Expert: Yves Le Martret - 9/21/2006

Question
hi,im doing a project on france and i have to know a traditional dance of france and i have looked every where on the internet.also i have to know the traditional costume of france and other interesting facts on this country.please if you know any of those will you tell me.
thank you sooooo much.
xx


Answer
Sorry to be late, but I am a bit busy for now. Thank you for your interest about French traditions.

Well, there are several traditional dances in France. I see 2 groups of them :
- the most "Frenchies", like : "java", "valse musette"
- the more localised in the regions in France :
  - in Brittany, you may find "gavotte", "an dro", "rond"
  - in Limousin and Auvergne (south-centre of France) : "bourree"
  - in the South (near Mediterranean Sea) : "tarentelle", "farandole"

Have a look at this sites explaining those dances :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourr%C3%A9e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farandole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavotte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28dance%29

There are more explanations on the French Wikipedia (http://fr.wikipedia.org), but... in French!

This is only a sample of all the existing dances. A site showing a good panorama of the main traditional dances in France :
http://www.frenchdanceleeds.co.uk/dances/dances.html

Here some free samples of French music for traditional dances :
http://fubu.online.fr/Tracks_F.htm

Speaking about traditional music and dances is easy, but the question about the traditional French costume is not the same!
There is not "one" traditional costume, but 1000 and more...

It depends on the region, the century and the social class of the person. Saying that some regions have multiple costumes at the same time, and you'll understand that there are too many combinations to answer easily. Anyway, let's try to overview the French costumes.

Every region owns its regional costume. There are all established at the end of the XIXth century, because when our society turned to urbanisation, some people, called "folklorists", managed to collect, to draw and to catalog all the clothes of our declining rural civilisation. Doing this, they "fixed" the rural clothes at a state. So we can say that the traditional costume is the costume that the rural population wear daily at the turn of the XXth century. It is more or less the same thing in the other country of Europe. Nowadays in France, traditional costume is used only for traditional exhibitions or festivals.

Now, look at some samples :
- in Brittany (west of France) :
http://culturebreizh.free.fr/bretagne.php?lang=ENG&pageid=810
http://flickr.com/photos/gauiscaecilius/sets/38651/
http://filetsbleus.free.fr/index.html (in French, but nice shots)

- Near the Mediteranean coast :
http://perso.orange.fr/souleiado.margarido/sorties/salins%20de%20giraud%202005-1...

Type "French traditional costume" in your favourite browser and you'll find numerous answers.

A general study about the costume (not only French, but it is worth reading it)
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-costume.html

I hope I give you a good help! Don't hesitate to write again if you want more information.