Les Personalites Francaises

Find out about a variety of famous French people in the fields of politics, arts, culture and sports

Rectangular Callout: Brigitte Bardot was born on September 28th 1934, in Paris.  Her mother encouraged her to take up music and dance, and she excelled at it.  This led her into a modelling career.  Starting in 1952, she appeared in many French films, and her personality then took the US by storm.  Just before she turned 40, Brigitte retired from movies, preferring life outside of stardom. After her days in the spotlight, Brigitte went on to become a leading spokesperson for animal rights and started the 'Foundation Brigitte Bardot' dedicated solely to that cause.  Her work in that realm is, perhaps, far greater than any film she could have made.         

Brigitte Bardot

 

Rectangular Callout: Jacques René Chirac has served as the President of France since elected in 1995. He won a re-election in 2002. His current term expires on May 17, 2007. After completing studies at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris and the Ecole Nationale d'Adminsitration, Jacques Chirac began his career as a high level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He has since occupied various senior positions, such as Ministre de l'Agriculture, Premier Ministre, Maire de Paris, and finally President of France.

Jacques Chirac
Rectangular Callout: Zinedine Zidane's career began in the back streets of Marseille where, at the age of 14, he was spotted and offered a place at the academy of AS Cannes.  He later on signed for Bordeaux and his full blossoming as an international took place during the 1995/96 season, which was followed by the European championship in England.  In 2000, he was named FIFA World Player of the Year.  In the summer of 2006, Zizou took part in his last international competition.  He is still greatly admired and respected all over the world.

Zinedine Zidane (Zizou)

Rectangular Callout: The Impressionists were a group of artists. They painted their impressions instead of trying to paint exactly what they saw. Many of them painted scenes near Paris and in the South of France. Many Impressionist paintings are in the Orsay Museum in Paris. Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet were famous Impressionists.

Les Impressionistes
Rectangular Callout: Marcel Marceau is a brilliant mime artist. He often plays Pierrot, a French pantomime character. In 1947, he created 'Bip', the clown in his striped pullover and battered silk opera hat, signifying the fragility of life, and this has become his alter-ego. In his career, he performed all over the world in order to spread the 'art of silence' (L'Art du Silence). He has published poetry for children and established his own mime school in Paris.

Marcel Marceau

Rectangular Callout: Marie Curie was a scientist. She was born in Warsaw on 7th November 1867. She was the daughter of a secondary school teacher. Together with her husband Pierre, she discovered the substances polonium and radium. Radium is sometimes used in treating cancer. In 1903, she received a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Marie Curie
 

Rectangular Callout: Louis Pasteur was a chemist. He discovered that germs cause disease. He also invented the process of 'pasteurization', used for killing germs in milk. He demonstrated that the fermentation process is caused by the growth of microorganisms. He produced the first vaccine for rabies. He is remembered for his life saving work.

Louis Pasteur

Rectangular Callout: Louis Braille was born in Coupvray near Paris. He was blind from the age of three. He invented a system of raised dots on a page for blind people to 'read' with their fingers. It is called 'Braille'. The first book in Braille was published in 1827. Braille has been adapted to almost every major national language and is the primary system of communication for visually impaired people all around the world.

Louis Braille
Rectangular Callout: Jacques Cousteau was originally a member of the French Navy. He invented the aqualung, used by divers to breathe underwater. He has made many films about his underwater adventures. His work did a great deal to make popular the knowledge of underwater biology and was featured in the documentary television series The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau which began in 1966.

Jacques Cousteau

Rectangular Callout: On some French stamps and coins there is a picture of an imaginary woman called Marianne. She is the symbol of the French Republic and her statue is in every town hall in France. She is a national emblem in France and the personification of Liberty and Reason. There is a bronze sculpture of her overlooking the Place de la Nation in Paris.

Marianne
Rectangular Callout: The Michelin Man is the symbol of a French tyre company, called Michelin. You can see him on cars and trucks and on Michelin guide books and maps.

 

L'Homme Michelin

Rectangular Callout: Victor Hugo (26th February 1802 - 22nd May 1885) was a poet, novelist, playwright and human rights campaigner. He was probably the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France, and was sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Conservative in his youth, Hugo moved to the political left as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism. His work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. These are the titles of his most famous pieces: Les Misérables, Les Contemplations, La Légende des Siėcles, Notre-Dame-de-Paris.

Victor Hugo

 

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