de «par ailleurs» qui insiste sur ce qui suit, c està-dire, un seul Dieu et la vérité de la religion catholique «Vérité de notre religion» création d un nous qui rapproche Montaigne et le lecteur redoublement de l insistance sur la vérité de la religion catholique, qui semble excessive et donc ironique laquelle ils leur conseillaient d accepter, y ajoutant quelques menaces : Montaigne minimalise le rôle de la violence avec l ambiguïté du mot «menaces» et favorise une interprétation qui prendrait en compte le mot conseil, ce qui crée l effet d une antiphrase Deuxième partie La deuxième partie de l extrait reprend toutes les demandes des Espagnols et donne les réponses dans le même ordre ; cette construction linéaire et directe met en valeur la raison des Indiens, qui ne se laissent pas duper par l argumentation et les menaces des Espagnols. La réponse est précédée par un deux-points, ce qui présente une citation directe des Indiens Dire que l on est paisible crée un doute! Pourquoi le dire sauf si on ne l est pas? La répétition de «quant à» en début des réponses des Indiens crée évoque une manière de répondre direct, avec les réponses dans le même ordre que les questions «ils n en portaient pas la mine (d être paisibles) Les Indiens ne se laissent pas tromper Mine dans la première phrase de la deuxième partie pour désigner la tromperie des Espagnols Assomptions des Indiens qui contrastent avec la vérité (ou avec ce que veulent croire les Espagnols)

Que le roi est nécessiteux montre la naïveté des Indiens, qui semblent ne pas comprendre la cupidité des Espagnols, ou que quelqu un aurait besoin d un pays Le pape, homme aimant dissension cette phrase montre à la fois la conception de justice et d injustice des Indiens, et l ignorance du fait qu ils ne sont pas considérés humains aux yeux du pape que s ils lui donnent de l argent et lui sont soumis Mise-en-valeur de l hospitalité, de la générosité des Indiens et de leur concept de l utilité Ils acceptent volontiers de donner à manger aux Espagnols, qui sont dans le besoin Générosité spontanée malgré leurs menaces et demandes puisque l or n est pas utile, il ne leur est pas cher ils donnent l autorisation aux Espagnols de prendre autant qu ils veulent, sauf ce qu ils utilisent pour servir leurs dieux montre l ancienneté de leur religion et le pragmatisme ils ne vont pas changer de religion parce que la leur marche très bien le fait de menacer est un signe de faute de jugement ils reprochent aux Espagnols les menaces Troisième partie La troisième partie revient au discours des Espagnols, leurs ordres et leurs menaces, et explique pourquoi les Indiens ont dû quitter leur terre. Elle finit par un commentaire de Montaigne qui met en question la désignation des Indiens comme des «enfants». Ainsi connecteur argumentatif qui sert ici à revenir sur le discours des Espagnols et leur réponse au refus des Indiens d accepter les conditions offertes de la colonisation - «qu ils se dépêchassent» - subjonctif qui indique un ordre de partir - «car ils n étaient pas accoutumés de prendre en bonne part les honnêtetés et remontrances de gens armés et étrangers»

o Les Espagnols projettent leurs propres défauts sur les Indiens c est eux qui arrivent armés et étrangers et qui envahissent, les Indiens acceptent de les aider - Autrement si les Indiens ne partent pas - Qu on ferait d»eux comme de ces autres retour aux menaces ; cette fois c est un menace plus spécifique - celui de la mort - La tête d aucuns justifiés les Espagnols auraient coupé la tête à ce qui avaient refusé de partir, et auraient monté les têtes en ville pour menacer - La dernière phrase de l extrait est une antiphrase qui met en contraste la pensée raisonnable des Indiens telle qu elle est démontrée dans le texte, avec les mots «balbutie» qui renvoie à une façon enfantine de parler, et la désignation de la tribu des Indiens par «cette enfance,» un préjugé répandu à l époque o C est le seul moment qu intervient Montaigne pour donner son opinion et il implique qu il n a pas les mêmes préjugés contre les Indiens et suggère au moins qu il a un doute sur la justesse des actes des Espagnols Dans ce texte, Montaigne représente la rencontre entre les Espagnols conquérants et les Indiens conquis du nouveau monde. Présentés en tant que citation directe par l usage du deux-points, ces deux discours servent à contraster l hypocrisie et la cupidité des occidentaux avec la générosité, l utilitarisme, et la raison des Indiens. Le texte met l accent sur la progression des menaces des Espagnols, de la suggestion de la soumission jusqu au menace de la mort, et conclut que les Indiens ne sont pas si enfantins que l on croit, mettant en question les croyances des Européens.

Recommended Methodology Introduction: Situate the passage in the context of the larger work. Identify the author, year of publication, genre, and then identify the passage s placement. Is it the beginning of a novel (incipit) or midway through a chapter? Is it more towards the beginning, middle, or end? Who is speaking (first or third person narrator?) and what happens in the passage? Is there a shift or a revelation? Does the character learn something or make a decision? Identify anything important that describes the passage and what it does. End with the problématique, a statement about the passage s function and importance, and by identifying the outline of your paper (the two or three major parts). After you ve stated the important facts about the passage, begin to analyze the text line by line. If there are any words you don t know, look them up in a French language dictionary (NOT a French-English one!) A good one to use is the Trésor de la Langue Française, which can be found online. If the text you re analyzing is not contemporary, the TLF will give you historical meanings of words and when they appeared, so you can determine what they meant when Montaigne or Voltaire was using them. What is the connotation of the key words in the passage? Are there other words that the author could have used, and didn t? This will help you to determine whether the language is familiar or «soutenu» - formal. Then, circle the verbs. What verb tenses are used, and are there any changes? Is it written in the imparfait, which is used to describe, or the passé simple, the literary past? If it is written in the passé composé, a primarily spoken tense, there is surely a reason. Comment on it.

Next, identify the literary and rhetorical devices in the text. A great and thorough list can be found on French-language Wikipedia. If there are any that are used several times, they are particularly noteworthy. Are there groups of words that set a particular tone, or obvious symbols? Finally, take a look at the style. Are the sentences short with small words, or long and flowery? Is the tone more like someone is speaking or more like someone is writing a political speech or a eulogy? Is the style familiar, formal, or somewhere in between? Once you ve identified all of these qualities, you should begin to write your analysis. The hardest part is writing it so it doesn t sound like a laundry list of all of the things you noticed about the text. Depending on how long the passage is - this will work better if it s shorter - you may want to organize your paper around diction (word choice and verb tenses), literary/rhetorical devices, and style, rather than doing line-by-line. If there s a significant shift in the passage, you could also dicuss the part before the shift and the part after the shift, explaining your choice by identifying how the two parts of the passage are different. In this way, the explication de texte is less strict than other types of assignments, but you ll still want to pay attention to what your professor advises if he mentions the assignment in class. Conclusion: Once you ve outlined all of your analysis, this is the place to make statements about how the text functions as part of the whole and what the author s purpose was in writing it this way. State what happens after the passage, and how the ideas or thoughts in your passage influence or foreshadow what happens next. If the passage is representative of the text s themes, identify how they are showcased in this passage compared to the rest of the text. Think about what was accomplished in this passage that was not accomplished elsewhere in the book. The conclusion can be just a few sentences long, but it should show that you understand not only the text you analyzed, how it relates to the larger work and why your professor thinks it s important.

Commentaire Composé Goal of a Commentaire Composé Like an explication de texte, a commentaire composé s main purpose is to explain a brief passage in a text; however, it uses textual analysis to illustrate ideas about the whole work and its major themes. A commentaire composé should be organized thematically in two or three parts, each with two or three subparts, and the analysis should be selected support the structure and argument of your paper. You still have to do all of the analysis of an explication de texte - diction, style, and literary devices - and then decide what everything means. Unlike an explication de texte, you ll have to pick and choose the most important aspects of the text in order to develop the theme. Sample Commentaire Composé «Tirade de Raison de Madame Jourdain envers son mari quichotte» Molière, né Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, est l un des grands dramaturges du 17 e siècle. Il est d autant plus renommé pour ses comédies, traitant une variété des sujets. Ses comédies ciblent la prétention des bourgeois, les médecins ignorants, même le pédantisme des savants, parmi d autres. Son œuvre comprend plusieurs pièces reconnues : L Ecole des Femmes, traitant l éducation des filles, Tartuffe, montrant l hypocrisie religieuse, et Le Misanthrope, ciblant l hypocrisie et la prétention aristocrate. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a été écrite en 1670, suit le snobisme des gens qui veulent devenir nobles à la Cour. Étiquetée comédie ballet, invention de Molière, Le Bourgeois Gen-

tilhomme est un festin de la musique, de la danse, et de la comédie. Son personnage principal, Monsieur Jourdain aspire à devenir noble. Bientôt, cette aspiration mène à la fierté, au snobisme, et au dédain envers les autres personnages. Un jour, un jeune homme, Cléonte, demande la main de sa fille Lucile. M. Jourdain refuse violemment puisque Cléonte ne vient pas d une famille noble, et il veut que Lucile devienne marquise, statut fort dans la société. Cependant, Mme. Jourdain interrompt et questionne la rationalité de cette réponse dans sa tirade de l Acte III, scène xii. La tirade de Mme. Jourdain se dit avec conviction : c est la voix de la raison. L argument, bien construit dans une forme organisée, est consacré à M. Jourdain, pour qu il puisse comprendre malgré sa folie. Elle dévoile les défauts de son plan, peu à peu afin de convaincre son mari que son plan de faire Lucile marquise est fou et irrationnel. La question supposée à travers ce texte est de comment Mme. Jourdain identifie les défauts des raisonnements de son mari d une façon claire et raisonnable. Dans le commentaire composé suivant, il s agira donc dans un premier temps de cerner la structure de l argument raisonnable. Ensuite, il faudra examiner par quels moyens cette argumentation est efficace. Enfin, il sera possible d évaluer les implications sociales et morales dans la tirade de Mme. Jourdain. Le texte du discours peut se diviser en deux grandes parties. Dans la première, il y a un refus de la proposition de M. Jourdain, clair et évident. Elle dit qu elle «ne consentira point» à ce que son mari veut pour sa fille. La seconde partie révèle l hypothèse des situations possibles pour faire Lucile marquise dont Mme. Jourdain n est pas du tout contente. A la fin, elle dit son désir, sa proposition pour l époux de Lucile. On peut remarquer tout de suite que la tirade a été rédigée en prose pour faciliter une conversation directe avec l autre personne. Sans les fleurissements et la poésie, ce discours, écrit en prose, représente les mots réels du personnage dans une forme libre. L argument direct est tout à fait efficace. En ce qui concerne les moyens employés par l argument, on peut détecter la colère et la frustration de Madame Jourdain. Une urgence marque cette tirade quand elle se fait de souci pour sa fille. «Je ne veux point qu un gendre puisse ma fille reprocher ses parents.» Elle ne voudrait pas courir le

risque de l humiliation publique. Les Jourdain seraient humiliés en rendant visite à la famille de l aristocratique époux de Lucile. On dirait : «c est la fille de Monsieur Jourdain qui était trop heureuse, étant petite, de jouer à la Madame avec nous.» Dans cette frustration, Madame Jourdain désire que Lucile prenne la main de quelqu un qui est un vrai homme, honnête et responsable. Elle dit qu on «ne devient guère si riches à être honnêtes hommes.» A son avis, les riches ne sont point honnêtes et Madame Jourdain pense que des peuples, surtout les travailleurs (marchands, etc.) sont les plus responsables. Logiquement, elle préfère ces hommes aux hommes puissants et riches dans la société, et choisirait un artisan pour l époux de sa fille. De cette structure logique et de cette forme de la tirade, on peut tirer que Madame Jourdain n aime point l aristocratie. Elle perçoit l hypocrisie et l ostentation de cette classe sociale. En décrivant la «mégarde à saluer quelqu un du quartier,» elle s enrage contre la condescendance qui existe entre les aristocrates et les bourgeois, et la classe laborieuse. Elle ne veut pas du système hiérarchique et préfère s associer avec sa propre classe. Pour elle, l ascension de classe sociale n est pas une priorité, tandis que son mari désire un statut plus élevé. Madame Jourdain désire donc que sa fille reste dans sa propre classe sociale pour être plus heureuse. Pour conclure, la tirade de Madame Jourdain est évidemment un effort qui va contre le système hiérarchique de la société. Madame Jourdain, consciente des problèmes avec le mariage entre deux classes, perçoit les problèmes de l honnêteté des gens riches. Elle voudrait que sa fille épouse quelqu un qui est responsable-- le mariage pour l amour. Son argument très clair et raisonnable va contre celui de Monsieur Jourdain qui préfère le mariage pour l ascension sociale. Forme solide et structurée, l argument de Madame Jourdain reste un moment puissant et convaincant.

Recommended Methodology Introduction: Situate the passage in the context of the larger work. Identify the author, year of publication, genre, and then identify the passage s placement. Is it the beginning of a novel (incipit) or midway through a chapter? Is it more towards the beginning, middle, or end? Who is speaking (first or third person narrator?) and what happens in the passage? Is there a shift or a revelation? Does the character learn something or make a decision? Identify anything important that describes the passage and what it does. End with the problématique, a statement about the passage s function and importance, and by identifying the outline of your paper (the two or three major parts). (This is the same as for the explication de texte, however, the problématique and the plan should link the ideas and themes of the passage to the ideas and themes of the larger work and the course s problématique). After the introduction, you should have two or three «parties,» each with two or three «sousparties.» The parties should each be roughly the same length, and the sousparties should also be the same length. Don t have two sousparties under on theme and five under another. If the sousparties or the parties don t look balanced, consider reorganizing your outline to or reformulating them to make them balanced. It takes practice, but your professor will definitely comment if your paper is uneven. Inside of each souspartie and partie, you can develop your theme however you choose, either chronologically or thematically, basing your analysis on the passages you quote and the observations you make about the passage. Obviously, if you re writing about conflicting ideas, you ll want to develop one side of the conflict and then switch to the other side, even if the ideas are intermingled in the passage. It s up to you to organize all aspects of your analysis so that the each souspartie, partie, and the entire paper make sense. Some tips for organizing your commentaire composé:

- Sousparties and parties should be roughly the same length - You should have a problématique, or argument, for each section, and these should all tie into a larger, overarching problématique about the whole work. Even better if it relates to the main themes of the course - The order of the parties should follow a logical order, and generally appear from most basic to most complex. Within each partie, the sousparties should develop in the same way. Conclusion: Once you ve outlined all of your analysis, this is the place to make statements about how the text functions as part of the whole and what the author s purpose was in writing it this way. Think about what was accomplished in this passage and how it asks essential questions about the rest of the book, and how it reflects or represents the book s topic, the author s philosophy or ideas, and the time period. Your conclusion should situate the passage and the work in the context of the class s themes and demonstrate how this particular work develops your understanding (or has enhanced historical understanding) of the topic at hand. Finally, you can use the conclusion to ask questions about the author s motivations, the text s influence, and its current relevance. In this case, your conclusion should be at least a two paragraphs. Dossier Goal of a Dossier A dossier is the most free-form of all of the French assignment types, and it varies so much that professors often give their own guidelines. A dossier can cover any topic or any work or set of works, and professors will often

guide you to the type of dossier they want. In some cases, you may write a thematic dossier, like «the baby doll in 19th century French children s literature, a dossier on one work, «national identity in Amin Maalouf s Identités Meutrières, a dossier on a set of works, like the one below on different versions of Sleeping Beauty, or a theme within an author s works, Arab marriages in Pierre Bourdieu. Most professors require you to get your topic approved before you begin working. The purposes of a dossier can be as varied as professors and courses, but the general idea is to choose a theme or themes and to develop them as you see fit. As long as your work is relevant to your topic and to the class and your topic is defined and well developed, you ll probably get a good grade. The trick is to define the limits of your topic narrowly and to develop it completely within your own limits. In any case, you should be sure to get your topic approved by the middle of the term for a paper due at the end of the semester. Sample Dossier Dossier: La Belle au Bois Dormant Introduction Une jeune princesse est condamnée à mourir en se piquant le doigt par une mauvaise fée. Heureusement, une bonne fée peut contourner la malédiction, et la changer en cent ans de sommeil. Après de gros efforts d éviter les fuseaux, le malheur se produit, et la princesse tombe endormie avec son entourage, protégée par de grands buissons, jusqu à ce qu un prince vienne et elle se réveille. Ils se marient et vivent très heureux. La Belle au bois dormant est, avant tout, l histoire d une princesse réveillée par un prince. Mais la princesse, qui semble être l héroïne, est endormie durant presque toute l histoire ; pourrait-elle l être véritablement?

Cette étude portera sur trois versions de La belle au bois dormant : celle de Grimm, traduite de l allemand par Armel Guerne, celle de Perrault, et une version modernisée qui s appelle La belle au doigt bruyant, écrite par Philippe Dumas et Boris Moissard, qui fait parti d un recueil intitulé Contes à l envers. Dans un premier temps, nous examinerons brièvement le contexte des versions de Grimm, de Perrault, et de Dumas et Moissard, ce qui nous permettra d établir comment nous pouvons analyser les versions différentes. Dans un deuxième temps, nous toucherons à l intrigue à partir des actions des personnages. Une étude des personnages à partir de leurs fonctions et de leurs déplacements nous permettra d établir les différents messages du conte et nous mènera enfin à une interprétation globale du conte, et à l identification du vrai héros de l histoire. Tout d abord, établissons quelques principes de base pour guider notre étude de ce conte. Nous pouvons examiner la version de Grimm et celle de Dumas et de Moissard dans leur ensemble, parce qu ils ne traitent que le sommeil et le réveil de la princesse. Mais afin de mieux analyser le conte de Perrault et de pouvoir le comparer avec les autres versions, nous allons nous focaliser uniquement sur la première séquence de l intrigue, dans laquelle la princesse s endort et le prince vient l épouser. Nous pouvons considérer que dans cette version, le conte La belle au bois dormant se termine juste après le mariage du prince et de la princesse et l introduction de l histoire de la mère-ogresse qui veut manger les enfants est en fait l introduction d un autre conte, et ne constitue pas une partie intégrante du premier conte. 1 L apparition de la famille du prince après quelques ans de mariage avec la princesse déclenche une nouvelle séquence de l intrigue, puisque aucune action ni caractéristique particulière ne relie la princesse de la première partie avec celle de la deuxième partie. Le projet des auteurs 1 Il s agit de la première catégorie des séquences reliées (Propp, 113). Pour établir le nombre des contes, Propp nous propose 8

Grimm, Perrault, et Dumas ont écrit leurs versions du conte dans des époques et dans des circonstances très diverses. Une brève présentation de leurs projets servira à illuminer certaines différences entre les versions, et les limites de notre étude. Les frères Grimm, qui se sont chargés de ramasser les différents contes populaires en Allemagne et en Europe, n avaient pas de projet politique particulier. Préserver les contes répandus et racontés par les villageois est surtout un travail anthropologique : il s agissait d enregistrer les croyances et la culture populaire du peuple. Ce projet, très peu susceptible aux changements effectués par les Grimm, ne vise pas à influencer un peuple ni à mettre en valeur une politique particulière ; même si les Grimm ont effectué des changements, nous ne pourrions pas savoir lesquels et pour quelles raisons les Grimm ont changé les contes. De plus, cette version n est qu une parmi des centaines de versions possibles existant à l époque, et de surcroît, c est une traduction. Ayant précisé que c est une version d une version parmi des centaines de versions, nous pouvons ensuite établir les limites de notre analyse. Il est évident que nous ne pouvons pas analyser, d une manière très précise, les détails du récit, comme le choix de mots, qui est forcément le choix du traducteur ou du conteur et qui n est pas inscrit dans le conte luimême. Il vaut mieux donc l analyser à partir de l intrigue et des actions et motivations des personnages. En revanche, Perrault ne visait pas à collectionner les contes ; il les a écrits pour plaire à la cour au 17ème siècle. Il n est pas nécessaire de savoir pour qui il a écrit dans la mesure où cela ne nous aiderait pas à déterminer comment analyser ce conte ; il est simplement intéressant de noter que certains détails pourraient être des changements effectués par Perrault, et que les choix du style et de l expression sont des choix actifs de sa part. Sachant que cette version ne représente pas forcément toutes les versions répandues en Europe (puisque l on ne sait pas quels sont les modifications de Perrault), nous pouvons étudier ce conte avec beaucoup plus de précision et examiner non seulement les actions des personnages mais aussi le langage du conte.

Le projet de Dumas et de Moissard est intéressant parce qu il s agit d écrire des «contes à l envers» : inversant certains détails du conte afin de nous en présenter une version moderne. Bien que cette version soit écrite au vingtième siècle pour amuser les enfants et ne soit pas une version dite «traditionnelle» du conte, elle peut nous aider à comprendre les détails les plus intéressants des versions originales parce qu elle nous aide à réduire le conte à ses éléments de bases. Cela nous permet aussi de nous poser d autres questions sur la méthode de Dumas et Moissard et sur les morales originales du conte. À quoi sert, par exemple, leur présentation de l histoire «à l envers,» et à quoi s attend-on sachant que l histoire est censée être inversée? Quels éléments du conte a-t-il inversés? Comment ces changements peuvent-ils guider notre lecture du conte original? Dumas et Moissard, en quoi ont-ils réussi, et en quoi ont-ils échoué? Une étude des choix de ces auteurs nous permettra ainsi de commenter les valeurs des versions originales et celles de cette version plus moderne. Une étude des personnages qui influencent beaucoup les évènements majeurs dans la vie de la princesse (les parents, les fées, et le prince) nous permettra de voir comment la fille est perçue par les autres et de mieux définir son rôle. Le Roi et La Reine Dans le conte de Grimm, le roi et la reine ne remplissent pas la fonction traditionnelle des parents ; au lieu d élever leur fille et de la protéger, ils sont importants parce que c est eux qui sont responsables de son malheur. Tout d abord, le fait de vouloir donner naissance à un enfant est présenté comme un vœu exaucé par la grenouille et non pas comme un choix actif, la seule action de la part des parents étant de répéter chaque jour qu ils voulaient avoir un enfant. Cette action passive et la grossesse de la reine après la visite de la grenouille impliquent l impuissance du père le roi, qui n est pas présent lors de la conception de sa femme. 2 2 Bettelheim dit qu une grenouille signale assez souvent la conception dans les contes, p. 346.

Les parents se montrent inutiles dès la naissance de leur fille parce que ce sont les fées qui sont responsables de toutes ses vertus. Les fées prennent la place des parents en ce qui concerne la charge de la fille, puisque leurs dons la beauté, la vertu, et la richesse font partie de l héritage et viennent normalement des parents. Si la beauté d une jeune fille est censée refléter la beauté de la mère, dans ce cas les deux ne sont pas liées l une à l autre. Cette rupture entre les qualités des parents et les vertus de la fille s achève également (en triple) avec les autres dons : la vertu, qui devrait être enseignée à la fille par la mère, et la richesse, qui devrait passer à l enfant lors de leur mort des parents. Si le roi et la reine ne peuvent pas s attribuer le mérite des vertus de leur fille, ils sont, par contre, responsables de son malheur. C est le roi qui organise la grande fête pour l enfant, qui invite toutes ses connaissances et les fées, et qui décide d en «laisser une chez elle» faute d une assiette d or. Le fait qu il avait eu quelques mois pour préparer la fête (et pour se rendre compte qu il lui fallait une autre assiette d or pour la treizième fée) est hors sujet, mais le fait qu il s agit d un choix actif d exclure une des fées ne l est pas ; ayant pris le soin d inviter les fées pour qu elles soient «favorables et bienveillantes» à sa fille, il aurait pu s attendre à ce que cette treizième fée soit malfaisante et vindicative. Par contre, la mère est notamment absente de l organisation de la fête et est donc dispensée de la culpabilité du malheur de sa fille. La question qui peut donc se poser est la suivante : le père, est-il responsable de ne pas avoir prévu la vengeance de la mauvaise fée, voire de ne pas avoir évité le malheur à sa fille? Il peut en être responsable, mais une fois la malédiction prononcée il ne peut plus rien y faire. Le conte nous dit très clairement que les parents ne sont pas censés de protéger leurs enfants des conséquences de leurs propres actions : la tentative du roi d empêcher le malheur à se produire échoue. Après la malédiction, c est lui qui interdit inutilement les fuseaux «dans le royaume tout entier,» pour essayer en vain de protéger sa fille. Mais aucun parent ne peut être là pour protéger son enfant tout le temps : l absence du roi et de la reine le jour où la fille se pique le doigt montre l impossibilité et l absurdité de protéger un enfant des

malheurs. En prétendant que sa volonté en tant que roi est plus forte que la malédiction et la magie de la fée, il affirme son impuissance face au destin. Il y a donc une fatalité du conte plus forte que la volonté des parents, parce que la jeune fille doit surmonter des épreuves, et les parents ne peuvent pas la garder à l état de petite fille indéfiniment. Avoir une fille, c est être exposé à la voir partir un jour. Dans le conte de Perrault, le roi et la reine sont, eux aussi, des victimes innocentes de la malédiction de la mauvaise fée. Au début du conte, les parents sont «fâchés de n avoir point d enfants,» mais au moins ils essayent de faire quelque chose. Les pèlerinages et les dévotions que font le roi et la reine pour concevoir exigent de véritables efforts de leur part ; ils soutiennent la volonté d avoir un enfant avec leurs actions. Ayant fait tant pour avoir un enfant, ils sont encore plus désespérés de considérer la possibilité de sa mort ; ces dévotions religieuses mettent en valeur la tragédie de la perte de la fille. En outre, les parents ne sont pas du tout responsables, dans ce cas, de ne pas avoir invité la vieille fée ; il s agit d une troisième personne anonyme («on») qui ne l avait pas invitée parce que «l on» ne savait pas qu elle fût encore vivante. La vengeance de la fée et la malédiction la princesse est punie non pas pour la «péché» de la génération précédente mais pour l erreur de quelqu un qui n a rien à voir avec elle. Pourtant, le roi fait tout pour gérer la vie de la fille et pour la «protéger ;» malgré ses meilleurs essais, le château dans lequel ils habitent devient le lieu «dangereux,» puisque c est à la maison qu elle se pique. Même pas capables de garder la fille en sécurité chez eux, le roi et la reine nous montre qu après tout, leurs tentatives de protection échouent et le malheur se produit en dépit de leurs efforts. Ils finissent par perdre leur fille quand même, et la revoient seulement parce que la bonne fée revient les endormir ; le fait d avoir essayé de la protéger ne lui évite pas les cent ans de sommeil. Les parents dans le conte de Dumas et de Moissard sont plus sages qu eux ; ils éloignent les aiguilles de la fille mais ne lui empêchent pas de vivre, et lui permettent d aller chez ses amis. Dans la version modernisée, les parents donnent beaucoup plus de liberté à leur fille en n en souffrent pas plus : don-

ner un peu de liberté aux filles n est pas forcément plus dangereux qu essayer de les protéger. Les Fées Comme nous avons vu ci-dessus, ce sont les fées et non pas les parents qui attribuent toutes les vertus à la jeune princesse dans les deux versions traditionnelles du conte. En outre, dans le conte de Perrault, elles donnent à la princesse non seulement ses vertus, mais aussi des talents : En lui accordant la capacité de danser parfaitement bien, de chanter comme un rossignol, et de jouer toutes sortes d instruments, 3 elles remplissent la fonction de parents (qui devraient lui donner de bonnes qualités) et de tuteurs (responsables de son apprentissage). Cependant, elles ne sont pas très significatives dans la mesure où elles ne remplacent pas complètement les parents ; malgré l importance de leurs dons et leur rôle en tant que marraines et tuteurs de la fille, elles disparaissent après la fête et ne reviennent jamais. Le fait de ne pas avoir une présence très importante dans la vie de la princesse permet de réduire les fées à leur fonction, ce qui est de fournir l histoire avec une princesse vertueuse et bien-aimée, une victime compatible. Leur gentillesse et bienfaisance servent également à mettre en valeur la méchanceté de la mauvaise fée. 4 Leur présence limitée permet aussi à Dumas et Moissard de les éliminer complètement, et les fées sont donc absentes dans cette version «à l envers.» Bien que les auteurs affirment l existence des fées dans leur recueil, ils choisissent de ne pas les incorporer dans cette version. 5 Ce qui est encore plus intéressant, c est qu ils ne remplacent pas les fées avec autre chose : ce n est pas la magie qui accorde les vertus et les talents à Louise. Les autres membres de la famille «lui prophétisent une vie sensationnelle, 6» mais cela 3 Perrault, p. 186. 4 Bettelheim, p.348. 5 La première phrase du conte Le don de la fée Mirabola, du même recueil, est, «Il y a, de nos jours, quelques fées en exercice.» Dumas, Philippe et Boris Moissard. Contes à l envers. Paris : Neuf, 1980, p. 27. 6 Dumas et Moissard, p. 45.

ne donne pas l impression qu ils ont le pouvoir de la lui assurer. Dans ce cas, l absence de la magie bienfaisante avant que la Tante Élisabeth ne vienne rend la malédiction encore plus incroyable. Puisque la malédiction n est pas sous une forme de formule magique, et les auteurs n avertissent pas les lecteurs de sa potentialité, la Tante Élisabeth semble folle et méchante, mais les autres ne croient pas forcément que le malheur se produise. C est-à-dire, ce qui est «à l envers» dans cette version est le fait que ce que dit Élisabeth arrive malgré le fait qu elle n a pas la magie d une mauvaise fée. La bonne fée dans le conte de Grimm ne fait que contourner le don, et elle peut le faire seulement parce que la mauvaise fée intervient juste avant son don pour condamner la princesse à mort. C est la chance seule qui lui permet de sauver la princesse, parce Mais dans la version de Perrault, la bonne fée est un personnage à multiples rôles ; elle sait que la vieille fée va maudire la jeune princesse, et se cache exprès pour pouvoir contourner la malédiction. Quand elle contourne la malédiction, elle rend à la princesse sa vie, mais elle lui accorde aussi un don d amour, parce qu elle inclut l arrivée du prince. Puis, quand la malédiction se produit et la princesse s endort, elle revient pour faire endormir tous les autres membres de la cour, assurant que la princesse ne sera pas toute seule quand elle se réveillera dans cent ans. La multiplication de fonctions de cette bonne fée crée une sorte de marraine qui la protège même quand les parents ne savent pas trop bien quoi faire. Dumas et Moissard remplace la bonne fée avec le cousin Bertrand du Havre, habillé en sorts et métamorphoses, qui soulage l assistance avec un contre-charme composé «d un verre d huile d arachide, une pièce de dix centimes, et un cheveu de la cousine Marie-Hélène, 7» ce qui ne pas fait penser à une magie très forte. Cette incantation, qui finit par être encore plus forte que la malédiction de la Tante Élisabeth, est complètement absurde et construit pour faire rigoler les enfants ; cependant, elle est dangereuse parce qu elle ne précise pas la fin de la malédiction comme le contournement du mauvais don dans les autres versions. Le charme qui est censé sauver la vie de la fille devient un autre charme qui aurait pu la tuer : en essayant de lui sauver la vie ainsi, les parents de la fille ont failli tuer une centaine de personnes. 7 Dumas et Moissard, p. 46.

Ce que l on pourrait tirer de cette histoire est qu il vaut mieux ne pas essayer d éviter les malheurs afin d en parvenir à d autres qui sont encore plus tragiques. Et même les sorts bienfaisants peuvent avoir des conséquences inattendues. Le Prince Charmant Personne n a prédit son arrivée et personne ne l a choisi, mais c est le prince charmant que doit épouser la princesse quand il arrive juste au moment où elle se réveille. Bien que la bonne fée dans le conte de Grimm ne prédise pas l arrivée d un prince charmant dans le contournement de la malédiction (et donc qu il ne soit pas nécessaire pour réveiller la princesse), on pourrait dire que sa fonction proppienne est d épouser la princesse et d assurer la fin heureuse de l histoire. Son rôle en tant que futur époux est important pour commenter le destin de la princesse et l élément du hasard dans les relations amoureuses. Quand le prince arrive au bout de ses cent ans de sommeil, il s agit d une coïncidence ; ayant entendu plusieurs fois l histoire de la belle, il est peut-être sûr que le château existe, mais la chronologie est imprécise. C était le grand-père du prince et un autre vieillard (qui avaient, sûrement, moins de 100 ans) qui lui avaient raconté l histoire, la malédiction se serait déjà produite avant leur époque. Personne ne peut donc savoir que les cent ans se sont déroulés, et le prince doit prendre la décision d aller chercher la princesse sachant que ceux qui lui avaient précédés sont tous morts. Le prince, prêt à mourir «la plus misérable des morts» à la recherche de la belle princesse, montre une détermination singulière et admirable face à une tâche qui semble impossible. En tout cas, le narrateur de cette version explique, «Mais en vérité, les cent années se trouvaient justement révolues et le jour était arrivé, que la princesse devait se réveiller. 8» Si le prince n est pas certain de réussir, les auditeurs, eux, le sont ; l ironie créée par ce fait précise que c est la fin des cent ans, et non pas l arrivée du prince, qui fait réveiller la princesse. Bien que le futur mariage de la princesse ne soit pas explicite dès le don de la 8 Grimm, p. 286-7.

bonne fée, il est clair que le prince lui est destiné : le prince réussit à entrer dans le palais où tous les autres avant lui ont échoué, justement parce que la roncière change en fleurs et lui laisse passer. C est lui seul qui doit être là quand elle se réveille, et lui le seul époux possible. Dans la version de Perrault, la fée qui contourne le mauvais don précise qu un «fils de roi 9» viendra au moment où la princesse se réveillera ; c est à la fois un don de la vie et de l amour. Contrairement au prince, qui n est conscient dans aucune de ces versions qu il est destiné à épouser une princesse endormie, la princesse l attend depuis cent ans, et peut rêver à celui qui viendra l épouser, ce qu explique Perrault. Cela est important pour montrer que celui que doit aimer la princesse avait été choisi sans que personne ne puisse rien y faire et avant que personne ne sache quel prince viendra, mais ils se reconnaissent. Le prince décide très facilement d aimer et de délivrer la princesse, et la princesse le reconnaît immédiatement quand elle se réveille comme celui qui avait été choisi pour elle. De plus, le seul moment où la princesse parle, elle exprime son attente : «Vous vous êtes bien fait d attendre ;» cette phrase affirme la signification de ce prince en particulier comme le seul qui est destiné à la princesse. Le prince dans la version de Perrault, comme celui de la version de Grimm, part à la recherche d une princesse qu il n a jamais vue. Ayant entendu de différentes histoires concernant le château, le prince de Perrault est motivé à aller chercher la princesse dont il pourrait se douter l existence «par l amour et par la gloire.» Pour le prince, il suffit d entendre l histoire de la princesse pour savoir qu il l aime : c est l amour qui est privilégié. C est surtout une épreuve psychologique, parce qu il doit examiner les corps des autres pour vérifier qu ils ne sont qu endormis, et se décider à risquer sa vie à la recherche de cette princesse. Enfin, la tâche de traverser la forêt n est pas si difficile que ça, puisque la forêt laisse passer ce prince vaillant : une fois qu il peut dire qu il mourrait pour trouver la princesse, les obstacles disparaissent. Dans le «conte à l envers» de Dumas, le prince est indispensable : Louise est condamnée à mourir s il ne vient pas, et de plus, personne ne sait qu il vient. Dans ce cas, l histoire de la Belle au doigt bruyant est l histoire 9 Perrault, p. 188.

du Prince Charmant, il est le seul personnage dont l histoire et les motivations sont connues, et il est sans doute le héros que suit la narration. Ce qui est censé être «à l envers» est donc le fait qu une histoire intitulée La belle au doigt bruyant suit effectivement les aventures du garçon (dans une version moderne et assez feministe!). Dumas commence l histoire avec un prince qui cherche une princesse à sauver : c est un quêteur qui part à la recherche de l objet de sa quête (une princesse), et trois fois il échoue quand il pense avoir trouvé une belle princesse qui ne l est pas. Son épreuve glorifiant est de la trouver et de l embrasser pour rompre le charme et lui sauver la vie ; sa récompense est la princesse elle-même. La Belle La belle princesse ne fait rien et elle reçoit tout ; aussi devient-elle l objet de la quête du prince et non pas l héroïne de l histoire. Bébé quand la malédiction est prononcée, elle semble ignorer ce à quoi elle est condamnée parce qu elle ne cherche pas à éviter les aiguilles. La seule fois qu elle se déplace est le jour de ses quinze ans, quand elle erre partout dans le château et finit par se faire piquer le doigt. Ce jour-là, ses parents sont absents, et elle quitte les chambres qu elle connaît (les lieux où elle avait passé son enfance) pour explorer les chambres inconnues du château. 10 Cette liberté éphémère est le seul moment où elle agit : son déplacement et le sommeil qui suit la rendent l objet que doit chercher le prince, et sa volonté d explorer le château la rend la victime à sauver. C est-à-dire, même si les parents ne sont pas censés trop protéger leur fille, elle non plus n est pas censée exercer trop sa propre volonté. Après avoir été sa propre victime, la princesse doit épouser le prince qui vient la trouver : elle ne peut pas éviter son destin de l épouser. Si, dans le conte de Perrault, elle parle pour accueillir le prince et est contente de le recevoir, elle ne choisit pas son prince charmant et il n est dans aucun sens la récompense des cents ans de sommeil subis. Ce n est pas elle qui le mérite, c est lui qui a gagné dans toutes les trois versions. 10 Bettelheim, p. 348.

Conclusion Dans le recueil de Dumas et de Moissard, la seule façon dont ce conte se déroule véritablement «à l envers» est la façon dont Louise est maudite ; au lieu de s endormir pour cent ans, elle commence à danser sans qu il y ait une fin de la malédiction prévue. Les autres éléments de l intrigue se déroulent normalement : un garçon, dit prince charmant, entend l histoire de la princesse et va la sauver. Ce que fait Dumas n est donc pas d écrire un «conte à l envers» : il réussit simplement à nous montrer que l histoire de la Belle au bois dormant n est pas l histoire de la princesse, mais celle du prince. Quand le prince entend l histoire d une princesse endormie/dansant (qui doit être sauvée), elle lui manque, et elle est aussi la récompense de son courage, et rien de plus. Dans toutes les versions, ce n est pas elle qui le choisit, mais elle est censée accepter d être protégée par ses parents et puis épousée par lui. Recommended Methodology A dossier is usually between 10 and 15 pages long, and it can include copies of relevent articles, images, original artwork, etc. in addition to an original written text. Suprisingly, most professors actually specify that you need to do a certain amount of the dossier yourself (usually a minimum of 10 pages) because apparently some French students were making folders with Wikipedia articles, adding some Google Images, and calling it a paper. It definitely helps your dossier to have supporting documents and images if the quality of your own work is high, but slacking off on the written part of your dossier will make professors think you were trying to pass off mediocre work by adding a lot of extras. Types of dossiers vary greatly, so it s difficult to advise on the best way to do one. A method that seems to work well, though, is to pick one of the main themes and develop it in several different ways. In the sample dossier above, the writer chose to compare three versions of Sleeping Beauty by compar-

ing and contrasting the characters Proppian functions and showing how the relationships between the characters revealed different moralities and ideaologies. Another approach could have been to analyze different illustrations of that story to see what the differences were. A third person, maybe someone who spoke German, could have compared the original Perrault version to the original Grimm text in German. Someone else could have compared the Disney film to the texts, or to versions of the film in other languages, or to other directors versions of the story, or to the ballet. In a dossier, you have a lot of freedom to be imaginative and to figure out what interests you the most. If you have to choose your own topic for a dossier, the best way is to choose a work on the bibliography that interests you, or an author, and to read the work with the objective of finding a few questions that intrigue you. Once you have some questions, try to figure out how the author answers them in the work. You can extend your research to the author s other books, to current events, to other books on the syllabus, and even to personal experience. When you write the introduction to your dossier, you ll need to justify all of the choices you made, how you came up with the idea for the topic, and what the limits of your topic are. You should also give an idea of your outline and how you ll develop your argument. This means, of course, that you should organize your thoughts into a few main themes like you would for a commentaire composé, but again, the form can be much more free. In a dossier, you don t necessarily have to have parties and sousparties, or, if you choose to have them, they don t have to be equal in number and length. You don t have to have 3 sousparties under every partie, you can have two oneparagraph sousparties in one section and five three-paragraph sousparties in another section. As long as what you re saying makes sense and is relevant to the argument you re making, your professor won t care.

While you should very specifically define your topic in the introduction (mostly so your professor can t say, Well, it was good, but you didn t mention x, y, and z! ), you should also open the conclusion up and discuss some of the questions you didn t address. The conclusion of a dossier should not only summarize the points you made and their importance, but it should also show that it was only the beginning of what could become a more sophisticated, in-depth research project. (This is also why you want your topic to be broad enough that you still have some questions at the end of researching it.) Of course, it goes without saying that you should follow all of the rules for good analysis that we outlined in the section on the explication de texte: not citing quotes out of context or without analysis, always explaining the significance of something, and having a ratio of one sentence of fact to two sentences of analysis. The opportunity for being creative doesn t mean you re exempt from following the rules of academic writing. In fact, part of the goal of a dossier is to separate the students who can develop a topic on their own and treat it academically from those who can t - and who subsequently fail the class. A good dossier will be a combination of interesting, relevant, and well-developed arguments and a few other interesting but less-important pistes that you recognize and identify but choose not to develop, leaving open the possibility for further work.

Dissertation Goal of a Dissertation A dissertation is roughly the French equivalent of an essay, although its form and structure are much more demanding. It is the most difficult university exercise to master. Dissertations are assigned in all social sciences disciplines, from literature and history to philosophy, and while the content and methodology may change, the approach doesn t. Unlike the commentaire composé, which relies primarily on stylistic and linguistic analysis, the dissertation combines your knowledge of a text, set of texts, idea, or historical event with rhetorical and organizational skills. You need to know how to identify and organize arguments, and support them with linguistic and contextual analysis in order to write a successful dissertation. There are several types of dissertations that are commonly assigned. The first is the «quotation» topic, in which the professor chooses a quote - any quote, from a work on the syllabus or a famous person - and asks you to comment on it using either a particular work or set of works from the course, or using your general knowledge about an event. In both cases, the professor has a certain set of works in mind that he expects you to reference. A variation on the «quotation» dissertation is the «statement» dissertation, in which the professor will make a statement and ask you to affirm or refute the statement. An example of such a topic, which is not one of the sample dissertations below, could be, «World War Two would have lasted two more years if the Americans hadn t dropped the atomic bombs,» or «The French language allows authors in former colonies a literary space for permissivity and self-critique.»

The other common type of dissertation is the topical dissertation, which is probably the most difficult type. For this type, the professor assigns a topic, like «Renaissance Princes and their Power» (Sample 2) and expects students to come up with the confines of the topic and the arguments presented in the course. It requires an indepth knowledge of the topics covered in class and the assigned reading. Unlike an American essay, the goal of a dissertation is not to get you to argue effectively. Rather, it is designed to force you to identify the arguments for each side of a particular topic and to draw conclusions about which are the most powerful or influential. Your opinion doesn t matter, per say, but the way you analyze the arguments and present them does. Sample Dissertation 1 Dans la scène IV de l Impromptu de Versailles, Molière met dans la bouche de Brécourt, acteur qui représente à peu près son point de vue, les formules : «l affaire de la comédie est de représenter, en général, tous les défauts des hommes, et principalement des hommes de notre siècle.» Commentez cette réflexion à partir du Bourgeois Gentilhomme, et des pièces de Marivaux, mises au programme. Et aussi à partir de toute autre comédie que vous connaîtriez. Selon Molière, la matière de la comédie se trouve dans les actions des hommes en société et ensuite dans la représentation des personnages dans chaque pièce. Comment est-ce que la comédie exprime les défauts des personnages? Pour Molière, il s agit de trouver des points communs dans toute comédie en montrant une critique véritable des hommes. Il cherche à exposer les défauts des personnages de la comédie dans une caricature. Dans l analyse qui suit, on va examiner comment le théâtre manifeste une intention de critique des hommes, surtout en ciblant le système hiérarchique de la société. Deuxièmement, on va illustrer cela par des exemples à partir du

Bourgeois Gentilhomme et de Dom Juan de Molière, et de l Ile des esclaves de Marivaux. Enfin, nous essaierons une synthèse du point de vue exposé dans l Impromptu de Versailles et de la critique sociale exprimée dans les pièces de Molière et de Marivaux. D abord, comment déchiffrer le contenu de la réplique de Brécourt dans l Impromptu? La première partie est plutôt évidente et montre une critique générale des hommes. «L affaire de la comédie est de représenter, en général, tous les défauts des hommes» La comédie chez Molière critique les vices et les défauts des hommes. Au fond, Molière exprime dans ses pièces des thèmes universels, qui s appliquent au passé, au présent, et à l avenir. La comédie sert à exposer et à critiquer les valeurs et les comportements de la société. La deuxième partie de la réplique précise le thème des pièces. «Principalement des hommes de notre siècle» indique que Molière s adresse à sa propre époque pour que la critique soit reçue dans la société dans laquelle il vit. Pour illustrer le point de vue de Molière, il est nécessaire de regarder des textes de quelques comédies. Molière et Marivaux ont abordé le thème de la critique des hommes liée aux structures hiérarchiques de la société au 17 e et au 19 e siècle. Dans Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Molière exprime une critique sociale du rêve du bourgeois de devenir noble et de sa prétention à se comporter comme un aristocrate. Monsieur Jourdain, personnage principal, renforce l idée populaire du bourgeois prétentieux qui considère comme inférieurs tous ceux qui ne sont pas nobles. Les autres aspects du rôle comprennent l idée de l ostentation et de la richesse. Cette comédie ridiculise, en particulier, les membres de la classe bourgeoise qui aspirent au titre de noble. On peut cibler trois scènes dans lesquelles le bourgeois incarne ce type dans la société. Dans l Acte III, scène iii, Madame Jourdain et Monsieur Jourdain se parlent à propos de l argent (plusieurs milliers de livres) prêté au comte Dorante. Monsieur Jourdain semble convaincu que le comte a «des bontés qu on ne devinerait jamais.» Madame Jourdain, voix de la raison, dit, «il vous emprunte votre argent.» Il est évident que Monsieur Jourdain ne vit que pour le monde des apparences, et il ne voit pas l artificialité de son rap-

port avec Dorante. L Acte III, xvi, approfondit cette situation d artificialité. Monsieur Jourdain déclare à Dorimène, «Madame ce m est une gloire bien grande de me voir assez fortuné pour être si heureux que d avoir le bonheur que vous ayez eu la bonté de m accorder la grâce.» Plus tard dans la scène, Dorante juge le comportement du bourgeois-- «assez ridicule». La naïveté ridicule et l extravagance du bourgeois sont trop visibles et critiquables. Dans l Acte V, scène i, le bourgeois montre une vraie foi de son titre «Mamamouchi.», et il est convaincu de son statut de noblesse. Cependant Madame Jourdain éprouve des soupçons à propos de ce qui se déroule. Très vite, elle découvre le secret du jeu qui dupe son mari. Le bourgeois gentilhomme, aveugle à la réalité, s attache à son titre avec bonheur et avec prétention. Une autre pièce avec des implications morales, Dom Juan, exprime une critique sociale plutôt différente de celle du Bourgeois Gentilhomme. En rajoutant l élément de l infidélité et de la séduction, Dom Juan critique les abus du privilège, de l éducation, et de la richesse. Dom Juan implique le thème de la richesse par rapport à la pauvreté, distinction sociale et hiérarchique. Dans l Acte II, iv, Dom Juan, infidèle à toutes les femmes qu il séduit, a promis de se marier avec deux paysannes. Il y a conflit entre les trois. On peut remarquer immédiatement la différence entre Dom Juan et les deux femmes au niveau de la langue. Dom Juan peut prendre la parole avec force, vivacité, et habileté rhétorique, alors que les deux paysanne restent inférieures, en parlant une langue vulgaire. Etant donné cet écart de langage, Dom Juan prend un avantage sur les deux femmes. Le passage de l Acte II, iv, exprime la critique de Molière, en montrant l exploitation des pauvres par les riches. Dom Juan dit «que voulezvous que je vous dise? Vous soutenez également toutes deux que je vous ai promis de vous prendre pour femmes.» Dom Juan est au centre du conflit entre les deux femmes. «Celle à qui j ai promis effectivement n a-t-elle pas en elle-même de quoi se moquer des discours de l autre, et doit-elle se mettre en peine, pourvu que j accomplisse ma promesse? Tous les discours n avancent point les choses ; il faut faire et non pas dire, et les effets décident mieux que les paroles.» Dom Juan nie sa promesse et démontre son infidélité. «Tous les discours n avancent point les choses ; il faut faire et non pas dire et les effets

décident mieux que les paroles.» Pour Dom Juan, les mots sont sans signification. Il peut promettre le mariage à une fille et annule sa promesse tout de suite, marquant de plus son infidélité. D ailleurs, ces répliques de Dom Juan expriment l avantage pris sur les deux femmes du fait qu elles sont dans une situation financière et culturelle inférieure à celle de Dom Juan. L Ile des esclaves de Marivaux présente une critique du statut social. En effet, on sait que le pouvoir des nobles n est pas acquis par le travail et le mérite mais transmis de façon héréditaire. Le maître est né comme maître, et le valet de la même façon. Cela renforce les systèmes sociaux au 18 e siècle. Dans cette comédie, Iphicrate est un noble, possédant tous les privilèges d un aristocrate. Entre Iphicrate et Arlequin, il existe un rapport violent aussi bien physique que moral. Arlequin n hésite pas à le dénoncer dès la première scène, lorsqu il dit «les marques de votre amitié tombent toujours sur mes épaules.» La tension et la violence entre le maître et son valet suggèrent les tensions sociales de la domesticité au 18 e siècle. Arlequin déclare à son maître : «Tu as raison, mon ami, tu rencontres bien mon devoir ici pour toi ; mais tu n as jamais su le tien pour moi, quand nous étions dans Athènes. Tu veux que je partage ton affliction, et jamais tu n as partagé la mienne. Eh bien! va, je dois avoir le cœur meilleur que toi ; car il y a plus longtemps que je souffre, et que je souffre, et que je sais ce que c est de la peine. Tu m as battu par amitié : puisque tu le dis, je te le pardonne ; je t ai raillé par bonne humeur, prends-le en bonne part, et fais-en ton profit.» Dans cette réplique, on peut sentir l humiliation et la douleur éprouvée par Arlequin dans son état de domesticité. On peut également en quoi Molière s emploie à humaniser ce rapport entre le maître et son domestique. En regardant de nouveau la réplique de L Impromptu de Versailles, nous pouvons remarquer à quel point les trois pièces s accordent aux idées de Molière. Ces exemples servent à montrer les systèmes hiérarchiques dans la société du 17 e et du 18 e siècle. Les deux siècles sont différents dans l écriture

et dans la critique. Chez Molière, la critique est plutôt ouverte, montrant le ridicule du bourgeois gentilhomme, qui vit une vie extravagante, tandis que chez Marivaux la critique est subtile et implicite montrant les rapports entre maître et domestique. Evidemment ces exemples montrent le niveau de caricature des structures sociales chez Molière et chez Marivaux. En montrant les inégalités et les aspects inhumains de la société, les deux dramaturges divergent. Tandis que Molière offre une critique grotesque et souvent très réaliste, Marivaux veut humaniser des aspects des structures sociales. Alors que Molière montre les vices et des défauts de Dom Juan et de Monsieur Jourdain, Marivaux humanise les rapports entre maître et domestique. Dans ces deux contextes historiques et sociaux, les spectateurs rient de la présentation, et la comédie réussit dans sa tâche. Pour conclure, Molière rédige un plaidoyer pour la comédie dans la réplique de l Impromptu de Versailles. La comédie est une forme d art qui exprime les critiques de la société dans laquelle le dramaturge vit. Comme nous l avons déjà montré dans les exemples, tirés des pièces de Molière et de Marivaux, le contexte socio-historique crée des aspects comiques qui font rire les spectateurs. C est là où l on trouve l origine de la comédie. Sample Dissertation 2 «Les Princes de la Renaissance et leur pouvoir» La Renaissance en Europe était une période de découvertes intellectuelles, artistiques, une réformation religieuse et surtout une épreuve de pouvoir parmi les princes des royaumes et territoires différents. En examinant l histoire des souverains qui y régnaient, il est évident que ces princes

gouvernaient avec une puissance exceptionnelle pendant l époque. Même de nos jours, presque cinq siècles plus tard, l image de ces princes, tels que François 1 er, Charles Quint et Henri VIII, occupe encore une place principale dans les chroniques historiques de notre société. De plus, ils sont encore connus pour leurs contributions à l époque, dont quelques-unes sont encore pertinentes aujourd hui. Pourquoi ces rois et empereurs ont eu tant de succès en créant une image puissante d eux-mêmes et comment ils l ont réalisée? On peut dire qu il y avait des manières spécifiques employées par le Prince de la Renaissance pour fabriquer son image surnaturelle. Le Prince a utilisé plusieurs stratégies pour construire un pouvoir extraordinaire. On voit d abord que sa façon de se comporter à travers ses interactions avec les autres était la fondation de son image. Grâce à la place importante du Prince de la Renaissance dans la vie religieuse de son royaume, il a pu agrandir sa puissance par son influence sur l Église Catholique. Enfin, le moyen par lequel le Prince se montrait visuellement, soit pendant les événements importants dans la cour, soit dans les interprétations des artistes, jouait un rôle important dans son pouvoir. I. Paraître puissant : Le prince, maître de son comportement. Le comportement du Prince était essentiel pour démontrer ses qualités princières aux autres. Comme le Prince était le représentant de son peuple et de son pays, la manière dans laquelle il se comporter était fondamentale pour ajouter à son image et signaler comment il était aperçu par les autres. Pour ses sujets et les gens du royaume, cette image indiquait tout à propos du Prince, parce qu ils n avaient pas d interactions personnelles avec lui. Toutes les idées des gens du royaume à propos du Prince venaient de leurs perceptions visuelles de lui et des occasions où ils le voyaient en public, mais toujours à distance. Il fallait que le Prince se maîtrise devant son public et même devant ses amis et sa famille, pour montrer qu il était vraiment quelqu un au-dessus de l homme commun. A. L éducation du Prince comme enfant lui permet d établir un bon comportement comme adulte.

Pendant la Renaissance, on croyait que, dès l enfance, le prince devrait avoir une éducation équilibrée pour montrer qu il était bien en soi et en bonne santé dans tous les sens. Selon l humaniste Erasme, connu pour ses contributions à l importance de l instruction scolaire, il existait trois aspect de l éducation «pour façonner un homme qui mérite vraiment ce nom la nature (de bonne dispositions innées), l éducation, et enfin, l exercice (l effort personnel persévérant).» 11 Il fallait qu il développe ses connaissances intellectuelles et sociales, ce qui contribuait à son image d un Prince bien éduqué et capable de gouverner son peuple. Cela permettrait au Prince de bien maîtriser son comportement dès l enfance et puis de continuer à apprendre comment se tenir comme adulte. L éducation du Prince dans la Renaissance se déroulait généralement dans deux étapes. Pendant son enfance, vers l âge de trois ans, sa mère et des femmes de la cour s occupaient du Prince, et elles l ont élevé d une manière particulière. Les femmes étaient responsables pour son comportement de base ; c est-à-dire enseigner au Prince la différence entre ce qui était correct ou pas. Il a été également emmené à l église pour apprendre «à s agenouiller et à joindre ses mains.» 12 Il devait savoir comment prier, manger, se conduire et à socialiser proprement avec d autres enfants de son âge. Cette éducation d enfance prenait une place signifiante dans l élèvement du Prince. Sans apprendre comment bien se comporter d un petit âge, il serait impossible pour lui de construire et présenter une image nette et correcte lorsqu il était responsable pour le bien être de tout un pays. Ensuite, la deuxième étape qui formait l éducation du Prince était prise en charge par les précepteurs, généralement les humanistes. Ces philosophes, des hommes intellectuels de l époque qui croyaient que les hommes pouvaient réaliser leur humanité par leurs études, ont également vu l importance de l éducation des enfants. Sous l instruction d un précepteur, le Prince apprenait des leçons scolaires qui pouvaient l aider à gouverner son pays. Par exemple, le Prince était obligé savoir comment parler devant un 11 Jouanna, Arlette. La France de la Renaissance: Histoire et Dictionnaire [1495-1559], Paris, Robert Laffont, 2001; p.780: «Éducation». 12 Jouanna, 780.

public, comment parler de diverses langues étrangères, et aussi des matières aujourd hui considérées comme matières de bases dans les écoles. Les précepteurs, comme Guillaume Budé et Erasme, ont publié des œuvres sur l éducation des aspects d un bon comportement. Ses apprentissages contribuaient à son image à travers un comportement bien construit, fondé sur des connaissances constitutives qui montraient sa puissance à tout le monde. B. L apparence d un bon comportement vers d autres souverains est essentiel pour la diplomatie. D un point de vue politique, l image du Prince était extrêmement utile pour les alliances avec d autres pays. Pendant la Renaissance, comme aujourd hui, la France avait des alliés et des ennemies. Les souverains rendraient les alliances plus fortes avec la négociation car leurs rapports étaient essentiels pour achever la paix entre des nations. Donc, l image que projetaient ces Princes dépendait de leur comportement. L image visuelle était la première impression pour un ambassadeur ou pour un autre souverain. On voit à tel point le bon comportement du roi François 1 er a laissé une impression sur l ambassadeur d Angleterre Sir Henry Wallop pendant sa première visite au châteaux de Fontainebleau. «Lui, en bon et gracieux prince, m aida en me poussant en avant sans quoi je n aurais pas pu monter.» 13 Le roi a évidemment fait une grande première impression sur cet ambassadeur, ce qui veut dire que l image du roi François 1 er à travers son comportement a été une réussite. Les manifestations du comportement du Prince se prenaient plusieurs formes. Ce même texte historique démontre également la générosité du Prince avec ses visiteurs. Le roi devrait traiter un ambassadeur étranger de la même manière du roi que cet ambassadeur représentait, pour montrer son respect au souverain. À la fin de ce même texte écrit par Sir Henry Wallop, l ambassadeur indique que le roi lui a offert son gobelet pour utiliser pendant le dîner, comme le roi sortirait pour la soirée. Cette geste illustre 13 «Doc. 4: François 1er maître de Fontainebleau. Dépêche de Sir Henry Wallop au roi d Angleterre (1540).» Calendar of State Papers, Reign of Henry VIII, t. VIII, p. 479-486. Le Person, Xavier. Le Prince dans l Europe de la Renaissance: histoire et héritages, p. 11.

la générosité du roi avec ses visiteurs ; on peut dire que sa générosité a joué un grand rôle dans à la construction son image. De plus sa générosité était essentielle dans ses rapports diplomatiques. Ensuite, le Prince représentait sa propre société ; alors, son comportement envers ses visiteurs de l étranger et de son royaume devait être impeccable. Il était le citoyen modèle de son pays. Le prince ne pouvait rien faire sans penser à l image qu il projetait aux autres pays et à ses collègues. Toutes ses actions, ses habitudes et ses réactions en public étaient aperçues comme les actions, les habitudes et les réactions des Français et de la France. Il fallait se comporter d une manière idéale pour montrer ou faire semblant de montrer son pouvoir à tout le monde. II. L omniscience et l apparence divine : Le rôle du Prince dans l Église et dans la religion. Le rapport entre le Prince et l Église catholique pendant la Renaissance indiquait l influence du Prince sur la religion à l époque. Il faisait partie de l Église et de ses cérémonies religieuses ; il avait un rôle qui semblait être presque omniscient, comme le Prince était toujours présent dans les messes et les cérémonies du clergé. On voit aussi sa façon d imiter Dieu et son influence sur le peuple, ce qui amenait à la création d une image puissance du souverain dans les yeux d autrui. A. Le rapport entre le Prince et l Église lui donne des privilèges spécifiques. Premièrement, le Prince avait des privilèges spécifiques dans l Église. Il participait à la cérémonie du sacre, dans laquelle il était obligé de faire des actes pour lui rendre plus proche de Dieu. Il devait jurer de faire de son mieux comme roi pour travailler pour la paix et la justice. Ensuite, les prêtres bénissaient son corps avec des baumes et des huiles sacrés de l Église. Nous voyons que la «symbolique du sacre suggère que le roi reçoive une charge qui dépasse sa personne individuelle» 14 et que ces rites sacrés lui donnaient l air d être plus puissant que les prêtres, même s il était en réalité un homme politique. B. Le Prince comme une image de Christ. 14 Jouanna, 242.

Avec son rapport avec l Église et son importance religieuse, le Prince était souvent comparé avec le Christ. À part du pape, il était vu comme une sorte d intermédiaire entre les croyants et Dieu. Donc, il n était pas complètement humain avec ses hauts privilèges et son apparence surnaturelle. De plus, nous trouvons que les actions et les évènements dans la vie du Prince étaient similaires à ceux du Christ ou d autres figures religieuses. D abord, le Prince tenait le privilège de communier avec les prêtres. À la Renaissance, les prêtres prenaient le pain, qui représente le corps du Christ, et le vin, qui représente son sang. Uniquement le clergé et le roi pouvaient prendre les deux éléments de la communion ; les croyants qui participaient dans la messe avaient droit seulement au pain. Même si le Prince était simplement un homme, mais un homme glorifié, sa statue dans l Église lui permettait de faire beaucoup plus qu un homme normal. De plus, on croyait que le Prince était capable de guérir les malades, comme Jésus dans le Nouveau Testament. De ces manières, il était vu vraiment comme un être surnaturel dans l Église. On faisait également des parallèles entre les actes du roi et les actes divins. Souvent, on voyait les éléments qui se ressemblaient entre des événements historiques du passé et les événements qui étaient en train de passé. Pendant la bataille de Marignan, François 1 er s est comparé avec l empereur Constantin, qui a prétendu voir des signes de Dieu après avoir gagné une grande bataille pendant la période de l Empire romaine. François 1 er a basculé dans la gloire qu il avait gagné à Marignan avec l aide des Vénitiens, particulièrement parce qu il a eu si peu de soldats qui ont lutté contre la Suisse pendant toute une nuit. Dans une lettre à sa mère, François 1 er a mentionné Dieu et il a répété fréquemment le fait que cette bataille était si miraculeuse. On peut constater qu il y avait des liens entre le Prince et Dieu, de même sorte que le lien entre Jésus et Dieu. Ces comparaisons du roi avec le Christ créaient l image d un homme vraiment puissant. C. L influence religieuse du Prince sur les pratiquants du son royaume. Sous l influence religieuse du Prince, les fidèles devraient l imiter ; le Prince servait comme un Chrétien «modèle» pour tout le pays. Comme le Prince représentait souvent le Christ à cause de son rôle et ses privilèges

dans l Église, les fidèles voulaient l imiter, parce qu il imitait le Christ. Ils devraient prier comme lui ; aller à l Église souvent et participer à la messe et demander pardon à la confession. Le Prince fabriquait l image d un bon Chrétien, et par conséquent, ses sujets devraient imiter ses actions, surtout dans l Église. Les croyants devraient aussi prier pour le bien être du Prince sans cesse, pour qu il gouverne dans une façon qui pourrait bénéficier tout le monde. Comme le Prince assistait régulièrement à la messe et les fidèles l ont vu en train de prier, c était naturel qu ils aient essayé de prier souvent aussi. Le Prince était une figure publique, et l on dirait qu il priait devant toute la messe, ou qu il priait là où il était visible à tout le monde dans l église. Le fait d être vu en train de prier était pour le Prince un moyen d influencer son pays. S ils savaient qu il priait pour la paix dans son royaume, ils prieraient que leur souverain gouvernerait d une manière juste et sage. III. La manifestation visuelle de la magnificence princière : Les mécènes présentent la gloire du Prince. A. L emploi des artistes dans la cour crée une image de grandeur du roi. La visualisation du pouvoir du Prince était prise en charge par les artistes et mercenaires, employés par le Prince pour agrandir son image à travers les arts. Les mercenaires passaient souvent d un souverain à l autre et ils travaillaient sur toutes formes d art et d architecture. Les souverains de la Renaissance sont entrés en compétition pour montrer leur pouvoir entre eux, et aussi montrer le pouvoir de leurs pays au monde. Les Italiens, qui avaient à l époque les plus beaux palais, la plus belle architecture et les plus beaux tableaux, ont lancé cette compétition. Tous les autres pays les ont suivis ; chaque fois que les souverains sont allés en Italie pour visiter au pape et le siège de l Église catholique, ils ont ramené des artistes ou des idées pour rendre leurs palais ou tableaux plus beaux. On voit un exemple d une réussite dans cette compétition à travers le château de Fontainebleau. François 1 er avait déjà construit le château de Chambord qui était considéré le plus beau des palais, lorsqu il a décidé de refaire Fontainebleau, originalement un château de chasse. Il voulait construire le plus beau château de la Renaissance. En revenant au commen-

taire de l ambassadeur anglais sur sa visite à Fontainebleau, il a remarqué que c était le plus beau château qu il ait jamais vu. 15 Donc, la fabrication du pouvoir du Prince s est manifestée dans l architecture et sa visualisation contribuait fortement à l image du Prince. B. Les images de l Antiquité produisent une forte comparaison visuelle entre le pouvoir du Prince et le pouvoir des souverains gréco-romains. La redécouverte de l Antiquité pendant la Renaissance se manifestait surtout dans la peinture et l art visuels. En regardant les images des empereurs gréco-romains, il est évident que ces hommes puissants d autrefois ont laissé une marque forte sur l art, pas seulement la gloire de leurs grandes empires, mais aussi l image qu ils ont créée comme souverains. En particulier, les artistes de l Antiquité ont vu le corps avec un regard idéal. Les hommes et les dieux gréco-romains qui ont été présentés avec un corps bien formé, bien défini ; alors, les empereurs et les hommes politiques n étaient pas toujours représentés dans une façon réaliste. Pourtant, c était un aspect de l Antiquité qui se trouve très souvent dans les peintures de la Renaissance dans la représentation du Prince. Le Prince est souvent imaginé par les artistes de la Renaissance en tant que des dieux et des déesses gréco-romains. Le tableau intitulé «François 1 er en déité», qui présente François 1 er habillé du style des dieux gréco-romain, démontre le Prince en tant qu une figure puissante. Il porte un mélange des costumes différents : le casque de Minèrve, la trompe de chasse de Diane et les sandales avec des ailes de Mercure. Ces aspects des dieux choisis par l artiste, est vraiment une «glorification du roi surhomme aux attributs des dieux de l Olympe.» 16 Le Prince s est glorifié comme ces figures puissantes de l Antiquité pour que tout le monde le voie comme un homme surnaturel, quelqu un qui avait des 15 «Doc. 4: François 1er maître de Fontainebleau. Dépêche de Sir Henry Wallop au roi d Angleterre (1540).» Calendar of State Papers, Reign of Henry VIII, t. VIII, p. 479-486. Le Person, Xavier. Le Prince dans l Europe de la Renaissance: histoire et héritages, p. 11. 16 «François 1er en Diété», La Naissance de la culture française La Renaissance et le premier XVIIe siècle. http://www.bnf.fr/loc/ bnf0004.htm.

pouvoirs égaux à ces dieux gréco-romains. C était encore une autre manière dans laquelle le Prince fabriquait son pouvoir à travers des images visuelles. On a vu que le bon comportement était essentiel pour que le Prince de la Renaissance fabrique son pouvoir, ainsi qu il a construit une image fortement liée à la religion et l Église catholique. On a également abordé la question de la manifestation du pouvoir du Prince dans les arts visuels. Mais ne peut-on ajouter que le Prince de la Renaissance seule n était pas capable de créer une image de pouvoir? N était-il pas dépendant du savoir et des habilités d autres pour achever son image de grandeur? Recommended Methodology Before you even think about starting your dissertation, you need to do a lot of preparation. As a very first step, you should analyze every aspect of the topic. For the first sample dissertation we saw, that means analyzing the quote and situating it in the original text like you would do for a commentaire composé. Look up any words you don t know in a French-English AND a French-French dictionary. Do any words have multiple meanings? In the second topic, «Renaissance Princes and their Power,» you would have to figure out what kind of power you were going to write about - political or economic power, for example? Is there ever a difference, and when? Once you ve completed a thorough analysis of the question, you can start finding supporting examples. For the first topic, you d be inclined to find passages in which Molière hints at making fun of other men of his time. But wait! A dissertation needs to present both sides, so you should also find examples that suggest that he is pointing out the faults of men in history - which he did, like Shakespeare, to avoid being imprisoned for mocking the king. Remember to look for examples in all of the assigned readings, as well as historical examples to support each idea. If the examples are quotes from

historical or literary texts, they should also be thoroughly analyzed using the same methods as for an explication de texte. After you ve begun to accumulate a certain number of examples, you ll be ready to formulate your problématique. If you re lucky, the quote or opinion in the topic provoked a number of questions that will serve as your problématique. If you re less lucky, and you ended up with the second, more free-form topic, you ll have to come up with your own. Remember, a problématique is not so much a thesis as it is a question or set of questions around which you ll organize your paper. Your analysis of the topic, as well as a good idea of where the examples weigh in, should give you some good ideas. You should have a problématique before you begin to write, to avoid writing without one, but you can revise it and «problématiser» even more as you go. If you ve analyzed your topic and collected as many examples as you can think of and have ideas for your problématique, it s time to begin working on the plan de dissertation, or the outline. Like a commentaire composé, you ll want to have two or three «parties,» each with two or three «sousparties,» and make your paper evenly distributed and increasingly complexe. There are three main ways to organize a dissertation. The first, and most straightforward way, is the «thèse-antithèse-synthèse» approach called the «plan dialectique,» and it works best when there s a clear argument in the question or that presents itself during your research. For this method, you first present one side of the argument, the «thèse,» and develop that as if you were writing an essay American-style. In the second partie, the «antithèse,» you would present and develop the opposite side. In the third partie, the «synthèse,» you present the middle ground, or attempt to reconcile the thèse and the synthèse. Sample dissertation 1 on Molière and Marivaux roughly follows this outline.

The second type of dissertation is called the «plan thématique,» because it is organized thematically. In this case, two or three main themes will generally present themselves during the course of your research. Sample Dissertation 2 follows this organization, as the writer develops three themes surrounding princely power: how princes are raised, the Church s role in the prince s development, and the imagery that reinforces princely power. The writer could have taken a different approach, and analyzed expressions of royal power in policitcs (local, regional, and international), economics, and religion, or looked at how Renaissance princes gained and preserved power, for example. But the thematic approach that was chosen works well. The third way to organize a dissertation is the «plan analytique,» which is generally used when a specific problem is the dissertation topic. Because of its limited use, it is less common than the other types. In this situation, the most typical approach is to analyze the causes of the problem in the first partie, the consequences in the second partie, and the possible solutions in the third partie. No matter what outline type you choose - and you can combine them if you dare - you ll need to develop a detailed outline with your examples before beginning to write. This part basically consists of organizing your examples first into three groups according to the type of outline you choose, and then organizing the examples in each section into three smaller groups, your «sousparties.» Like for the commentaire composé, your sousparties should go from simplest and least important to most complex and most important, and each should contribute logically to the development of a coherent argument contained within your «partie.» After you ve organized your examples into an outline and thoroughly analyzed them, you can begin writing your introduction. In the introduction, you should analyze the assigned topic thoroughly, state the problématique, and identify the outline you will follow. For each part of your dissertation, you should not necessarily put a title at the top of each «partie» and «sous-

partie,» but instead you should hit enter three times between the «parties» and once between the «sousparties» to show that you ve moved on to a new section or subsection. The conclusion of your dissertation is where you have the right to make a stand, first by summarizing the arguments you made throughout the paper, and then by making a case for the most powerful side. Answer the questions posed in the introduction and the problématique of each section to end the debate, and then open up to other questions or areas of research like you would for a commentaire composé. Don t forget to include a bibliography. Exposé Goal of an Exposé The goal of an exposé is to present the main points of a text to your classmates, who have not necessarily read the text you are presenting. It shows your ability to discern the main ideas and themes of a work, either fiction or non-fiction. When you do an exposé, you become the teacher, and you are supposed to know the text well. French professors often assign exposés on works that relate to the theme of the course, but are nonessential to the subject matter. Courses will therefore have a common bibliography, which every student is expected to master, and a certain number of books or articles for suggested exposé topics. In smaller classes, professors rely on the exposé to cover material and to spark class discussions. In larger classes, not every student will have the opportunity to do an exposé, so it sometimes takes the place of a written assignment or exam.

Doing an exposé early in the semester, especially a good exposé, will get you in the good graces of your teacher, who will grade you more favorably on other assignments, and earn you the respect of your classmates, who will be impressed that a foreign student can master their language and assignment type so easily. While you should make an effort to speak the best French you can - having someone look over your outline, for example - don t let your complex about speaking French prevent you from doing an exposé. Most teachers are very understanding of foreign students, and take that into account when they assign a grade. Of course, you should still practice your presentation beforehand and make sure you re comfortable with what you have to say. If you re not sure how to pronounce a word, ask someone, or find a synonym you do know how to pronounce. Most exposés are individual exercises approximately 20 minutes in length, although some seminar professors assign group exposés that can run longer. Since an exposé is designed in part to make you figure out the most important aspects of a text, you should not go over the time you are given; instead, you should choose the topics that are the most significant to the overall theme of the work and the course. In your conclusion, you can mention ideas you would have talked more about if you had had the time. Unlike presentations in the US, which often require speaking from notecards, exposés are often entirely written out in advance, and reading does not negatively impact your grade. Make eye contact, pause at appropriate places, and finish on time, and you should do well. Sample Exposé Introduction Exposé: Le désert à l aube

Le désert à l aube est une œuvre autobiographique de Noël Favrelière. Ce Français, né à La Rochelle en 1934, a été mobilisé en Algérie avant le déclenchement de la guerre en 1954, et a été rappelé en 1956. Après avoir passé quelques mois dans l armée française en tant que parachutiste, et remarqué les injustices de la guerre, il a déserté en libérant un Algérien qui aurait dû être tué le lendemain. Il s est ensuite battu avec l Armée de Libération Nationale pour la cause algérienne pendant dix mois, après quoi il est allé à Tunis et a émigré aux États-Unis. Condamné à mort deux fois, en 1956 et en 1961, il ne peut rentrer légalement en France qu en 1966 à la suite du passage de la loi d amnistie. Publiée dans un premier temps en 1960 en pleine guerre d Algérie, son œuvre Le désert à l aube a été aussitôt interdite, et ne réapparaît qu en 2000, quand elle est republiée dans les Éditions de Minuit. Ce livre raconte ces expériences afin d amener le lecteur à comprendre en quoi il avait raison de ne pas supporter la guerre et pourquoi il a décidé de déserter. Le livre est divisé en trois parties, dont la première s appelle Pacification, la deuxième Les rebelles et la troisième, Tunis. Je vais faire un résumé de chaque partie du livre tout en m interrogeant sur la signification de chacun de ces titres et sur la structure de la partie et de l œuvre, et en m appuyant sur les thèmes principaux du livre, sur le rôle des personnages principaux, et sur les regards différents que le narrateur porte sur la guerre. Au début de la première partie, La pacification, le narrateur se situe dans un ravin avec un Algérien, dans le désert à cinq heures et demie, ayant «déserté, libéré un prisonnier de guerre et emporté des armes. 17» Avec un avion et deux hélicoptères français à sa recherche, le point de départ de son récit le met déjà dans l opposition à la France. C est dans ce contexte d ennemi de l état qu il commence à raconter sa réinscription dans l armée française, son premier tour de service militaire en Algérie, et les évènements qui l ont amené à déserter. Dans cette partie, il montre à travers ses expériences avec d autres rappelés, des colons français, et des civils algériens les attitudes odieuses et les tactiques injustes et parfois effroyables des Français vivant en Algérie et rappelés pour faire leur service militaire. Tout d abord, 17 p. 9

on verra comment il met en question le projet de pacification et montre la complexité de la guerre. Dans cette première partie, la pacification veut dire la guerre, la provocation, et le pacifisme du héros. PACIFICATION = GUERRE Pour Noël, la pacification de l armée française est un euphémisme pour dire la guerre. On apprend tout de suite que le sergent parachutiste Noël Favrelière avait fait un premier tour de service militaire en Algérie, et est parti juste avant le déclenchement de la guerre en novembre 1954. En tant que «Rappelé d Algérie» il dit qu il n y croyait pas, puisque ses expériences en Algérie et ses rencontres avec des Algériens, des colons, et des pieds-noirs lui avaient montré l injustice de la guerre. Tout au long de son service, il porte un regard critique et provocateur sur les actions des Français et sur le traitement des Algériens. En décrivant des actes qui sont censés êtres des actes de guerre légitimes mais qui sont, effectivement, des meurtres injustifiés, il montre jusqu à quel point le projet de la pacification est un projet de la violence. Un événement qui montre les conditions de la guerre du côté des Français est la mort des premiers soldats français, qui ont été tués par un garde fatigué qui ne les avait pas vu approcher et qui a tiré sur eux, endormis. Le fait que le garde tire sur des corps allongés et qui ne le menacent pas montre l extrême peur des rappelés face à la guerre dans des conditions très difficiles. Cette réponse très violente, qui est automatique, n est pas de la pacification, c est la guerre. Pour contraster cette histoire, Noël raconte aussi la souffrance des Algériens qui ont le malheur de se retrouver dans le camp français quand il raconte l histoire des premiers prisonniers, ce qui valorise la barbarie de la guerre et l indifférence des Français qui devraient distinguer entre des «terroristes» et des civils. Il s agit de l emprisonnement de trois infirmières algériennes, de la torture d un Algérien «à la gégène», c est-à-dire, à l électricité, et de la mort d un Algérien qui essaye de battre un officier français. Encore plus horrible, Noël raconte la mort d une petite fille algérienne qui se cachait derrière un buisson et qui s est enfuite. Elle a été tuée par un rappelé parce

qu un officier français a offert 500 francs à celui qui pouvait la descendre. Ces anecdotes montrent efficacement la dévalorisation de la vie des Algériens, qui sont tous, aux yeux des Français, des terroristes. Après avoir lu tout ce que les Français ont fait aux Algériens innocents, il est évident que la pacification est la guerre, et on se demande qui sont les vrais terroristes. PACIFICATION = PROVOCATION Pour compléter sa présentation de l attitude des Français envers les Algériens, Noël montre aussi ce que font les colons et les Français d Algérie pour provoquer la violence contre les Algériens. On verra à travers deux dialogues comment la pacification est en réalité la provocation. Noël parle d abord avec un autre rappelé, qui est de l opinion qu ils sont tous des fellaghas. Je vous lis un passage à la page LIRE EXTRAIT 50-51 Ce dialogue expose bien comment la pacification est ce qui provoque la violence des Algériens, qui luttent contre la présence française. Ce sont les attitudes des Français et leurs actes de guerre qui empirent la situation et qui font que beaucoup plus d Algériens deviennent fellaghas. Il raconte aussi un rencontre avec l Européen qui essayait d impliquer des Algériens dans un complot nationaliste et meurtrier, ce qui est un acte de provocation fait exprès pour faciliter le meurtre des Algériens. LIRE PASSAGE 55-56 Cet épisode montre le regard des colons et des Français d Algérie qui veulent faire la guerre, et qui sont prêts à tout faire pour la provoquer. PACIFICATION = PACIFISME Pour le héros, la pacification serait plutôt son propre pacifisme, ce qu il met en évidence dans la première partie pour contraster l attitude violente des autres avec la sienne. Noël contraste aussi les tragédies de la guerre et les actions épouvantables des Français avec sa propre façon de traiter les Algériens ; il se montre gentil et humain envers eux, il donne du pain aux

enfants, pendant que les autres ferment les yeux à leur souffrance et qui transforment l acte de torturer et de tuer en un jeu. À la page 12, il explique qu il disait aux autres, «Si j étais Algérien, je serais fellagha,» parce qu il avait vu les conditions dans lesquelles ils vivaient, et car, étant pacifiste, il ne pouvait pas classifier la guerre d Algérie dans une des deux catégories des guerres légitimes ; c est-à-dire, celles qui sont faites pour défendre son propre pays ou celui d un allié. 18 Selon lui, c est dans ce premier cas que se trouve la guerre d Algérie du côté des Algériens, et c est pour cela qu il ne veut pas se battre pour la France. Cette présentation du processus mental de Noël est importante pour montrer en quoi il est différent des autres rappelés, qui sont plus violents que lui, et pour se rapprocher des Algériens dans la deuxième partie, qui lui ressemblent beaucoup plus. Le dernier épisode que raconte Noël avant de déserter est celui des prisonniers qui transportaient les pierres d un côté du camp à l autre, les poignets liés avec du fil téléphonique qui coupait la chair. Quand Noël essaye de refaire les lieus pour leur faire moins de mal, il est réprimandé par le capitaine qui ne veut pas que les prisonniers s échappent. Après avoir porté des pierres pendant quelques heures, le capitaine décide qu ils peuvent s arrêter mais il n est pas nécessaire de les nourrir parce «qu on va les lâcher le lendemain.» Il dit aussi que les prisonniers soient bons pour le «corvée de bois,» c est-à-dire qu on leur dit d aller trouver du bois, et dès qu ils partent, on tire dessus à cause d une «tentative de fuite» entre guillemets. C est à ce moment-là que Favrelière décide que son attitude pacifiste est incompatible avec le projet de pacification des Français et se décide à déserter la nuit en libérant Mohammad, un jeune prisonnier Algérien dont le pied est blessé. Cette première partie du récit met en valeur: Le sens ironique du projet de pacification et la violence des Français à travers quelques conversations avec des rappelés et des officiers français. Les efforts de certains Français qui veulent provoquer la guerre, à travers quelques actes et récits provocateurs. 18 P. 25

Le pacifisme du héros, et surtout son éloignement idéologique des rappelés et des officiers français, et ses opinions pacifistes et humanistes, à travers son traitement des Algériens. Il voit des êtres humains qui se battent pour une cause juste et qui sont mal traités par les Français, et non pas simplement un ennemi qu il faut supprimer. La deuxième partie, Les rebelles, ne met pas l accent sur le combat avec l armée algérienne, mais valorise plutôt les conversations entre Noël et les combattants. Rebelles pour Noël veut dire à la fois les Algériens, qui luttent contre la colonisation française, et son propre statut de déserteur ; dans cette partie, il se rapproche des Algériens et devient un membre de leur groupe. REBELLES = RAISON Dans cette partie, Noël raconte les combats et les mouvements des Algériens et les différents groupes des Algériens qui se battent tous pour la liberté, mais il donne la parole aux combattants raisonnables, et il minimalise les représentations des attentats et de la violence. Ceci affirme l idée que les Algériens se battent quand les Français provoquent la violence, et met en valeur l ironie de la pacification et celle du terme rebelles, qui devraient être normalement les plus violents. Si la première partie du roman a montré l injustice de la guerre menée par les Français et les attitudes racistes et paternalistes des rappelés et des colons, la deuxième partie est censée montrer non seulement la justice du combat des Algériens, mais aussi leur fraternité, leur raison, et leur conservatisme par rapport à la violence et à la guerre. Dans cette partie, il y a assez peu d action, et on va donc traiter cette partie à partir des personnages principaux et ce qu ils apportent au texte. Il y a beaucoup de personnages mineurs qui expriment leurs idées de la guerre et des Français. Le personnage principal est Abd el Kader, appelé Kadou par Noël, et les personnages Medeb et Salem participe au même genre de conversation, qui porte sur l idéologie de la guerre. Ils sont tous des personnages bien réfléchis qui peuvent expliquer pourquoi ils se battent ; en leur donnant la parole, Noël leur accorde le pouvoir de faire entendre la cause algérienne en France et de montrer la justice de leur cause.

Mohammad, l homme avec qui Noël a échappé, joue un rôle assez mineur dans cette partie. Une fois qu ils sont arrivés chez lui, Noël apprend qu il a été fait prisonnier quand les Français ont entouré la maison de ses parents et il voulait les défendre avec un pistolet. Cet épisode met en valeur l innocence de Mohammad, et par extension, met en question l arrestation d autres Algériens qui ont été faits prisonniers pour presque rien. Dans ce sens, les rebelles sont tous ceux qui ont été pris par les Français, et pas nécessairement des véritables ennemis. Abd el Kader, ou Kadou est le personnage le plus important de cette partie, parce qu il aide Noël à se sentir à l aise, il lui explique ce qui se passe dans la guerre chez les Algériens, et il lui pose des questions pour voir ce qu il pense de la guerre. C est à la fois la porte-parole de la cause algérienne et celui qui fait ressortir les réflexions de Noël sur la France et sur la guerre. Je vais vous lire un passage qui montre les discussions de Kadou et de Noël, et montre comment Noël présente un regard très précis sur l Algérie pour lui donner la raison. LIRE PASSAGE 163-164 Dans ce passage, Noël explique très clairement comment son regard sur les Algériens a évolué afin d influencer l opinion de ses lecteurs. On voit dans cette partie que l auteur est conscient de l effet que son livre pourrait avoir sur ses lecteurs, et le fait qu il se sert de cette forme d écriture pour expliquer son opposition à la guerre. Il essaye de présenter les Algériens qui ont des avis modérés et justifiés pour influencer la réception de son livre par les lecteurs francophones. La troisième partie, qui s appelle Tunis, est très courte, et raconte comment Noël a obtenu un visa pour aller aux États-Unis et quitté la Tunisie. Tunisie, ancien protectorat de l état français, est à la fois un pays qui vient de gagner son indépendance de la France et le lieu où Noël gagne sa propre indépendance ; les deux prennent très longtemps et sont des processus compliqués. C est aussi un lieu où l on comprend la cause algérienne et on apprécie le geste de Noël.

À Tunis, il rencontre d autres Français ainsi que des Américains qui soutiennent la cause des Algériens, il lit ce qu ils écrivent et il commence à écrire lui-même des articles pour expliquer ce qui se passe en Algérie. Il raconte un dernier épisode de torture par les Français, et un Américain fait la remarque que personne ne croirait que les Français l ont fait. Cette remarque montre que les Français ont raison dans l opinion publique, et qu il sera difficile de faire croire que leur pacification n est pas justifiée. Conclusion Dans ce livre, Noël Favrelière explique les conditions de la guerre et pourquoi il a décidé de déserter, en quoi il avait raison de soutenir la cause algérienne, et comment il a gagné sa propre liberté après avoir combattu plusieurs mois avec l ALN. Ses trois parties montrent tous les paradoxes de la guerre d Algérie du côté des Français et donnent la parole aux combattants algériens les plus modérés et les mieux réfléchis. Paru en 1960, ce livre est important parce qu il a pu influencer l opinion des Français pendant la guerre, et le fait qu il a été saisi et interdit montre la peur de l état français à confronter les complexités et la violence de la pacification, et le fait que les événements étaient, en réalité, une guerre. Recommended Methodology Introduction: Regardless of whether your work is fiction or nonfiction, you must first introduce the text. Use the 5 W s you learned in elementary school: Who wrote it? What type of work is it, fiction or nonfiction? History, anthropology, literature, sociology? What time period, culture, or intellectual tradition is it situated in? When was it written? Where/in what context was it written? Why did the author choose to write it, or, in other words, what was the author s goal in writing this book? You need to end your introduction with a statement of exactly what you re going to say in yoru exposé: «In the first part, we will discuss how blah leads to blahbadiblah, in

the second part, we will study how he uses bloop to prove bloopidybloop, and in the third section, we will analyze how abracadabra leads to bippity boppity boo.» After you ve answered the five W s, the rest of the exposé is going to focus on the What and the How. While reading the book, choose the two or three most important themes or main ideas. Analyze how the author develops them and what his point is. These will become your two or three sections. In each main section, you should have two subparts. The first subpart should identify the theme or idea and how the author makes it, and the second subpart should analyze why it s important. The order of your presentation should go from most basic to most complex, showing a logical development among your ideas. Remember, you don t have to include anything, although you can identify some problems or contradictions the author encounters. A good rule to follow is one-two sentences of analysis for each sentence of fact. DO: - Identify a few important passages in the text and analyze them in function of your exposé s focus. - Pick and choose the most important aspects of the text and discuss them in detail. - Focus on the text and situate it in its historical and intellectual context, possibly by stating similarities or differences with contemporary works. - Ask questions to advance your point and propose an answer or several possible answers that stem from the text. - Organize your ideas into two or three sections with an equal number of subsections (two or three), clearly state your outline before your presentation, and inform your classmates when you progress to a new idea. - Introduce ideas with the literary «We can see» or «the author suggests.»

DON T: - Quote everything, nothing, or quote without analyzing the quote s meaning and significance. - Try to talk about every interesting part of the text without analysis. - Try to show how much you know about the topic by quoting other authors, citing random historical facts, and addressing other problems or controversies from the time period that the text doesn t identify as problematic. - Ask questions so other students will do the work for you or questions that don t have answers in the text. - Organize your exposé without labeling the different sections and without helping your classmates listen to you more easily. - Introduce ideas with «I think.» Conclusion: Because an exposé is mostly focus on detailing the main points of a text and its relevance to the course content, the conclusion doesn t have to be a sophisticated analysis of the text s importance to the development of literary or historical theory. Instead, it should focus specifically on reiterating your main ideas to link cause and effect within the work, tying the main points of your exposé into the course s themes, and asking a few thoughtprovoking questions about the work s conclusions or weaknesses to stimulate class discussion. It can be as short as a few sentences, since the bulk of the analysis has already been explained, and it can also include a few questions for further study in the subject or further analysis of the work that you weren t able to discuss in the time allotted. Assignment Deadlines Professors of advanced-level courses are generally very flexible about deadlines, and the final deadline for a written assignment will often be several weeks after the end of the course. A course that ends in December, for

example, will often allow you to turn in your paper until mid-january, and courses ending in mid-may give you until mid-june. Professors can turn in grades whenever they like, and grades don t have to be submitted all at the same time. If you happen to discover, like I did once, that your professor has submitted the grades for a class and you haven t turned in the paper yet, do the paper as soon as possible, turn it into her box in the department, and write the professor a quick note or email to tell her it s there. Usually they ll be very understanding. That being said, in all of the classes I ve taken, I ve never known French students to procrastinate. (Even though procrastinate is a latinate word, there s really not a good way to say it in French!) If students have to choose their own paper topics and get them approved, most look over the bibliography within the first month of the class, even if it s just looking the authors up on Wikipedia and figuring out what topic seems the most interesting. Since the French students obviously have an advantage when it comes to writing in French - if not when it comes to the actual analysis in the assignments - you should probably start early, too. Writing in a second language always takes more time than it should, and you should also plan to finish your assignments a few days in advance so you can reread them for grammar mistakes and Anglicisms before handing them in. Some programs even require that you show your assignments to a tutor, who will help you to correct them. Formatting Assignments Typical French paper is size A4, which is slightly longer and narrower than American 8 1/2 by 11. It s about 21 cm by 29 cm, which is roughly 8 1/4 by 11 1/2 Since all of your assignments are going to be printed on A4 paper, it s important to change your document settings to size A4 under page

setup in your word processor. You can choose to change your default for the amount of time you stay in France, or just change the settings for individual assignments during your stay. You can also choose to have the rulers appear in centimeters. If you forget to change your page setup settings, your printer will normally shrink the pages to fit in the center of the A4 pages, leaving a lot of white space at the top and bottom of the document as well as small text, about 93% of its original size. Your professors will definately notice, and while they might not comment on all of the white space, they ll think it looks odd and they won t understand the reason. Nobody else in the world uses 8 1/2 by 11 paper. It goes without saying that your professor s specifications supercede the recommendations listed here. Another French standard unpopular with American students is the fact that the French don t double-space. They use 1.5 spacing, which can be done by going into Format, then Paragraphs and Spacing in your word processor, and then by selecting Line Spacing: 1.5 lines. With this format, one page should hold 400-450 words. Now for the good news. The French usually use relatively big margins so professors can write comments (even if they usually don t) and standard margins are 3cm on each side, or about 1.2 inches. On the first page, the title of the paper should be a third of the way down, and you should hit enter twice after the title, leaving 3 lines worth of empty space. Instead of indenting every paragraph, hit enter twice to leave a blank line between the two paragraphs. When you start a new section, it should be clearly labeled with a title, and there should be two enters before and after the section title, which can be in a slightly larger font and in bold. As with American papers, you should use Times New Roman size 12 or Ariel size 11 for most papers.

Bibliographies The French system does not use MLA or other American-style bibliography formats, and while some manuals on writing a master s thesis or doctoral dissertation include chapters on formatting bibliographies, there is no comprehensive guide available. Here are some sample bibliographical entries. Note that in French, there is one space before and one space after the colon. Again, due to the limitations of e-book formatting, please check out the sample French bibliographies on parisunraveled.com. (Because e-readers inject their own formatting into the text, please go to the Bibliographies page on parisunraveled.com to see the proper formatting). Book with one author: Last, first. Title of work. City, Publisher, Date, # pages p. Aceval, Nora. Contes et tradition d Algérie. Paris, FliesFrance, 2005, 216 p. Book in Foreign Language: Last, first. Title of work in French = Title of work in original language. City, Publisher, Date, # pages p. Jawad, Haifaa A. Les droits de la femme en Islam : une approche authentique = The Rights of Women in Islam: An Authentic Approach. New York, St. Martin s Press, 1998. Translation: Last, first of original author. Title of work. Trad. First Last of translator. City, Publisher, coll. «Collection name», Date, # pages p. Coran, Le : Essai de Traduction. Trad. Jacques Berque. Paris, Albin Michel, coll. «Spiritualités vivantes», 2002, 842 p. Article or Book Chapter:

Last, first. «Title of Article or Chapter.» Title of book or journal, n Journal number, date of publication. City, Publisher, Year. Page range. Zemmour, Zine-Eddine. «Jeune fille, famille, et virginité: approche anthropologique de la tradition.» Confluences Méditerranée : sexualité et sociétés arabes, n 41, printemps 2002. Paris, L Harmattan, 2002. 65-76. Article or Book Chapter in a Foreign Language: Last, first. «Translation of article title in French = Title of work in original language.» Title of book or journal in French = Title of book in original language. Ed. First Last of Editor. City, Publisher, Date, p. page range. Clancy-Smith, Julia. «La femme arabe: Les femmes et la sexualité dans l empire français en Afrique du Nord = La femme arabe : Women and sexuality in France s North African Empire.» Les femmes, la famille, et les lois de divorce = Women, the Family, and Divorce Laws in Islamic History,. Ed. Amira El Azhary Sonbol. Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1996, p. 52-63. Lecture or presentation: Last, first of presenter. Title of presentation. Location, city. Date. Aceval, Nora. Présentation du livre La science des femmes et de l amour. La lucarne des écrivains, Paris. 18 novembre 2009. Email: Last, first of sender. «Subject.» Message électronique envoyé à Name of Recipient. Date. Aceval, Nora. «Re : sources.» Message électronique envoyé à Allison Grant. 26 mai 2010. Unpublished Dissertation: Last, first. «Title of Dissertation», thèse de doctorat nouveau régime, City, University, Date.

Fdida, Jean-Jacques. «La femme dans l initiation des garçons à travers La Fille du diable (t. 313) et d autres contes de la tradition orale française», thèse de doctorat nouveau régime, Paris, université Paris 7-Denis Diderot, 1994.

Acknowledgements Special Thanks to: Clarice Hammett and Jared McKee, who provided some of the sample papers included in Chapter 5, and who provided feedback on sections of this book. Christine Valero, Academic Advisor at Columbia University Programs in Paris, who taught me everything I know about French universities. Bonnie Woolley, who provided significant feedback and created the website and online community for this book.

About the Author Allison Grant is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A., French and Romance Philology, 2009) and the Middlebury College French School (M.A., French, 2009). After studying abroad with Columbia University Programs in Paris during the 2007-2008 academic year, she returned to France in September 2009 to complete a Master 2 degree in Comparative Literature at the Université de Paris VII - Denis Diderot, where she studied Algerian libertine folktales. She is currently completing a second Master 2 in Ethnology and Social Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales studying the transmission of oral tradition in Algerian immigrant families. She has worked twice as an English Assistant in four elementary schools in Paris (2007-2008) and Seine-Saint Denis (2009-2010), has worked as an English tutor, translator, and, most recently, began working at Horton Tax Services as an administrative assistant and then as a tax preparer. She currently lives in Aubervilliers, France with her husband, Hamid, and her cat, Artemis.