Interactive quiz: 20 questions on France
How many answers can you get right?
Which rider in the Tour de France wears the “maillot à pois rouges”?
Radu Razvan/Shutterstock
1. What is a “tournedos”? A. A small, thick, round cut of beef, B. A person who changes opinion according to the wind, C. Someone so beautiful that they make people turn around to look at them
2. Who was the first Frenchman in space? A. Patrick Baudry, B. Jean-Loup Chrétien, C. Sébastien Hulot
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B. Jean-Loup Chrétien, a Général de brigade in the French Air Force. He made the first of his three space flights in 1982 and was the first Western European to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.
3. Jean Valjean, one of the best-known characters in French literature, is the protagonist of which novel? A. Les Misérables, B. La Peste, C. The Count of Monte Cristo
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A. Valjean is a former convict who seeks redemption and struggles to rebuild his life after spending 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He is relentlessly pursued by his nemesis, Inspector Javert.
4. La Brèche de Roland (Roland’s Breach) is:
A. The definitive split between the French Socialist and Communist parties in 1945
B. A natural birthing procedure pioneered by Dr François-Marie Roland in Lyon in 1926
C. A gap in the cliffs of the Pyrenees mountains on the border between France and Spain
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C. It is said to have been formed when the heroic medieval knight Roland struck the rock with his sword, Durandal.
5. The “lobster dress”, a 1937 evening dress with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted by Salvador Dalí on the skirt, was created by which designer?
A. Elsa Schiaparelli, B. Coco Chanel, C. Yves Saint Laurent
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A. The initial lobster motif was drawn by Dalí and printed onto the dress. Schiaparelli prevented Dalí from adding mayonnaise to the completed dress.
6. Which song do the following lyrics come from?
“Do you hear in the countryside
These fierce soldiers roar?
They come into your arms
To slit the throats of your sons and wives”
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La Marseillaise
7. What is a “cuniculophile”?
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A person with a passion for rabbits and hares.
8. What was unusual about the spectacular train derailment that happened near Rennes, Brittany, in the summer of 1945?
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It was staged as a scene for René Clément’s film La Bataille du rail (The Battle of the Rails). A mock-up of a heavily armoured German train, using real equipment left over from the Occupation, was used to recreate an act of sabotage carried out by the Resistance.
9. Which fruit is used to make a “tarte Tatin”?
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Apple.
10. What is the popular name of Le Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, published under Diderot’s direction in 1772?
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L’Encyclopédie
11. Which French king is said to have had a tortoiseshell as a cradle and to have been baptised with garlic?
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Henry IV.
12. Which stretch of coastline features in the films To Catch a Thief (1955), The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), and Magic in the Moonlight (2014)?
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The Côte d’Azur (French Riviera).
13. Which rider in the Tour de France wears the “maillot à pois rouges”?
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The polka-dot jersey is worn by the King of the Mountains, the rider leading the hill-climb classification.
14. What was the job of a “claqueur” in French theatres in the 18th and 19th Centuries?
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A professional applause leader, hired to sit in the audience and manipulate the crowd’s reaction to a performance.
15. Which painter was given the nickname “Le Douanier”?
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Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), the Post-Impressionist painter. For a time he worked as a toll collector for the city of Paris, hence his nickname “Le Douanier” (“the customs officer”).
16. Guillaume Tirel, also known as Taillevent, is said to have written an important book called Le Viandier in the early 14th Century. What is it about?
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It is one of the earliest medieval cookbooks and provides a detailed account of French cuisine during the Middle Ages.
17. Modern humans are descended from Cro-Magnons. Where in France is the Abri de Cro-Magnon, after which our ancestors got their name?
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In the Dordogne. The first fossil remains of Cro-Magnon people were found there in 1868.
18. A small semi-aquatic mammal with a distinctive elongated snout, webbed feet, and dense waterproof fur is endemic to the Pyrenees. What is its name?
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The Desman des Pyrénées (Pyrenean desman).
19. Which country was called “La Nouvelle-France” until the late 17th Century?
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Canada (although it also included parts of what is now the United States).
20. Which composer wrote the Boléro, made famous as the backing track used by British ice-skating duo Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics?
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Maurice Ravel.
