Overview of the francophone civilization

The book makes a brief presentation of the main elements of contemporary Francophone culture and is divided into four parts.

The first part consists of only one chapter called “La langue française”, and examines the evolution of French vocabulary over its history and lists the foreign words borrowed into French and the French words borrowed into international languages. It also describes the present situation of the French language, how it is used as a mother tongue, a second and an official language, its status as an Internet language, a business language, a media language and a language of international organizations.

The second part focuses on various fields of the civilization of metropolitan French, namely: history, geography, economy, Francophony, politics and the media, education and cultural institutions, as well as the main branches of French culture: literature, painting and sculpture, architecture, cinema and music. The last chapter of the second part deals with French gastronomy, wines, celebrations and traditions.

The third part examines the overseas French territories grouped according to their geographical positions. The larger territories (Corsica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion, French Polynesia, New Caledonia) are presented according to the following pattern: history, geography, economy, culture, traditions, personalities born on the territory and surprising information about the territory. A general presentation is made for the smaller territories (The Saint Martin Island, the Saint Bartholomew Island, Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon, the Mayotte Island, Wallis-and-Futuna).

Finally, the fourth part, called “La Francophonie”, comprises information about countries and provinces where French is a mother tongue, a second or an official language or who, over their history, have had closer ties with France. The chapters of the fourth part refer to Quebec and the other French speaking populations in North America, Wallonia, French speaking Switzerland, the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania), the French speaking Asia (Lebanon, Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam) as well as French speaking Africa.

The book includes four appendixes: the first lists the member and observer countries of the International Organization of the Francophony, the second consists of the Chart of the rights and duties of the French citizen, while the third and second present the French denominations of the citizens of the countries of the world and the cities and towns of France.

A glossary of the less usual words used in the book and their translation into Romanian is attached to the book.