Tag: French colonies

Le Grand Monde: A Crumbling Empire Sets the Stage for Vice and Villainy

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Focus Image Le Grand Monde

Night had fallen last December when I left the Musée Carnavalet after attending an exhibit on La Régence, a period in French history that marks the dawn of the Enlightenment. Despite the darkness, the streets of the Marais were still bustling with activity and I felt the same pull to…

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Evangeline, Longfellow’s Epic Poem and its Remarkable French Translation

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Evangeline book cover

In recent weeks, I’ve been making my way through The Story of French, a history of the French language. In a chapter devoted to French spoken in Canada, I was reminded of the history of the Acadian people. The authors made note of an epic poem, Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth…

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