Quiz

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?

Published: 25 July 2017

Quiz: July 2017

What language other than French is spoken by well over 100,000 inhabitants of Roussillon, at the eastern end of the Pyrenées?
According to its own website, which French theme park’s most popular attractions include It’s A Small World, Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor?
How many people, in various states of undress, can be seen in Édouard Manet’s once scandalous 1863 painting ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’?
Since its first lines were opened in 1900, the interior decoration of concourses on the Paris Métro, have largely corresponded to which artistic style?
What city in Africa was the destination for a field of assorted vehicles which gathered for the first time at the Place du Trocadéro, in Paris, on Boxing Day, 1978?
What was the first name of Pierre and Marie Curie’s daughter who, due to her work in the field of artificial radiation, was, like her parents, a Nobel chemistry laureate?
Which ‘Loire château’ actually on the river Vienne, underwent a spectacular 21st century restoration and shares its name with a former Japanese camera maker?
Shortly after the Second World War, London-born Susan Travers became the only official woman member of which military body in its (now) 185-year history?
Known in France as ‘Télécran’, what lineographic screen-based drawing toy invented by Frenchman André Cassagnes, first went on sale in 1960?
In which country’s October 2014 F1 Grand Prix, did an accident in very wet conditions lead to the death of French driver Jules Bianchi?

Published: 29 June 2017

French Quiz - June 2017

On April 25th, 1792, of what implement was highwayman Nicolas Pelletier the first of many Frenchmen to fall foul?
What word is used in French for pliable twigs of wicker typically used in making furniture, and in English is an antiquated term for any tree in the willow family?
In an English hotel, you might expect the letters H and C to appear on the hot and cold taps. What equivalent letters might you see on taps in a French hotel?
Parisian-born Séverine won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1971 performing Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue, but which country did she represent?
Standing at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Villaine, which city in eastern Brittany was founded over 2000 years ago by a Gallic tribe called the Redones?
For reasons which remain unclear, which great female French athlete caused a shock by withdrawing from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, days before the start of her events?
Which historical figure was Carry On actor Peter Gilmore portraying when the incompetence of a subordinate led him to exclaim, “Mon blooming dieu!”?
In September 2016, the most easterly of France’s reformed regions, made up of Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardenne, was officially given what new name?
What is the most common equivalent word in English for what players of pétanque call the cochonnet (piglet)?
Which Paris nightclub on the Champs Élysées, home to the statuesque Bluebell Girls, opened in 1946 on the site of what was previously a small artificial beach?

Published: 24 May 2017

French quiz - May 2017

The favourite food of the fictional Gaul Obélix and widespread throughout much of modern rural France, what kind of mammal is a ‘sanglier’?
Named in honour of a French physicist who died in 1836, what is the standard international unit of electric current?
Formerly ‘Les Guignols de l’Info’ and going strong since 1988, Canal+ TV’s puppet-based Les Guignols was heavily influenced by which British TV show?
Before the adoption of the Euro in January 2002, the French franc was divided into one hundred what?
What is France’s oldest surviving daily national newspaper? First published in 1826, it takes its name from the title of a play by Pierre de Beaumarchais.
Which city on the French Riviera hosts an annual film festival usually held in May?
In July 1921, who was the only French boxer ever to contest a world heavyweight title fight? He lost in four rounds to Jack Dempsey, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The Carmelite nun Thérèse Martin, who was canonised a saint in 1925 just 28 years after her early death from TB, is associated with which town in Normandy?
What colour is the large diamond on a French road sign which advises that you are driving on a ‘route prioritaire’, and do not have to give way?
In a verse epistle of 1768, which Frenchman made the famous observation that “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”?

Published: 26 April 2017

French Quiz - April 2017

On which day of the year does Fête du Travail or Fête des Travailleurs, a French national holiday, fall?
In which 1999 novel by Joanne Harris does newcomer Vianne Rocher subtly alter the lives of the villagers of Lasquennet-sous-Tannes, in rural south-west France?
Which French ocean liner, a great rival of the Queen Mary in the 1930s, twice broke the westbound and three times the eastbound Atlantic crossing time records?
Which resort in Savoie hosts an annual leg of the Alpine Ski World Cup, and was the preferred winter destination of Patsy and Edina in Absolutely Fabulous?
What five-letter name was the most popular for baby girls in France in 2015? It might bring to mind fictional ladies created by Abbé Prévost and Marcel Pagnol.
If you fancied a raspberry ice-cream when you were on a French beach, what flavour would you be best advised to ask for?
On which island in the River Seine does Notre Dame cathedral stand?
Much loved 89-year old ‘Grande Dame’ of French politics Simone Veil, is best remembered for the legalisation of what in 1975, when she was Minister of Health?
In the lyrics of a 1988 top five UK hit performed by a 14-year old French singer, who drove a yellow Citroen Saxo and knew all the little bars and dark corners?
A French tennis umpire would call “Quarante-à” for the first instance of deuce in a game. What does he call when subsequent deuces occur in the same game?

Published: 13 April 2017

French Quiz - March 2017

What is the most common distinguishing feature of high-heeled shoes made by the designer Christian Louboutin?
What is traditionally the second of the three elements in the national motto of France, not to mention in that of Haiti?
In an epic 12th century folk poem attributed to Pierre de St. Cloud, which vulpine trickster’s chief enemy is his own uncle, Ysengrim the wolf?
What French word can bring to mind a hazelnut, the British pop group fronted since 2003 by Shingei Shoniwa, or a small circular portion of lean lamb?
Other than the club name and a small fleur-de-lys, a stylised version of what appears on the badge of Paris Saint-Germain football club?
What was the elemental name of Jean-Michel Jarre’s third studio album, a synthesized extravaganza which spent much of 1977 at the top of the French charts?
With its administrative centre at Lille, what is the appropriate name of the most northerly of France’s 96 metropolitan départements?
With what profession would you mainly associate the young Frenchwomen Constance Jablonski, Sigrid Agren and Noémie Lenoir?
Where in Paris is there a 108-metre long funicular railway that carries around two million passengers a year, mostly tourists and pilgrims?
In Eugene Delacroix’s dramatic 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People, Liberty holds a rifle in her left hand. What, specifically, does she hold in her right?

Published: 1 March 2017

Quiz - February 2017

Which novel by Pierre Boulle was the basis for a 1969 film starring Charlton Heston, and a re-make 32 years later with Mark Wahlberg in the lead role?
What type of small cake from northern France did Marcel Proust use to symbolise differences between retrieved and involuntary memories in Remembrance of Things Past?
Who married French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini in July 2014, after a whirlwind courtship?
What Kim Wilde song named for a former French colony, failed to make the UK top 10, but spent eight weeks at No.1 in France’s official chart in April and May 1982?
Which French manufacturer of ski equipment celebrated its centenary in 2007 and has a founder’s name which translates into English as nightingale?
When reciting the alphabet in French, which letter is pronounced “ee-greck”?
Florence Arthaud, who died in a helicopter accident in Argentina in March 2015 while filming a TV gameshow, was a figure of world renown in which sport?
The Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), currently one of France’s two major political parties, was rebranded in 2015 under what snappier title?
What is the closest point to the UK in France? It stands on the Pas-de Calais coast and has a name which translates into English as Grey Nose Point.
Taken from words meaning ‘to revive the taste’, what general name is given to a wide range of French slow-cooked vegetable and/or meat stews?

Published: 1 February 2017

French Quiz - January 2017

The Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry is the title character in which 1853 opera by Giuseppe Verdi?
Which city in western France boasts the Stade de la Beaujoire, where both England and Wales played group stage matches during the 2007 Rugby World Cup?
A company name familiar to many British customers, for what do the letters ‘EDF’ stand?
At Wimille, about two miles outside Boulogne, who stands atop France’s tallest memorial column, his back turned firmly towards the English Channel?
If in France you embark on a little domestic ‘bricolage’, what are you undertaking?
Collège is the first stage of secondary education in France, for 11-15 year olds. What is the second, for those aged between 15 and 18?
In honour of the sculptor who designed the trophy in the early 1970s, what name is given to the French film industry equivalent of an Oscar?
At a 2011 EU summit in Brussels, which Frenchman, on the subject of the euro, memorably told David Cameron, “You have lost a good opportunity to shut up”?
Commemorated in the brand name of one of its best-known beers, in what year did Geronimus Hatt found Strasbourg’s Kronenbourg brewery?
In 2002, characters in which British sitcom visited the fictional Normandy village of Ste. Claire à la Chappelle, in honour of their uncle’s wartime exploits?

Published: 1 January 2017

French Quiz - December 2016

Born in 1875, which French composer’s most famous musical composition is Boléro?
Which French pianist’s signature piece is his 1976 instrumental Ballade Pour Adeline, with worldwide sales of 22 million copies?
Name the large public park along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, created between 1852 and 1858, during the reign of Emperor Louis Napoleon
Name the French mime actor famous for his stage persona Bip the Clown.
French for ‘gentleman crunch’ what is the name of the baked or fried boiled-ham and cheese sandwich, which originated in French cafes and bars as a quick snack?
Born in Spain, Anne Hidalgo is the current and first woman to hold the post of mayor of which French city?
Who was the first cyclist to win the Tour de France on five occasions?
Which Parisian train station serves southbound TGV trains directly to Marseille?
Which French word is used in English for a person who tells anecdotes in a skilful and amusing way?
Which former President of France was once married to former to model and public relations executive Cécillia Ciganer-Albeniz?

Published: 22 November 2016

French Quiz November 2016

Which red wine made from Gamay grapes is released for sale annually on the third Thursday of November?
The Mulsanne Straight is a feature of which motor-racing circuit?
Born in France in 1122, who was the mother of English kings Richard I and John?
In which French city is the European Court of Human Rights based?
What French term that translates to ‘I don’t know what’ is used to describe a certain indescribable quality?
What is the name of the large-scale bicycle sharing system in Paris that was launched in 2007?
Which French fashion designer was born in the Basque town of Pasajes, in Spain, in 1934?
What type of bridge takes its name from the French word for seesaw?
Who has made a record 142 international appearances for the French national football team?
What was the name of the sacred banner that was carried into battle by the kings of France in the Middle Ages?

Published: 26 October 2016

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