French Culture in New York City is influential in art, ballet, fashion, film, food, and tango.
Modern art developed largely in France. Ballet is an Italian court dance developed in France. It is the science of dance. French fashion, lingerie, and high heels are world famous. French invented cinema. French cooking is the science of food.
France played several roles in the development of Argentine tango.
New York’s “Little Paris” is Centre St between Broome and Grand in Little Italy, Manhattan.
The French Consulate New York is in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York’s French cultural center. It hosts New York’s largest French library.
Rendez-vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center is our big French film festival.
Le District is a lovely French food hall (a little Les Halles) with French markets and restaurants in Battery Park City.
The Statue of Liberty, icon of New York, is a gift from France. With a little irony (Haiti), she celebrates the end of human slavery in the United States.
Bastille Day is New York City’s big French festival.
French Culture and Artists
TEFAF New York 2024, Europe’s Leading Fine Art Antiques Fair Celebrates 10 Years in New York City
PARK AVENUE ARMORY, Upper East Side, Manhattan 🇧🇷 🇨🇴 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇪🇸
Future Fair 2024 Shows Contemporary Art From Diverse Emerging Galleries
CHELSEA INDUSTRIAL, Chelsea, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇦 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇳🇬
Continue Reading Future Fair 2024 Shows Contemporary Art From Diverse Emerging Galleries
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Shows African and African Diaspora Art
STARRETT-LEGHIGH BUILDING, Chelsea, Manhattan 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇲🇦 🇳🇬 🇿🇦 🇪🇸 🇺🇬
Continue Reading 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Shows African and African Diaspora Art
French News
French New York City
French live mostly in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Brooklyn.
New York Latin Culture Magazine began publishing in Paris, France as Tango Beat® in 2009.
French Art
The Frick Collection has a lot of French art. 🇫🇷
Villa Albertine promotes French American artist’s residencies in the Upper East Side. 🇫🇷
French Books
Albertine is a French bookstore in the French Embassy in the Upper East Side. albertine.com 🇫🇷
French Cultural Center
FIAF, French Institute Alliance Française, is NYC’s French cultural center and biggest French library. 🇫🇷
French Dance
Ballet is an Italian court dance that was popularized in France. 🇫🇷
You can usually see the Can Can at Bastille Day on 60th St. 🇫🇷
English Country Dance became the world’s first international dance. The French version “contredanse” was brought to Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). There it influenced Latin dance in Cuba which eventually evolved into salsa. 🇫🇷
Tango is Argentine, but was popularized by the Tango Craze in 1913 Paris, and resurrected in Paris by the show “Tango Argentino” in 1983. 🇫🇷
French Fashion
Chanel is a French luxury goods house with a flagship store on 57th Street in Midtown. 🇫🇷
Givenchy is a French luxury goods house on Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side. 🇫🇷
Hermès is the luxury goods house of the French elite. It has a flagship store in the Upper East Side. 🇫🇷
Louis Vuitton is a French luxury goods house with a flagship store in Midtown. 🇫🇷
French Festivals
Bastille Day on 60th St is a popular French street fair. 🇫🇷
Le fête de la musique (World Music Day) is a Parisian festival of live street music on summer’s longest night, the Summer Solstice on June 20 or 21. 🇫🇷
Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is a French Carnival tradition that Americans know through New Orleans Carnival. 🇫🇷
French Film
Rendez-vous with French Cinema is a French film festival co-produced by UniFrance at Film at Lincoln Center. 🇫🇷
French Food
French Restaurant Week usually promotes around 200 French restaurants in July. 🇫🇷
Le District is a French food court with restaurants in Battery Park City. 🇫🇷
French Music
“Carmen” is a French opera set in Romani Spain by Georges Bizet. Many think its famous “Habanera” aria refers to a Spanish musical form, but the habanera (la habana manera or the Havana manner) is Cuban. 🇫🇷
Many artists channel the hot jazz of Django Reinhardt. 🇫🇷
Fête de la musique is a Parisian tradition of live street music all night long on the Summer Solstice, the shortest night of the year. 🇫🇷
French Schools
International Academy is a French and Spanish immersion grade school in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. 🇫🇷
Lycée Français is a French grade school in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. 🇫🇷
French Sports
PSG NY is New York City’s Paris Saint-Germain soccer supporter’s club. 🇫🇷
French Theatre
Moulin Rouge! (Tony Award for Best Musical) is at the Hirschfeld on Broadway in open run. (12+) From $69. 🇫🇷
Culture of France
English is just French badly pronounced. Oh là là.
Ballet is an Italian court dance developed in France until the French Revolution. It was reintroduced to the world through Ballet Russes.
Paris was the center of the world in the Modern Era until the end of World War II.
French National Day
Bastille Day, July 14, 1789, is France’s national day. It celebrates the storming of the Bastille jail fortress during the French Revolution.
High Heels
High heels come from the boots of Turkish cavalry which work like cowboy boots. The heel prevents the rider’s foot from falling through the stirrup which can be deadly.
This style was copied by European courts when the Turks were one of the great military powers. For a time both sexes wore high heels. Red soles were a mark of royalty. French fashion designer Christian Louboutin copied that.
Eventually men’s clothing changed to be easier to work in. French postcard makers put high heels on the prostitutes they photographed. That sexualized high heels and they’ve been with us ever since.
Latin and Latine
The concept of “Latin America” is French. French colonizers told Mexicans they should allow themselves to be conquered because we are “Latin brothers.” Hmm. The French wanted to restart human slavery and join forces with the confederate traitors of the United States. We celebrate the French defeat in the Battle of Puebla as Cinco de Mayo.
Latin American politicians embraced the Latin label because Paris was the world capital until 1945. The U.N. adopted the term “Latin” in the 1950s. That’s how Americans of the Americas became Latins.
Cultural organizations are starting to use the word “Latine” instead of Latinx to describe themselves. Latinx is a bad idea because it means LGBTQ+, which is all good, but probably not what many organizations had in mind.
Latine isn’t any better. If you want to know the deepest meaning of Latine, go live in Haiti. You’ll see the results of French colonial exploitation ~ the total destruction of kidnapped Africans and the best land in the Caribbean.
French blame Haiti’s troubles on Africans and Vodou, but French Christians are responsible. Latine is not cool.
Pornography
Pornography is universal, but modern pornography began with picture postcards of French prostitutes.