Interactive quiz: 20 questions on France
Which animals are the parents of a ‘bardot’? Where would you find a ‘marie-louise’? How many can you get right?
Do you know what happens inside Fort Boyard?
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1. In which year did mountaineers Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel Paccard make the first ascent of Mont Blanc?
A. 1686
B. 1786
C. 1886
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B. Jacques Balmat (aged 24), chamois hunter, and the medical doctor Michel Paccard (aged 29) reached the summit which then was neither in France nor Italy on August 8, thereby inventing the sport of mountaineering. The first women reached the summit in 1808.
2. What kind of building designed by Le Corbusier stands at Ronchamp, near Besançon?
A. a chapel
B. a train station
C. a school
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A. The Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut stands on the site of a former chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary which was destroyed by bombing in 1944. It was completed in 1955.
3. To which kind of object do the terms ‘de capelage’, ‘d’étrésillon’ and ‘de chaise double’ apply?
A. They are forms of dressage for horses
B. They are different kinds of knots
C. They are styles of book binding
4. What is the equivalent in English of the children’s game ‘jouer à la marelle’?
A. hopscotch
B. hide-and-seek
C. blind man’s buff
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4. A.
5. Where would you find a ‘marie-louise’?
A. in a picture frame
B. in a bed
C. in a bath
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A. It is a kind of intermediate frame placed between a framed work without glass and the frame itself.
6. A trombone is a musical instrument in English. In French it is too, but it is also something else. What?
A. a funnel
B. a staple gun
C. a paper clip
7. What is a ‘jeu d’orgue’?
A. a game played with balls and rods
B. the pipes that make up an organ
C. a set of kitchen knives
8. What radical change did the national railways company SNCF make to its fare structure in 1956?
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It abolished third class on trains.
9. Who were ‘les canuts’?
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The ‘canuts’ were Lyonnais silk workers, often working on Jacquard looms. They were primarily found in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood of Lyon in the 19th Century.
10. Who were ‘les gueules cassées’?
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The term ‘gueules cassées’ (broken faces) refers to survivors of the First World War who sustained one or more wounds in combat and suffered serious physical damage, particularly to the face.
11. Madagascar was a French colony between 1897 and 1958, when it became an autonomous territory. In which ocean is it located?
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Madagascar is in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of the African Continent.
12. The CNAM is a prestigious higher education school that was founded in 1794 during the Revolution to encourage innovation. What do the letters of its name stand for?
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Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. It is now an institution for education and research.
13. A ‘bombard’ is an inflatable lifeboat named after the cardiologist Alain Bombard who died in 2005. For what achievement is he remembered?
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As a young doctor and biologist, Bombard wanted to prove that a human being could survive at sea for a long period with minimal provisions. He left the Canary Islands in an inflatable boat to cross the Atlantic in recreated shipwrecked conditions. After more than sixty days at sea, he reached the coast of Barbados, very thin but alive.
14. Which future head of government helped Jean Jaurès to start the left-wing newspaper L’Humanité in 1904?
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Léon Blum.
15. Which French explorer was the first woman to travel to Tibet?
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Alexandra David-Neel.
16. In which department of France is d’Arbois wine made?
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The Jura. Arbois is an AOC wine produced around the town of the same name.
17. The Dassault Mystère II was the first French aircraft to achieve what feat in 1952?
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It was the first French aircraft to officially break the sound barrier.
18. What happens in Fort Boyard?
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A reality TV show competition. Fort Boyard is an off-shore fortification between the islands of Aix and Oléron (Charente-Maritime). Contestants perform various physical and intellectual tests in order to win a treasure.
19. Which animals are the parents of a ‘bardot’?
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A ‘bardot’ is the offspring of a male horse (stallion) and a jenny or female donkey. In English it is called a hinny.
20. Which French port city is overlooked by the basilica church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde?
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Marseille.
