Arts & Literature
Painting, literature, music: France's vast artistic heritage is the essence of French art de vivre. French painting continues to break new ground with provocative street art; while French writers Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust and Simone de Beauvoir walk the world hall of fame. Music is embedded in the French soul, with world-class sounds coming out of Paris.
Painting France
Classical to Romantic
According to Voltaire, French painting proper began with Baroque painter Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), known for his classical mythological and biblical scenes bathed in golden light. Wind forward a couple of centuries and modern still life popped up with Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699–1779). A century later, neoclassical artist Jacques Louis David (1748–1825) wooed the public with vast history paintings; some are in the Louvre.
While Romantics such as Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) revamped the subject picture, the Barbizon School effected a parallel transformation of landscape painting. Jean-François Millet (1814–75), son of a Normandy farmer, took many of his subjects from peasant life, and reproductions of his L'Angélus (The Angelus; 1857) – the best-known painting in France after the Mona Lisa – are strung above mantelpieces all over rural France. The original hangs in Paris' Musée d'Orsay.
Street Art
Street art is big, thanks in part to the pioneering work of Blek Le Rat (http://bleklerat.free.fr) in the 1980s. The Parisian artist, born as Xavier Prou, began by spraying tiny rats in hidden corners of the streets of Paris, went on to develop stencil graffiti as a recognised form, and notably inspired British street artist Banksy.
In 2013 the world's largest collective street-art exhibition, La Tour Paris 13 (www.tourparis13.fr), opened in a derelict apartment block in Paris' 13e arrondissement. Its 36 apartments on 13 floors showcased works by 100 international artists. The blockbuster exhibition ran for one month, after which the tower was shut and demolished. Itself an art work, the three-day demolition was filmed and streamed live on the internet – where the street artworks remain.
The Impressionists
It was in a flower-filled garden in a Normandy village that Claude Monet (1840–1926) expounded impressionism, a term of derision taken from the title of his experimental painting Impression: Soleil Levant (Impression: Sunrise; 1874).
An arthritis-crippled Renoir painted out his last impressionist days in a villa on the French Riviera, a part of France that inspired dozens of artists. In St-Tropez pointillism took off with Georges Seurat (1859–91), the first to apply paint in small dots or uniform brush strokes of unmixed colour. His pupil Paul Signac (1863–1935) is best known for pointillist works.
Matisse, Picasso & Klein
Twentieth-century French painting is characterised by a bewildering diversity of styles, including cubism, and Fauvism, named after the slur of a critic who compared the exhibitors at the 1906 autumn Salon in Paris with fauves (wild animals) because of their radical use of intensely bright colours. Spanish cubist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Fauvist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) both chose southern France to set up studios.
With the close of WWII, Paris' role as artistic world capital ended. The focus shifted back to southern France in the 1960s with new realists such as Arman (1928–2005) and Yves Klein (1928–62), both from Nice. In 1960 Klein famously produced Anthropométrie de l'Époque Bleue, a series of imprints made by naked women (covered from head to toe in blue paint) rolling around on a white canvas, in front of an orchestra of violins and an audience in evening dress.
oBest Art Museums
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Musée National Picasso, Paris
Musée de l'Annonciade, St-Tropez
Musée Matisse, Nice
1990s Urban Minutiae
Artists in the 1990s turned to the minutiae of everyday urban life to express social and political angst. Conceptual artist Daniel Buren (b 1938) reduced his painting to a signature series of vertical 8.7cm-wide stripes that is applied to any surface imaginable – white marble columns in the courtyard of Paris' Palais Royal included. The painter (who in 1967, as part of the radical group BMPT, signed a manifesto declaring he was not a painter) was the enfant terrible of French art in the 1980s.
Current Art Trends
Paris-born conceptual artist Sophie Calle (b 1953) brazenly exposes her private life in public with eye-catching installations such as Prenez Soin de Vous (Take Care of Yourself; 2007), a compelling and addictive work of art in book form exposing the reactions of 107 women to an email Calle received from her French lover, dumping her.
Her Rachel, Monique (2010) evoked the death and lingering memory of her mother in the form of a photographic exhibition first shown in Paris, later as a live reading performance at the Festival d'Avignon, and subsequently in a chapel in New York. In 2015 Suite Vénitienne was published, a beautiful hard-back rendition, on gilt-edged Japanese paper, of her first art book in 1988 in which she followed Henri B around Venice for two weeks, anonymously photographing the enigmatic stranger.
Literary Drama
Courtly Love to Symbolism
Troubadours' lyric poems of courtly love dominated medieval French literature, while the roman (literally 'romance', now meaning 'novel') drew on old Celtic tales. With the Roman de la Rose, a 22,000-line poem by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung, allegorical figures like Pleasure, Shame and Fear appeared.
French Renaissance literature was extensive and varied. La Pléiade was a group of lyrical poets active in the 1550s and 1560s. The exuberant narrative of Loire Valley–born François Rabelais (1494–1553) blends coarse humour with encyclopedic erudition in a vast panorama of every kind of person, occupation and jargon in 16th-century France. Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) covered cannibals, war horses, drunkenness and the resemblance of children to their fathers and other themes.
Le grand siècle (golden age) ushered in classical lofty odes to tragedy. François de Malherbe (1555–1628) brought a new rigour to rhythm in poetry; and Marie de La Fayette (1634–93) penned the first French novel, La Princesse de Clèves (1678).
French Romanticism
The philosophical Voltaire (1694–1778) dominated the 18th century. A century on, Besançon gave birth to French Romantic Victor Hugo (1802–85).
In 1857 literary landmarks Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1821–80), and Charles Baudelaire's (1821–67) poems Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), were published. Émile Zola (1840–1902) saw novel-writing as a science in his powerful series, Les Rougon-Macquart.
Evoking mental states was the dream of symbolists Paul Verlaine (1844–96) and Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–98). Verlaine shared a tempestuous homosexual relationship with poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854–91): enter French literature's first modern poems.
Best Sellers
Marc Levy is France’s best-selling writer. The film rights of his first novel were snapped up for the Steven Spielberg box-office hit, Just Like Heaven (2005), and his novels have been translated into 42 languages. Une Autre Idée de Bonheur (Another Idea of Happiness; 2013), was published a year later in English, as will his latest – L'Horizon à l'Envers (2016) – in due course no doubt.
Modern Literature
The world's longest novel – a seven-volume 9,609,000-character giant by Marcel Proust (1871–1922) – dominated the early 20th century. À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) explores in evocative detail the true meaning of past experience recovered from the unconscious by involuntary memory.
Surrealism proved a vital force until WWII. André Breton (1896–1966) captured the spirit of surrealism – a fascination with dreams, divination and all manifestations of the imaginary – in his autobiographical narratives.
In Paris the bohemian Colette (1873–1954) captivated and shocked with her titillating novels detailing the amorous exploits of heroines such as schoolgirl Claudine. In New York meanwhile, what would become one of the best-selling French works of all time was published in 1943: Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), by Lyon-born writer and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–44). He captured the hearts of millions with his magical yet philosophical tale for children about an aviator's adventures with a little blonde-haired Prince from Asteroid B-612.
After WWII, existentialism developed around the lively debates of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80), Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) and Albert Camus (1913–60) in Paris' Left Bank cafes.
The nouveau roman of the 1950s saw experimental young writers seek new ways of organising narratives. Histoire d'O (Story of O), an erotic sadomasochistic novel written by Dominique Aury under a pseudonym in 1954, sold more copies outside France than any other contemporary French novel.
Radical young writer Françoise Sagan (1935–2004) shot to fame overnight at the age of 18 with her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness, 1954). The subsequent fast-paced, hedonistic lifestyle pursued by the party-loving, bourgeois-born writer ensured she remained in the spotlight until her death in 2004.
A Contemporary Proust
French laureate Patrick Modiano (b 1945) is a French writer whose novels are often set in Paris during the Nazi occupation of WWII. Often compared to Proust, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2014, confirming France's ranking as the country with the most literary Nobel Prize winners – 15 to date. Missing Person (2005) is one of a handful of Modiano's many French bestsellers translated into English.
The New Generation
No French writer better delves into the mind, mood and politics of France's notable ethnic population than Faïza Guène (b 1985), who writes in a notable ‘urban slang’ style.
Born and bred on a ghetto housing estate outside Paris, she stunned critics with her debut novel, Kiffe Kiffe Demain (2004), sold in 27 countries and published in English as Just Like Tomorrow (2006).
Faïza Guène's father moved from a village in western Algeria to northern France in 1952, aged 17, to work in the mines. Only in the 1980s could he return to Algeria. There he met his wife, whom he brought back to France, to Les Courtillières housing estate in Seine-St-Denis, where 6000-odd immigrants live in five-storey, high-rise blocks stretching for 1.5km. Such is the setting for Guène's first book and her second semi-autobiographical novel, Du Rêve pour les Oeufs (2006), published in English as Dreams from the Endz (2008). Her most recent work, Un Homme ça ne Pleure Pas (Real Men Don't Cry, 2014), shifts to Nice in southern France.
Musical Encounters
Classical
French Baroque music heavily influenced European musical output in the 17th and 18th centuries. French musical luminaries – Charles Gounod (1818–93), César Franck (1822–90) and Carmen creator Georges Bizet (1838–75) among them – were a dime a dozen in the 19th century. Modern orchestration was founded by French Romantic Hector Berlioz (1803–69). He demanded gargantuan forces: his ideal orchestra included 240 stringed instruments, 30 grand pianos and 30 harps.
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) revolutionised classical music with Prélude à l'Après-Midi d'un Faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn), creating a light, almost Asian musical impressionism.
Jazz & French Chansons
Jazz hit 1920s Paris in the banana-clad form of Josephine Baker, an African-American cabaret dancer. Post-WWII ushered in a much-appreciated bunch of musicians, mostly black Americans who opted to remain in Paris' bohemian Montmartre rather than return to the brutal racism and segregation of the US: Sidney Bechet called Paris home from 1949, jazz drummer Kenny 'Klook' Clarke followed in 1956, pianist Bud Powell in 1959, and saxophonist Dexter Gordon in the early 1960s.
The chanson française, a French folk-song tradition dating from the troubadours of the Middle Ages, was eclipsed by the music halls and burlesque of the early 20th century, but was revived in the 1930s by Édith Piaf and Charles Trenet. In the 1950s, Paris' Left Bank cabarets nurtured chansonniers (cabaret singers) such as Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens, Claude Nougaro, Jacques Brel and the very charming, very sexy, very French Serge Gainsbourg.
Zaz
Jazz fans adore the gypsy jazz style of young French pop singer Zaz – an experimental voice from the Loire Valley, often compared to Édith Piaf – who stormed to the top of the charts with her debut album Zaz (2010). Her subsequent third album, Paris (2014) is a musical ode to the French capital with 13 songs evoking Paris' irresistible charm and romance. Her first live album, Sur la Route (2015) only confirmed that Zaz is one of France's hottest contemporary female voices.
Rap
France is known for its rap, an original 1990s sound spearheaded by Senegal-born, Paris-reared rapper MC Solaar and Suprême NTM (NTM being an acronym for a French expression far too offensive to print). Most big-name rappers are French 20-somethings of Arabic or African origin whose prime preoccupations are the frustrations and fury of fed-up immigrants in the French banlieues (suburbs). France's best-known rap band is Marseille's home-grown IAM (www.iam.tm.fr).
No artist has sealed France’s reputation in world music more than Paris-born, Franco-Congolese rapper, slam poet and three-time Victoire de la Musique–award winner, Abd al Malik (www.abdalmalik.fr). His albums, including his latest, Scarifications (2015), are all classics.
Rock & Pop
One could be forgiven for thinking that French pop is becoming dynastic. The distinctive M (for Mathieu) is the son of singer Louis Chédid; Arthur H is the progeny of pop-rock musician Jacques Higelin; and Thomas Dutronc is the offspring of 1960s idols Jacques and Françoise Hardy. Serge Gainsbourg's daughter with Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg (b 1971) made her musical debut in 1984 with the single Lemon Incest and – several albums later – released a cover version of the song Hey Joe as soundtrack to the film Nymphomaniac (2013) in which she also starred as the leading lady. For her latest album, to be released in 2016, she collaborated with Guy Man from Daft Punk and French electronic music producer SebastiAn.
Indie rock band Phoenix, from Versailles, headlines festivals in the US and UK. The band was born in the late 1990s in a garage in the Paris suburbs.
Always worth a listen is Louise Attaque (http://louiseattaque.com) who, after a 10-year break, released its new album, L'Anomalie, with huge success in early 2016. Nosfell (www.nosfell.com), one of France's most creative and intense musicians, sings in his own invented language called le klokobetz. In 2015 Nosfell wrote the music for Contact, a musical comedy by French dancer and choreographer Philippe Decouflé.
Christophe Maé mixes acoustic pop with soul, with stunning success. His jazzy third album, Je Veux du Bonheur (2013) was heavy influenced by the time the Provence-born singer spent travelling in New Orleans. Travels abroad likewise provide the inspiration for the spring 2016 album, Palermo Hollywood, by talented singer and songwriter Benjamin Biolay (b 1973).
Marseille-born Marina Kaye (b 1998) won France's Got Talent TV show at the age of 13, as well as huge acclaim with her debut single 'Homeless', and released her first album Fearless in 2015. Celebrity singer Nolwenn Leroy (b 1982) performs in Breton, English and Irish as well as French; while Paris' very own Indila (b 1984) woos France with her edgy pop and rai (a style derived from Algerian folk music).
Electronica & Dance
David Guetta, Laurent Garnier, Martin Solveig and Bon Sinclair – originally nicknamed 'Chris the French Kiss' – are top Parisian electronica music producers and DJs who travel the international circuit. In the late 1990s David Guetta, with his wife Cathy, directed Paris' mythical nightclub Les Bains Douches, today a trendy club-hotel in Le Marais.
Algerian Rai to Zouglou
With styles from Algerian rai to other North African music (artists include Cheb Khaled, Natacha Atlas, Jamel, Cheb Mami) and Senegalese mbalax (Youssou N'Dour), West Indian zouk (Kassav', Zouk Machine) and Cuban salsa, France's world beat is strong. Manu Chao (www.manuchao.net), the Paris-born son of Spanish parents, uses world elements to stunning effect.
Magic System from Côte d'Ivoire popularised zouglou (a kind of West African rap and dance music) with its album Premier Gaou, and Congolese Koffi Olomide still packs the halls. Also try to catch blind singing couple, Amadou and Mariam; Rokia Traoré from Mali; and Franco-Algerian DJ-turned-singer Rachid Taha (www.rachidtaha.fr) whose music mixes Arab and Western musical styles with lyrics in English, Berber and French.