Le Rochambeau - fevrier 2025

Bonjour members and friends,

Is it too early to look for winter to be over?  Our friend Mme.Marmotte will hopefully give us some insight in a few days.  For us, the snow and cold of January have made us feel back at home so many years ago, along the eastern coast of Lake Erie.

Aujourd'hui, en ce dernier jour de janvier, nous sommes ravis de partager avec vous les nouvelles de l'Alliance Française de Richmond !

First, we are proud to announce the opening of the Alliance Française of Richmond French Library. We would like to thank the many friends of the Alliance who have donated books over the years, as well as the work of our numerous members in getting our library organized.  This library is slightly different than your normal library. You browse, reserve, and check out books via our new online Library platform.  Then, you pick up and return books much like in the libraries you know. You will pickup your books up at our “Petite Station de Transfert de la Bibliothèque Française ”.  Today, the library resides at your President’s residence.  You can find the library as well as the procedures for checking out and in books on our member’s page. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Secondly, we are delighted to announce that we will be initiating our first in-person adult French classes. We are working on the final details for those classes, which will be held on Saturday mornings. You can find more details here.

This Saturday, February 1st, we are holding our French Family Event: La Chandeleur.  This is a great way to get your family involved in the French-speaking community here in Richmond.  You can find all the details here.

And for some more good news;  our French Summer Camp for children will be returning for its third year!  Our camp will again be held at Heartwood Grove School.  This summer, the camp will be expanding to a second week, and we will have a group in the second week dedicated to children with no or little French exposure.  You can find all the details here.  Registration opens this Monday, February 3rd.  We anticipate this camp filling up quickly, so please register your child early if you would like them to attend one or both weeks.

On Saturday, February 8th at 3 pm the monthly French Conversational Group will be meeting at T-Caf Café.  This is a great way to improve your French conversational skills in a relaxed environment.  You can register for the event here and the event is free.

Also on February 8th we will be gathering at Echelon Wine Bar in Shockhoe Slip for a wine tasting. This event will focus on the wines of Bordeaux and will start prompty at 4pm. The wines of Bordeaux have a long and storied history, dating back at least to the time of the Romans. And while France and England have fought over this region and its wine for many years, today, it remains safely in French hands. The classification of Bordeaux wines can appear complex, and this class will help you simplify and understand the differences and similarities amongst these great wines You can find more details and register here for the event.

There are two virtual Federation of Alliances Françaises events this month. The first is a discussion with Lynn Gumpert and Beth Gersh-Nesic titled “Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde”. This conversation will focus on the exhibit currently on display at the Grey Art Museum in New York City that was co-curated by the two hosts. Berthe Weill was very active in the Parisian avant-garde art scene in the first half of the twentieth century, supporting many unknown artists who would later become famous throughout the world. You can register here for the event here.

The second event is a discussion of the film The Count of Monté Christo. This discussion will take place on February 24th and will be hosted by Variety’s Chief Film Critic, Peter Debruge (a bio on more Debruge can be found here). Attendees are requested to view the film prior to the discussion. You can find more information about the discussion and register here.

And finally, on March 15th, we will again host our Clube de Lecture, this time featuring the book "La Panthère des Neiges" by Sylvain Tesson.  You can find out more here.  There's plenty of time to read the book before the discussion in six weeks.

That’s all for now. Wishing you a wonderful February and a very cloudy February 2nd in West-Central Pennsylvania!