By Julian Hale
There’s a new tourist attraction close to Paris that’s ideal for Francophiles and Francophones, whether native French speakers or not. If you enjoy words, the French language and want to know more about the history of the French language, the Cité Internationale de La Langue Française is the place to go.
Over Christmas/the new year and into 2024, there’s a new museum about the French language which is well worth a visit. Aside from the beautiful building [the château], there are countless interactive games about the French language, French etymology and loan words to be played plus the history of the French language to be discovered.
The Cité Internationale de La Langue Française is about an hour’s train ride north of Paris in a place called Villers-Cotterêts. From the station, it’s a well signposted 15-minute walk to the castle. Back in the 16th century, the castle was surrounded by a huge hunting area and called ‘Mon plaisir’ [my pleasure] by the French King François I (1515-1547). As to the choice of Villers-Cotterêts as the location for it, this is where François I came up with an edict, in 1539, whereby French replaced Latin as the country’s official language for law and administration.
Throughout the exhibition, there is a plethora of interactive games and touch screen experiences involving the French language. Among the many highlights is a big screen at the start where excerpts of comedians and actors play with words, using plenty of French slang. That certainly gets you in the right mood! From there, you move into a room that talks about the dissemination of French via its colonies and all the different varieties of French (in terms of words and pronunciation) that have emerged over time. Further on, there’s a room where you can listen to a rendition of how famous people from long ago (e.g. François I and Jean d’Arc) probably sounded and the kind of French that they spoke.
But for me, one of the best installations is a room where you can click on symbols/words and find out about loan words (words borrowed from French or that French has borrowed from other languages). For instance, déjà vu, which is also used in English and German. The room also has an interactive dial at the centre where you can click and find out facts about how languages rank in terms of numbers of speakers and their official status in international organisations.
Another major highlight is a 360° installation showing how the meanings of words have evolved over time (see box below in French for an example).
For those interested in etymology, there are fascinating and beautifully presented explanations/diagrammes about the evolution of Latin words such as caballus into ‘cheval’ (Italian has stayed closer to the Latin with ‘cavallo’ as has Spanish with ‘caballo’ and English has the related word cavalier). There is also an explanation of how ‘rem’, Latin for a thing, evolved into ‘rien’, French for nothing, i.e. the opposite of its original meaning! And you can find out where ‘oui’ comes from, with ‘oie’ effectively winning the battle against the word ‘oc’, as in the region of France called the Languedoc (la langue d’oc, literally the language of yes). The explanations are short, clear and fun, using simple diagrammes.
Further on, particularly good for children (but maybe adults too!) are interactive installations enabling you to test your spelling skills, to understand more about genders (le and la) and to try to guess where someone comes from on a world map from their accent (extremely difficult!). In this section, you’ll also find excerpts from films to test how well you understand modern-day French colloquialisms like ‘kiffer’ (to like) (also very difficult!).
Towards the end of the exhibition, there’s a very good short summary of the history of the French language, including a beautiful portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, who created the Académie française in 1635, which published its first dictionary in 1694.
Among other explanations, look out for the all important Serments de Strasbourg (Strasbourg oaths) in 842, the report by Abbé Gregoire in 1794 (following the French revolution) ‘Sur la necessité et les moyens d’anéantir les patois et d’universaliser l’usage de la langue française’ [i.e. the crushing of dialects in favour of one standard French language] and Les lois Ferry (1881-82), introducing free, obligatory and secular primary school education only in French and banning the use of regional languages.
If I had to describe the exhibition in two French words, I would say that it is a good blend of ‘pédagogique’ (educational) and ‘ludique’ (from the Latin ludere, to play). Well worth a visit.
A selection of useful web links to help you organize your visit and to whet your appetite:
Website: https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/
Ticketing information: https://tickets.monuments-nationaux.fr/fr-FR/familles?site=2324065456630401647
10 French slang words and their origins: https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/en/discover/the-adventure-of-french/10-mots-d-argot-dont-vous-ignoriez-l-origine
10 milestones in the history of the French language: https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/en/discover/the-adventure-of-french/10-milestones-in-the-history-of-the-french-language
French around the world: https://www.cite-langue-francaise.fr/en/discover/the-adventure-of-french/french-around-the-world
Book recommendations about the French language
Honni soit qui mal y pense by Henriette Walter
Le français dans tous les sens by Henriette Walter
A History of the French Language by Peter Rickard
Mille ans de langue française, histoire d’une passion by Alain Rey, Frederic Duval, Gilles Siouffi
Histoire des mots français by Olivier Bertand
J’en perds mon Latin by Françoise Nore