Which French artist who created a trio of striking paintings called Les Oiseaux on a ceiling in the Louvre, is recognised as a co-founder with Picasso of the Cubist movement?
Known until 1980 as the New Hebrides, what is the only sovereign nation in Oceania which counts French as one of its official languages?
An ‘aubade’ is traditionally a poem or song which deals with lovers parting from each other at what time of day?
What global intergovernmental organisation moved its headquarters in 1989 from Saint-Cloud in the suburbs of western Paris, to the Quai Charles de Gaulle in Lyon?
What three-letter English acronym represents an item often said to be an essential in the wardrobe of any woman, one of Coco Chanel’s most enduring contributions to the world of fashion?
The Statue of Liberty was designed by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, but which famous engineer was responsible for overseeing most of its construction,from 1880 onwards?
Which chart hit, a UK No 1 for both Elvis Presley in 1962 and UB40 in 1993, used the famous melody of the 18th century French love song Plaisir d’Amour?
Which key staff member in a restaurant is usually seen as the ‘second-in-command’, who has responsibility for the presentation of food and for discipline, rosters and training?
The name of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier is remembered in France due in large part to his championing during the late 18th century of what previously suspect foodstuff?
What small town on France’s Atlantic coast gives its name to the huge triangle-shaped tidal bay or ‘bassin’, which indents the otherwise straight coastline 30 miles south of Bordeaux?
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French Quiz - July 2018
What keyboard symbol has seen vastly increased use in the last 20 years and is known in French as ‘l’arobase’?
Already an Olympic silver medallist, in what track and field event did Parisian Kévin Mayer become world champion in London in August 2017?
What is the English name of the island in the Atlantic known in one of the official languages of the country to which it belongs as ‘Terre-Neuve’?
Which Lennon & McCartney composition was performed in 1964 by Johnny Hallyday under the title ‘Quand je l’ai vue devant moi’?
What is the usual two-word English name for the fungal grape infection Botrytis cinerea which imparts a distinctive flavour to Sauternes wines from the Bordeaux region?
One of the most famous 20th century poems in the English language, who created the work which contains the words, “Et O ces voix d’enfants, chantant dans la coupole!”
Former French Republican politician Michel Barnier was appointed to what role within the European Union in December 2016?
Cultivated in order to complement the local Mediterranean cuisine, between half and two thirds of all wine produced in the vineyards of Provence is of what general type?
By what diminutive name is Margaret of Valois, wife of Henri of Navarre, known in the title of a 1994 French film in which she was played by Isabelle Adjani?
Who was pictured in a famous photograph taken on the front terrace of the Palais de Chaillot on June 6th 1940, with the Eiffel Tower in the immediate background?
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French quiz - June 2018
A staple of British pantomime, how is the fairy tale figure characterised in the 17th century by Charles Perrault as ‘Le Chat Botté’, known in the English speaking world?
Which city in the south of France is dominated by a Roman arena used today for bullfights and concerts, built nearly 2000 years ago when the place was called Colonia Nemausus?
What communications marvel was once designated ‘le courriel’ by the Académie Française, even though the average Frenchman is still as likely to refer to it by its English name?
Aquaculturist Tony Berthelot installed a refrigerated vending machine in his shop on the Atlantic Ile de Ré in 2017, to dispense what fresh local delicacy 24 hours a day?
What is the name of the famous lighthouse with a French name on the southern tip of Jersey, which might bring to mind a popular 1980s winner of the Grand National steeplechase?
Which French soldier who gave the ‘Fire!’ command to the firing squad at his own execution in December 1815, was called by Napoleon ‘Le Brave des Braves’?
What general name for sweet or savoury appetizers comes from the fact that they were originally made in small adjacent ovens as a by-product of the cookery of the main meal?
To a typist, what is the French language equivalent of the QWERTY keyboard layout, so called because of the first six keys on the top row of letters?
Which future Oscar-winning actress starred opposite Russell Crowe as irresistible Provençale café owner Fanny Chenal, in the 2006 film version of Peter Mayle’s novel A Good Year?
In July 2017, the EU supported a French government ban on the ride-hailing service software app of which often controversial San Francisco-based company?
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French quiz - May 2018
‘On y danse, on y danse’ (‘People dance there, people dance’) is the second line of which very well-known traditional French song?
What was the French name of the British ship-of-the-line which fought at Trafalgar and which can be seen in a famous painting by J.M.W. Turner, on its way to the breaker’s yard in 1838?
What is the name of the footballer who moved to Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona in the summer of 2017 for a world record fee of nearly £200 million?
Which orange-flavoured Cognac liqueur created in 1880 and most familiar in its ‘Cordon Rouge’ edition, is typically used as an alternative to Cointreau in Sidecar and Margarita cocktails?
Which oil company from Aquitaine whose name was a three-letter acronym for French Gasoline and Lubricants, was merged into the multinational concern which became ‘Total’ in 2003?
Name the unfinished novel by concentration camp victim Irène Némirovsky, published only in 2004, and made into a film starring Michelle Williams and Matthias Schoenaerts in 2015.
What is the most obvious British equivalent of the French organisation known as the Fédération Unie des Auberges de Jeunesse (FUAJ)?
Which famous Parisian thoroughfare runs along the north side of the Louvre as far as the Place de la Concorde, and takes its name from a 1797 battle won in Italy by Napoleon?
What alliterative term encapsulating vigour and excitement became closely associated in the UK with footballer Thierry Henry, after he used it in a series of Renault Clio TV adverts?
What nine-letter French word is used in English to lend a little upmarket glamour to a product which is essentially a stewed fruit preserve – or, in other words, jam?
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French Quiz - April 2018
What traditional Parisian tourist conveyances take their familiar name from the area of Lyon where they were first built, and not, as many think, from a type of insect?
A version of which BBC quiz show has been broadcast on the TV station France 3 since 2011 under the title Personne n’y avait pensé! (‘No one thought of it!’)?
Who returned home from exile in Paris on a chartered Air France flight to assume the effective leadership of his country, on February 1st, 1979?
In the field of leisure activity in France, what are Les Arcs, Les Carroz, Les Gets and Les Menuires?
Which Picardy town near Arras has a five-letter name which is 80% vowel, and is famous for an English Catholic translation of the Old Testament, published there in 1609?
What late 18th century hyphenated term for the lower classes who wore trousers rather than knee-breeches, might today be used colloquially as an equivalent to ‘going commando’ in English?
Taken from the book of Genesis, what is the French title of the 1956 film directed by Roger Vadim which rocketed the 22-year old Brigitte Bardot to global fame?
Which very famous pop song, played more often at British funerals than any other, was in its original version a 1968 French hit by Claude François, when it was called ‘Comme d’habitude’?
What was first represented by the length of a platinum bar kept at theInternational Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris from 1799 to 1889, when it was infinitesimally altered?
Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre and Marie Galante are the three principal islands of which French overseas département located in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles?
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French Quiz - March 2018
Which French city’s equivalent of the Champs-Elysées is a kilometre-long boulevard called ‘La Canebière’, built in accordance with wishes ex-pressed by King Louis XIV in the 1660s?
Which song was dedicated in 1959 by its singer to the French Foreign Legion, and is routinely sung by them when on parade?
Dominated by one of west Africa’s most significant rivers, what was the former name (in English) of Burkina Faso, which gained independence from France in August 1960?
What is the main type of ingredient in the garlic-flavoured provençale stew known as a ‘bourride’?
The world’s least frequently published newspaper, the satirical La Bougie du Sapeur, (‘The Soldier’s Candle’), has appeared only once every four years since 1980, always on which date?
In the 1820s, for use in what type of building did physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel originally develop his ridge and-groove lantern lenses, some of which could be over eight feet tall?
Although all were born in other countries, Michel Théato (1900), Boughera El Ouafi (1928) and Alain Mimoun (1956) all won gold medals for France in which classic Olympic event?
If the French word for a branch or twig is ‘un rameau’, which day of the Christian calendar is known in France as ‘Dimanche des Rameaux’?
Popular the world over, what distinctively muscular all-white breed of cattle from eastern Burgundy is the most numerous native type in French agriculture?
What name for a dingy pit-like room in a medieval castle is taken from the French verb ‘to forget’, since that is what often hap-pened to prisoners unfortunate enough to be left there?
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In the title of a 1990 thriller directed by Luc Besson, what is the name of the highly-trained youthful assassin working for the government and played by Anne Parillaud?
Which two letters, most likely to be found after the name of a company, is the equivalent in France of the English ‘Ltd’?
What substance, previously known as ‘vital’ or ‘dephlogisticated’ air, was definitively re-named by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier in 1777?
What cheap brand of blended wine synonymous with socialising in the 1970s, helped accustomise the British to wine-drinking, and had a French name meaning ‘swallow’ (bird)?
In horseracing, steeplechasers such as the 2009 Grand National winner Mon Mome, classified as AQPS - ‘Autre Que Pur-Sang’, specifically do NOT fall into what category?
Now a museum ship in Nantes, the French destroyer Maillé-Brézé played a significant on-screen role in what British war movie, released in July 2017?
If the French classify ‘bitter’ beer as ‘bière brune’, what adjective do they generally use to describe lager beers?
What is the most common three-letter English equivalent of the French texting acronym EDR, which stands for ‘écroulé de rire’?
A large island of Papua New Guinea and a colourful genus of South American climbing plant both take their names from which illustrious 18th century French explorer and naval officer?
What range of mountains runs along France’s border with Switzerland and gives its name to both a French département and a Swiss administrative canton?
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French Quiz - January 2018
What is the name of the opulent room within the Palace of Versailles in which Georges Clemenceau signed the treaty formally ending the First World War on June 28th, 1919?
What word used in English as well as French for a travelling writer and performer of songs, comes originally from an old Languedoc word for ‘composer’?
Alain Prost won his first three Formula 1 World Championships in the 1980s driving for McLaren, but for which British team was he driving when he won his final title in 1993?
What was the middle name of the French engineer Marc Brunel, who in the 1820s designed and helped construct the Thames Tunnel between Rotherhithe and Limehouse in London?
Which classic 1953 Hollywood movie set 12 years previously and starring Burt Lancaster, was released in France under the title, ‘Tant qu’il y aura des hommes’?
Which manufacturer of beauty products now based in New York but founded in Paris in 1904, shares its name with the surname of the last president of the French Fourth Republic (1946-58)?
Which tributary of the River Seine gives its name to two French administrative départements and has inhabitants who are sometimes known as ‘Isarien(ne)s’?
Which military rank used in English-speaking countries means ‘place-holder’ in French?
France’s ‘Loi Evin’, the ‘Evin law’, passed in 1991, puts stringent limits on the advertisement of what, proving especially disruptive for TV coverage of foreign sporting events?
An 1859 operatic version by Charles Gounod of which Shakespeare play spawned a Parisian parody entitled ‘Rhum et eau en juillet’, (‘Rum and Water in July’) eight years later?
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French Quiz - December 2017
A publication which describes itself as ‘bimensuel’ is issued twice every month. How often does a ‘trimestriel’ publication appear?
Which French town or city of about 70,000 inhabitants is served by the Aéroport Napoleon Bonaparte?
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!’?
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?
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?
What French phrase is a brusque and impolite request for someone to “shut up!” and can be literally translated as your gob!’?
What culturally historic name was given in September 2016 to the administrative division made up of the former Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon regions?
In the NATO phonetic alphabet, which predominantly French-speaking Canadian province’s name is allocated to one of the letters of the alphabet?
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?
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?
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French Quiz - November 2017
What does the word ‘bio’ on an item in a French shop or market indicate?
Which French fashion magazine founded in 1945 is said to have featured its namesake supermodel in every issue for six years during the 1980s?
67 of France’s 96 metropolitan départements take their names from what?
Parisian actress Bérénice Marlohe played the rather short-lived love interest in which James Bond film?
After which French port did explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville name what are now known as the Falkland Islands, when he founded a colony there in 1764?
Which French sports goods manufacturer supplied the shirts in which Tottenham Hotspur won memorable FA Cup Final victories in 1981 and 82?
Which US state has a capital with a French name, possibly derived from the settlement there in the 17th century of a group of Trappist monks?
In 2005 at Amiens University Hospital Isabelle Dinoire was the first person ever to undergo what pioneering surgical operation, after being mauled by a dog?
What 500-year old French trick-taking card game for two players, uses a deck of 32 cards, and has a name which might bring to mind a F1 world champion?
Between 1309 and 1377 seven successive popes resided in which French commune in south-eastern France?
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French Quiz - October 2017
Mentioned in the title of a 1953 play originally written in French, for which other character do the down-at-heel Vladimir and Estragon wait in vain?
Which day in the Christian calendar is known in France as ‘mercredi des Cendres’?
What was the surname of the brothers Auguste and Louis who invented a working ‘cinematograph’ in the 1890s, only to abandon moving pictures by 1905 because they saw no future in them?
Which rugby union forward who played 62 times for France between 2000-11, spent five years at Sale Sharks, where he won the affectionate nickname ‘Sea Bass’?
In the kitchen of a large restaurant or hotel, a ‘potager’ would be responsible for the preparation of what?
In the kitchen of a large restaurant or hotel, a ‘potager’ would be responsible for the preparation of what?
Which very short children’s song contains the repeated phrase, “Sonnez les matines!” (“Morning bells are ringing”)?
Théodore Géricault’s most famous painting shows a raft strewn with the desperate survivors of which ship, wrecked off the coast of west Africa in July 1816?
In stories and novels by Georges Simenon, what is the first name of Paris police commissioner Maigret?
Acquired in 2015 by the American corporation XPO, with what line of business is the Lyon-based company Norbert Dentressangle most closely associated?
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French Quiz - August 2017
In 1925, which world-famous delicacy from Aveyron in the south of France, was the first French cheese ever awarded protective AOC status?
Which Hollywood film star who is married to French advertising executive Romain Dauriac, opened her own Yummy Pop popcorn shop in Paris in October 2016?
Which modern orchestral instrument is a development of a 17th century French invention called the ‘hautbois’, meaning high(-pitched) wood?
At which French Winter Olympics venue, did French alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy pick up three gold medals in1968?
What term derived from a phrase in a Beatles song, characterised lightweight French pop music performed by 1960s singers such as Sylvie Vartan and Françoise Hardy?
Which breed of dog, known in France as a ‘caniche’ or less commonly a ‘barbone’, sometimes symbolises the nation itself, although it is also claimed by the Germans?
What is the first name of the adulterous doctor’s wife, who is the title character in Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary?
Named after the great French polymath who attempted to perfect them in the 1640s, what kind of instrument – of which around 10 survive - is a ‘Pascaline’?
Built across the western end of the Ile de la Cité in the early 17th century, what is the slightly misleading name of the oldest bridge, over the Seine in Paris?
Every Easter Monday to commemorate an incident when Napoleon’s entire army had to be fed locally, the Haute-Garonne village of Bessières cooks a giant…what?
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