La Douce France - Part Two

La Douce France - Part Two

by Nicholas Andrian on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 2:07 a.m.

Well, although I was entranced by the French language from Day One of my freshman year in high school, my studies soon led me to a great appreciation of French history and culture. I was fascinated not only by the mellifluous sounds of the language itself, but also by its structure, which I liken to a mathematical equation. It just seemed so logical to me, unlike English, which is all over the place (and thus, more expressive than French - you can say a lot of things in English that you can't in French) and it appealed to my need for structure at that time in my life. I could make the historical analogy that English is like the rough-and-tumble Elizabethan era,with its laissez-faire attitude and great expressive ness, while French is like the period of Louis XIV, dainty, classic, every member of the community in orbit around the king; English is Beethoven, French is Mozart. (Which is not to say that English has no structure; all languages do, but the structure of English is eminently flexible, allowing its speakers to express the same idea in a wide range of ways. French is more restrictive, but also very precise; it is no coincidence that French was the language of diplomacy for several centurties.) As I learned about the early Gaul, Vercingetorix, and his noble stand against the invading Romans; the first Frankish king, Clovis, and his defense of Christianity in the Fifth Century; Charlemagne, and his great effort to revive the Roman Empire under Christian aegis; the rise of chivalry in the High Middle Ages of its code of honor; the skill of William the Conqueror, who brought French manners, customs and language to England in 1066 (thus giving the Germanic-based English language a veneer of French vocabulary, which to this day comprises the majority of words in English); Joan of Arc, the first famous feminist; the civilized Montaigne, the first great French philosopher of the Renaissance, whose essays are two centuries ahead of their time in their love of liberty and their appreciation of the common man; the early Huguenots, who stood against the corruption of the Church at the risk of their lives; the playwrights of the age of classicism (17th Century), including the philosopher/scientist/mathematician Descartes ("Je pense, donc, je suis") and others of his caliber (Pascal anyone?); and of course the unparalleled Voltaire, Rousseau et Montesquieu whose writings in the mid-18th Century fired up the patriots on this side of the Atlantic to eventually declare our independence from England (Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' is based almost entirely on their writings); the way France, mainly through Franklin's fame and influence among the French, who were fascinated by this plainly-dressed Quaker, discoverer of electricity and inventor of the Franklin stove, already heating many houses and huts in France, supported the rag-tag Americans against the mightiest army and navy of the day (after the victory at Saratoga became known), to the detriment of the French treasury, which, when bankrupted a decade later, led to the French Revolution; the boldness of Napoleon, the writings of Victor Hugo, whose "Les Miserables" is an allegory of the concept of sin, repentence and redemption as preached by Jesus; the beauty of the Impressionist painters during the fifty years between our Civil War and the beginning of World War One; the poetry of Verlaine and of countless others; the brave sacrifice of the "flower of French youth" at Verdun and in the trenches of World War One; the treatment of the African-American soldiers who fought valiantly under French command in that war and who were decorated by the French when their own country refused to acknowledge their bravery and skills as warriors; the welcome mat extended to many Black-American writers, artists and musicians, including the many soldiers who felt safer in France during the Twenties than they could in their native land where some of them had returned home only to be lynched, a number of them still in uniform(!); the creativity of French composers, from Couperin and Mouret to Bizet and Ravel; the patriotism and boldness of De Gaulle, who refused to accept the Nazi victory and who was called out of retirement a dozen years after World War Two to establish the Fifth Republic and a stable government in France, shedding along the way most of France's colonies; the progress of France in so many areas to this day: Its nuclear arsenal ("force de frappe") dedicated to the safe-guarding of liberty; its high-speed rail system; its innovative art, architecture, literature and poetry; its development of the humane organization Doctors Without Borders ("Medecins Sans Frontieres"); its concern for the oceans (as conceived by Jacques Cousteau) as well as for the environment in general; its well-deserved reputation as a place of refuge for the oppressed of other lands; its ranking by the World Health Organization as having the best health care system for its citizens; and, good Lord, if that weren't enough (and I've only skimmed the surface), Paris, which, although in France, is really a city for the entire world, with a history like no other city's, and which, like the language spoken there, is beautiful in its subtlety and its humanity. So, voila, those are just a few of the reasons France has occupied such a deep place in my heart and why I feel privileged to have taught her language, history and culture to my young fellow citizens these many years.