French Quiz - December 2017

1    A publication which describes itself as ‘bimensuel’ is issued twice every month. How often does a ‘trimestriel’ publication appear?

2    Which French town or city of about 70,000 inhabitants is served by the Aéroport Napoleon Bonaparte?

3    What is the English title of a song, originally German, whose best-known French version begins with the words ‘Douce nuit, sainte nuit! Dans les cieux, l’astre luit!’?

4    In which 2011 film directed by Woody Allen, does Owen Wilson travel back in time to the France of the roaring ‘20s and later, to the ‘Belle Epoque’ of the 1890s?

5    A very unsophisticated prototype of what item of diagnostic medical equipment, was first used by René Laennec on a heart patient at Necker Hospital in Paris in 1816?

6    What French phrase is a brusque and impolite request for someone to “shut up!” and can be literally translated as your gob!’?

7    What culturally historic name was given in September 2016 to the administrative division made up of the former Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon regions?

8    In the NATO phonetic alphabet, which predominantly French-speaking Canadian province’s name is allocated to one of the letters of the alphabet?

9    What French word for bib-and brace overalls was adopted in the 1970s in English, for a fashion item now largely relegated to the worlds of skiing and sailing?

10    A double murder in an apartment on which fictional Paris street was solved by C. Auguste Dupin, in a pioneering detective story published in 1841?

11    What eight-letter word frequently seen on road signs is the French equivalent of ‘Slow down’?

12    Who or what arrived in New York on board the French steamship Isère on June 19th, 1885, after a six-week journey from Rouen?

13    How is the river Escaut more commonly known once it crosses the Belgian border near Tournai, flowing on ultimately to its large estuary in the Netherlands?

14    Which company began to use its Lion trademark from the late 1850s and in 1882 introduced the very first of its bicycles, the ‘Grand-Bi’, a penny-farthing type?

15    What did the French government abolish in 1981, that Italy had done away with in 1948, West Germany in 1949 and the UK in 1965?

16    The music to which celebrated French song by Charles Trenet is possibly better known in the English-speaking world from a 1961 hit recorded by Bobby Darin?

17    In rugby, which hooker with a Spanish surname, captained France 42 times in his 98 appearances from 1995 to 2007?

18    For what reason would you be most likely to visit the website meteofrance.com?

19    ‘Confit byaldi’ created by chef Thomas Keller is an aubergine-heavy variation of which Provençal vegetable dish, prominent in a 2007 movie of the same name?

20    What still-familiar name became attached to the useful and adaptable dehydrated gypsum, which for centuries was mined from the quarries of Montmartre?

Take the first letter from the answers to the questions indicated below and rearrange the letters to spell out the name of a French artist (not a resort town as listed in the print edition of this quiz). When a person is the answer, use the first letter of their surname.

Questions 2, 3, 7, 9, 11, 14, 17, 19