le Français fait une rentrée

From this past weekend's New York Times, a great story about the revival of la Francophonie (and of Francophilie) in Maine. As a grandchild of a Québecer from Trois Rivières, and a dissertator on a Frenchmen who taught for most of his life in Ottawa, I'm very excited by the prospect of more French here in New England again. While "qui perd sa langue, perd sa foi" might be a bit extreme, and it's easy to romanticize rural Catholic Québec, it's still exciting to keep this part of people's heritage alive.

I learned my French up at the summer program at l'Université Laval, which is a great way of spending a few weeks in the summer getting a crash course. And I've since become a big fan of Quebec folk music, and come make some recommendations if you're interested (Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer and La Bottine Souriante are good places to start!).