Bonjour! Are you interested in French culture and language? Do you love cocktails and karaoke? So do we!

Let’s all get together and have some fun while we mingle and break linguistic and cultural barriers!

The plan?

HAPPY HOUR COCKTAILS AND FRENCH KARAOKE!

All levels are welcome from fluent to zilch!  Come enjoy beautifully made cocktails and appetizers
by the Café à Côté.  The important thing is to have a fun soirée.

You do not have to sing of course, you can simply enjoy the music, cocktails and food but most importantly have great fun!

~ 15% of all profits will benefit l’Alliance Française de Sacramento ~

!THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT!

The Alliance Française Sacramento is proud to host the “Tour de Vin de France”, an educational and entertaining wine tasting of
9 French wines from 9 of the most important wine growing regions of France.

In an intimate atmosphere of 25 guests, these wines will be paired with 4 French cheeses
(plus small bites of charcuterie and other artisanal foods).

Todd Bertz of Kermit Lynch, the renown Berkeley importer of French wines, will introduce us to or further inform us about these regions and the wines they are famous for.
All wines featured at the event will be available at a special discount after the event.

Tickets are $20 for members, $25 for non-members
Click here to purchase tickets!

LIMIT 25 TICKETS

Come celebrate La Chandeleur and the joys of crêpes and wine in the Alliance Française library on Saturday, February 23rd!

La Chandeleur is a French holiday, and is also called Fête de la Lumière in France. People get together and not only eat a lot of crêpes but also do a bit of fortune telling while making them. Story goes that if you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year. Also, depending on the weather at La Chandeleur, the rest of the winter will be either mild or severe
(as with Groundhog Day).

Tickets:
$15 members
$20 non-members

Tickets include 2 glasses of sparking wine, 1 sweet crêpe, 1 savory crêpe

Purchase tickets HERE!

Please join us for our monthly Soirée Cinéma on Friday, March 8 for “Mal de Pierres” (“From the Land of the Moon”),
a romantic drama about a woman challenging norms in the 1950’s.

Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: Nicole Garcia (nominated for Cesar Award for Best Director)

Review: As most viewers are aware, the 1950s were not the best years to be a Western woman. With the sexual revolution more than a decade away, a female who challenged the norms was ostracized from polite society or married off to the first comer, like Marion Cotillard’s shameless country girl burning for sexual fulfillment in From the Land of the Moon (Mal de pierres). (The Hollywood Reporter)

Cast
Marion Cotillard (nominated for Cesar Award for Best Actress)
Louis Garrel
Alex Brendemuhl
Brigitte Rouan
Victoire Du Bois
Aloise Sauvage
Daniel Para
Jihwan Kim
Victor Quilichini

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3794028/videoplayer/vi4220107033?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1

The film will be presented in French with English subtitles, with a discussion following the film. Please bring snacks to share. Reservations are not required, but come early to ensure a seat!

Films are shown in the Alliance library, located on the second floor of the CLARA Studios for the Performing Arts, 2420 N Street in Midtown Sacramento. Please enter through the northeast door off the rear parking lot, as other building doors may be locked. If you need to use the accessible ramp, please contact the office no later than the Thursday before the film.

Les membres du club de lecture ‘Joie de Lire’ vont se réunir pour discuter du livre:

               “Le Zèbre” par Alexandre Jardin

On se retrouve à l’Alliance Française de Sacramento dans la bibliothèque.
Apportez un goûter ou une boisson à partager si vous voulez.
The discussion of the book will be in French

We are celebrating Francophone month this year the week of March 18th! We have some very exciting events planned and we hope you can make it!

RSVP required for all Francophone week activities.

Here is the official schedule:

Monday, March 18 – Francophone literature with Madame Megan
AF library, 6-7pm
Click here to RSVP!

Tuesday, March 19 – Francophone film – “Le Brio”
AF library, 5:30pm
RSVP here!

Wednesday, March 20 – Francophone travel presentations
AF library, 5-6:30pm
Reserve your spot here!

Thursday, March 21 – “Découverte de la Tunisie”
AF library, 5:30-7pm

Friday, March 22 – Apéro-Concert: French singer, Eric John Kaiser
AF library, 6-8pm
Purchase tickets here!

Saturday, March 23 – Museum exhibit Bus trip to San Francisco: Gaugin et Monet at the De Young
Purchase tickets HERE!

Please join us to celebrate the Francophonie!

Start Francophonie week of with Madame Megan and her “connaissance” of French/Francophone litteraire!
She will unpack “la Francophonie litteraire” and why people chose French as their language of literary expression.
She will then delve into the work of Aime Cesaire. Be sure to RSVP! 🙂

Monday, March 18 from 6-7pm in AF library.

FREE for all! RSVP required.
Click here to reserve a spot!

We continue on with our Francophonie celebrations by screening the film “Le Brio” – find out more below!

“Le Brio” – Neïla Salah grew up in the Paris banlieue of Créteil, dreaming of becoming a lawyer. On her first day at the prestigious Université D’Assas in Paris, she faces off with Pierre Mazard, a teacher known for his outrageous and provocative behavior. To redeem himself, the professor agrees to prepare Neïla for the prestigious contest of eloquence. Pierre could become the mentor she needs… But they must both overcome their prejudices. The script was inspired by the annual rhetoric competitions held in France’s most prestigious law schools, where students are invited to plead on a wide range of subjects in the most eloquent and imaginative way possible.

Watch the tralier here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CE-2H-a62A

FREE  and open to all! RSVP required. 
Click HERE to reserve a spot!

Tuesday, March 19 at 5:30pm

To continue our “Semaine de la Francophonie”, discover Francophone countries, cultures and customs through your fellow Alliance students/friends! Support your classmates by coming to learn about their Francophone travel experiences.

FREE and open to all! RSVP required.
Click here to RSVP!

Wednesday, March 20 from 5-7pm in AF library.

Join the Francophonie week celebrations with a unique Apéro Concert with live music by singer/songwriter Eric John Kaiser!

Known as The French Troubadour, Parisian-born Eric John Kaiser is a singer-songwriter re-imagining Americana music through a French lens. His new album “Made in Gaspésie,” recorded in Quebec in the summer of 2016, charted #14 in the Billboard World Chart the week of its release.

Eric John Kaiser has released five full length albums recorded in Paris, Oregon and Québec and played at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, as an “Artist in Residence” at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the Blue Nile in New Orleans, and the Solidays festival in Paris.

Eric John Kaiser website

Tickets –
Members: $10; non-members: $15.

Click here to purchase tickets!

Mark your calendar for this entertaining event and purchase your ticket today!
No entry at the door without reservation/payment in advance.

Celebrate the end of Francophonie week with an excursion to San Francisco on Saturday, March 23, to see “Monet: The Late Years” and “Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey” at the De Young! Our bus will leave the Alliance parking lot at 8:45am to drive to San Francisco, where we’ll have a timed entry to view the first exhibit.
The day continues with lunch (bring a bag or try the museum cafeteria) and time to see the second exhibit,
before a late afternoon return to Sacramento.

8:45 am: Bus leaves Alliance Française parking lot, 2420 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95816

6:00 pm: Bus returns to Sacramento

The trip includes transportation in a large, comfortable bus, admission to the De Young and Monet & Gauguin exhibitions.
Snacks will be served in the bus.

AF members: $70
Nonmembers: $80

Register HERE!!!

DEADLINE TO REGISTER: MARCH 7!!

Monet: The Late Years

“The exhibition will feature fifty paintings by Claude Monet dating mainly from 1913 to 1926, the final phase of the artist’s long career. During his late years, the well-traveled Monet stayed close to home, inspired by the variety of elements making up his own garden at Giverny, a village located about forty-five miles from Paris. With its evolving scenery of flower beds, footpaths, willows, wisteria, and nymphaea, the garden became a personal laboratory for the artist’s concentrated study of natural phenomena. The exhibition will focus on the series that Monet invented, and just as important, reinvented, in this setting. In the process, it will reconsider the conventional notion that many of the late works painted on a large scale were preparatory for the Grand Decorations, rather than finished paintings in their own right. Boldly balancing representation and abstraction, Monet’s radical late works redefined the master of Impressionism as a forebear of modernism.”

Gauguin: A Spiritual Journey

“In the first exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums dedicated to the work of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), an exceptional display of more than fifty Gauguin paintings, wood carvings, and ceramics from the renowned collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, will be on view for the first time in San Francisco. In presenting these pieces alongside Oceanic art and Gauguin works on paper from the Fine Arts Museums’ permanent collections, the exhibition explores Gauguin’s inner quests and imaginings—his spiritual journey—and how his intimate relationships with his wife, other artists, and people he encountered during his sojourns shaped his experiences, his work, and his development as an artist. Included in the exhibition is a new video work, First Impressions: Paul Gauguin by interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara, commissioned by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, that addresses the colonial gaze represented by Gauguin and turns it back toward Western culture.”

Please join us for our monthly Soirée Cinéma on Friday, April 12th for “Visages Villages” (“Faces Places”),
a fascinating documentary about French life in the countryside.

Genre: Documentary

Director: JR Agnès Varda

Review (Rolling Stone):
“Sheer perfection – that’s the phrase that springs to mind when describing the humanist miracle that is Faces Places, the year’s best and most beguiling documentary. It’s also a testament to the talents of Agnes Varda, the pint-sized, 89-year-old goddess of New Wave French cinema, and JR, the lanky 34-year-old photographer and visual artist who teams up with the veteran filmmaker to chronicle French rural life.”

Cast:
JR Agnès Varda
Jeannine Carpentier

Trailer

https://youtu.be/dmHG5HXYc9w

Films are shown in the Alliance library, located on the second floor of the CLARA Studios for the Performing Arts, 2420 N Street in Midtown Sacramento. Please enter through the northeast door off the rear parking lot, as other building doors may be locked. If you need to use the accessible ramp, please contact the office no later than the Thursday before the film.

Mark your calendar!

More details to come….

Les membres du club de lecture ‘Joie de Lire’ vont se réunir pour discuter du livre:

               “Au bonheur des ogres” par Daniel Pennac

On se retrouve à l’Alliance Française de Sacramento dans la bibliothèque.
Apportez un goûter ou une boisson à partager si vous voulez.
The discussion of the book will be in French

Please join us for our monthly Soirée Cinéma on Friday, May 10th for “Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas” (“Don’t Worry, I’m Fine”),
a French drama that explores many aspects of family life and finding yourself.

Genre: Drama

Director: Phillippe Lioret (Nominated for César Award for Best Director)

Review (Variety): “Philippe Lioret tackles the stifling prefab conformity of the Parisian suburbs in the ironically titled “Don’t Worry, I’m Fine.” A young woman’s search for her missing twin brother leads her through some potentially pedestrian TV-movie territory, including a standard-issue dysfunctional family and a bout with near-fatal anorexia.”

Cast:
Mélanie Laurent (Winner of César Award for Most Promising Actress)
Kad Merad (Winner of César Award for Best Supporting Actor)
Isabelle Renauld
Julien Boisselier
Simon Buret
Aissa Maiga

Trailer:

https://dai.ly/x6hz78v

Films are shown in the Alliance library, located on the second floor of the CLARA Studios for the Performing Arts, 2420 N Street in Midtown Sacramento. Please enter through the northeast door off the rear parking lot, as other building doors may be locked. If you need to use the accessible ramp, please contact the office no later than the Thursday before the film.