About Yves Le Martret Expertise I`m French, live in France, with a strong knowledge of history, culture, religion, literature and art. I can write from the "French point of view" in many of past and present issues.
Experience Experienced with multicultural skills (worked outside France for 4 years)
Publications Wikipedia encyclopedia (French and English versions)
French Culture - French Culture - costumes, festival, dance
Expert: Yves Le Martret - 7/10/2006
Question Hi Yves, I would like to know:
1. What is the French traditional costume?
2. What are famous/important festivals or traditional celebration in France?
3. What are the traditional dance of French?
Thank you!
Answer Hello, Steven. I'm pleased you are interested in our culture. I will try to answer shortly and give you some URL to show traditional costumes.
1. There is no French traditional costume, there are a lot of traditional costumes! Every historical province owns its particular vets, all differents. If you are from North America, you may imagine that our costumes are as different from a province to another as the Ameridians' ones are.
From the top (different hats, berets, or nothing!) to the bottom (shoes in leather or in wood, boots, etc.)
Moreover, the costumes changed hugely from the XVIIth century until the middle of the XXth, where we can say the traditional costumes stabilised. The 2nd World War put an end to our traditional way of life. Tne most noticeable fact was the quick shift to the urbanisation. The "jean's" become the traditional costume!
So now you may find traditional costumes wore only in festivals by people in shows, often dancing shows (this makes a perfect transition to your following questions!)
A great festival (but not all the years) is the "Festival des Vieux Greements" (festival of old boats) in Brest (Brittany), where the best sailing vessels joined in the port of Brest.
I suggest you ask your favorite search engine for : folk festival in France. You will have numerous answers : gipsy music, medieval, or region-oriented like Brittany, Basque Country, Berry, Alsace, Provence, Limousin, Gascogne, Normandy, Burgundy, etc., etc.
- http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_de_musique#.C2.A0France
3. Well, traditional dances in France are as numerous as the costumes! I can give: in Brittany, among others, you may see Gavottes, An-dro, Dans-Plinn. In Center of France, you'll find the branle. In Occitania, the bourree is dominant, but tarentelle also and a lot of others...
