Fr 139
Images of France:  Reading Questions

Nadeau and Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Introduction
1.  What were some of the paradoxes that Nadeau and Barlow hoped to explain when they came to France in 1999?  

2.  Why did they end up moving away from their original research project:  France's resistance to globalization?

3.  What overall theory about the French will Nadeau and Barlow hope to defend in their book?

Ch. 1 Meet the Aborigines

4.  According to the writers, in what ways is France both modern and ancient?  

5.  What do they mean by "the French are the aborigines of France"?

6.  Why is the sale season in France from mid-January to mid-February?  How does this support the writers' point about the coexistence of past and present in France?

7.  How has Halloween been adapted in France?  

Gopnik, Paris to the Moon

"Paris to the Moon"

1.  What images of Paris did Gopnik have in his head before moving to France in 1995?

2.  "There are two kinds of travelers.  There is the kind who goes to see what there is to see and sees it, and the kind who has an image in his head and goes out to accomplish it."  Do you agree with Gopnik that the second kind of traveler actually sees more?