The Stranger, also published in English as The Outsider, is a 1942 novella written by French author Albert Camus. The first of Camus's novels published in his lifetime, the story follows Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative before and after the killing.
Oulipo is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais. Other notable members have included novelists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino, poets Oskar Pastior and Jean Lescure, and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud.
Raymond Queneau was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo, notable for his wit and cynical humour.
The national flag of France is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue, white, and red. The design was adopted after the French Revolution, whose revolutionaries were influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands. While not the first tricolour, it became one of the most influential flags in history. The tricolour scheme was later adopted by many other nations in Europe and elsewhere, and, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica has historically stood "in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past".
The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys, is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily. Most notably, the fleur-de-lis (⚜️) is depicted on the traditional coat of arms of France that was used from the High Middle Ages until the French Revolution in 1792, and then again in brief periods in the 19th century. This design still represents France and the House of Bourbon in the form of marshalling in the arms of Spain, Quebec, and Canada — for example.
Les Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire.
"Bluebeard" is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of the present one to avoid the fate of her predecessors. "The White Dove", "The Robber Bridegroom", and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard". The notoriety of the tale is such that Merriam-Webster gives the word Bluebeard the definition of "a man who marries and kills one wife after another". The verb bluebearding has even appeared as a way to describe the crime of either killing a series of women, or seducing and abandoning a series of women.
Barbara Winifred Wright was an English translator of modern French literature.
Francis Vielé-Griffin, was a French symbolist poet. He was born at Norfolk, Virginia, USA, the son of General Egbert Ludovicus Viele, and moved to France with his mother in 1872.
The Blue Line, also known as Line 5, is one of the four lines of the Montreal Metro in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the fourth to be built, notwithstanding its alternate official name of "Line 5", as Line 3 was planned but never built. Unlike the other three routes, the east–west Blue Line does not serve the city's main Metro junction at Berri-UQAM.
Les Tuniques Bleues is a Belgian series of bandes dessinées, first published in Spirou magazine and later collected in albums by Dupuis. Created by artist Louis Salvérius and writer Raoul Cauvin, the series was taken up by artist Lambil after Salverius' death. It follows two United States Army cavalrymen through a series of battles and adventures. The first album of the series was published in 1970. The series' name, Les Tuniques Bleues, literally "the bluecoats", refers to the uniforms of the Union Army during the American Civil War. Cinebook has started to print the comics in English as "The Bluecoats", releasing Robertsonville Prison in 2008. It is one of the best-selling series in French-language comics.
The Apprentice is a 1971 Quebec-made comedy-drama film directed by Larry Kent, starring Susan Sarandon and Steve Fiset. Although the original title literally translates to English as Blue Flower, it is better known in English as The Apprentice, which is a better translation of the idiom used in the title. It is one of the very few Canadian films that is functionally bilingual, shot in both English and French, with the appropriate dialogue dubbed for the appropriate audience.
Jean Patrick Modiano, generally known as Patrick Modiano, is a French novelist and recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is a noted writer of autofiction, the blend of autobiography and historical fiction.
A blue flower was a central symbol of inspiration for the Romanticism movement, and remains an enduring motif in Western art today. It stands for desire, love, and the metaphysical striving for the infinite and unreachable. It symbolizes hope and the beauty of things.
Groot-Bijgaarden Castle is a 12th-century castle in Groot-Bijgaarden in the municipality of Dilbeek, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The castle was built for Almaric de Bigard, the first lord of Bigard. Groot-Bijgaarden Castle is situated at an elevation of 47 metres (154 ft).
Victor Jean-Louis, known by the pseudonym Jean-Louis Baghio'o, was a French writer. He was born on 21 December 1910 at Fort-de-France (Martinique) to a family settled at Sainte-Anne (Guadeloupe), and died in Paris on December 20, 1994.
Cross Channel is a collection of short stories by Julian Barnes, first published in 1996 by Jonathan Cape. As the title suggests, all stories focus on the connection between England and France.
Golf Wang is an American street-wear brand established in 2011 by American musician Tyler, the Creator. The name Golf Wang is a spoonerism of his Los Angeles-based musical collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) or Odd Future for short, of which he was a co-founder. Golf Wang is known for its colorful visual aesthetic. In 2013, the brand expanded beyond its Odd Future affiliation and established itself in the fashion industry. It is designed by Tyler, the Creator. The brand offers clothing, footwear through collaborations with Converse often under the name GOLF le FLEUR*, jewellery, upon other products. "Holiday 1991", the brand's first look book, was released on December 11, 2011.
Miroglyph is a neologism coined by French author Raymond Queneau in his 1949 essay entitled Joan Miró ou le poète préhistorique, to describe the pictorial signs of artist Joan Miró, comparing them to letters of an alphabet.
