Quotes About French

You know, I would like to ask to the other parts of Canada to respect the minority of the French Canadians.

Deriving his idiosyncrasies from both sides of the Channel, he showed at such junctures as the present the inelasticity of the Englishman, together with that blindness to the line where sentiment verges on mawkishness, characteristic of the French.

Tea, late dinners and the French Revolution. I cannot exactly see the connection of ideas.

What, she's French?' he repeats. And what do you suppose this tall dragoon says next?—'An émigrée, you mean?' he says. 'But then she must be an enemy of philosophy!

since for me speaking French is like speaking without saying anything somehow—with no responsibilities, the way we speak in a dream.

How much do you know of La Mayonnaise?" she inquired. He shrugged. "Maybe up to the part that goes 'Aux armes, citoyens'—

I hate whisky. Every time I take it into my mouth my stomach rises against it, and the stuff they keep here is sure to be particularly vile. I only ordered it because I am going to write about an Englishman. We French are incredibly old-fashioned and out of date still in some ways.

Affaires meant 'business.' How like the French to kill two birds with one stone.

Always the perfect French, with never a contraction or word of slang.

Yeah. I know. How stupid is it to French kiss a vampire and not expect sharp teeth?

It was decreed that we should leave French territory until I was "allowed back," but I had to keep renting Nellcôte as some kind of bond, at $2,400 a week.

lot of the UN staff call themselves human rights experts but need a shoulder to cry on each time there's a killing. They belong in an office in Switzerland. Many of my French friends feign weary resignation whenever violence erupts, but that attitude was picked up on the cheap in some smoke-filled café. They haven't ever struggled and failed, haven't earned their cynicism. Ken's problem isn't cynicism, it's optimism out of control.

If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes. I remember on one such occasion when the French Ambassador, [Jules] Jusserand . . . was along, and, just as we were about to get in to swim, somebody said, 'Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Ambassador, you haven't taken off your gloves,' to which he promptly responded, 'I think I will leave them on; we might meet ladies!

Hardly unaware of his image, Bradlee even cultivated it. He delighted in displaying his street savvy, telling a reporter to get his ass moving and talk to some real cops, not lieutenants and captains behind a desk; then rising to greet some visiting dignitary from Le Monde or L'Express in formal, flawless French, complete with a peck on each cheek. -- Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

French soldiers literally drank the entire day, beginning with wine (un pauvre larme – "a little teardrop"), progressing to spirits (le café le pousse-café), climaxing with a gut-searing brandy (le tord-boyaux – "the gut-wringer"), and ending with la consolation, a sweet liqueur that the French soldier sipped as he lay in his bunk contemplating the next day's exertions. Far from imbuing the army with an ésprit

Hôtel de Ville, where French republics were traditionally proclaimed from the balcony.

In the days after Sedan, Prussian envoys met with the French and demanded a large cash indemnity as well as the cession of Alsace and Lorraine.

Un universo di pensieri attraversò in un secondo la mente di Lucile: 'Forse è lui?' si disse, 'che ha fatto prigioniero Gaston, Mio Dio, quanti francesi avrà ucciso? Quante lacrime saranno state versate a causa sua? é anche vero che se la guerra fosse andata diversamente oggi sarebbe Gaston a entrare da padrone in una casa tedesca. è la guerra, non è colpa di questo ragazzo.

The regiment was passing beneath Lucile's windows. The soldiers were singing; they had excellent voices, but the French were bemused by this serious choir whose sad and menacing music sounded more religious than warlike. "That how they pray?" the women asked. The troops were returning from manoeuvres

There was an army of hundreds of thousands of spirits fighting alongside the blacks, and that was why finally the whites were defeated. Everyone is in agreement about that, even the French soldiers, who felt the spirits' fury. Maître Valmorain, who did not believe in anything he did not understand, and as he understood very little believed in nothing, was also convinced that the dead aided the rebels.

The Spanish authorities attributed La Pérouse's opinions to the regrettable fact that the man was French, but his writings made a profound impression on Padre Mendoza.

Canada reminds me of vichyssoise - it's cold, half-French and difficult to stir.

My father spoke French with a Bank of Montreal accent.

If ever Confederation fails, it will not be because Quebec - the political voice of French Canada - has separated from it. It will be because the way to keep Quebec in it has not been found.