FRANCE QUOTES II

quotations about France

France is like a Rubik's cube whose parts don't quite fit together. From the outside it might look like the pieces are lined neatly, but inside they are misshapen and don't match. At the center is Paris, holding everything together. Hold it too softly, and the pieces fall apart. Push too hard and the pieces break.

MICHEL PASSPARTOUT

attributed, "To Understand France's Crisis, You Must First Understand Its Cheese", Buzzfeed, December 20, 2018


I was lost in France
And the vines were over-flowing
I was lost in France
And a millioni stars were glowing
And I looked round for a telephone
To say 'baby I won't be home'
I was lost in France in love

BONNIE TYLER

"Lost in France", The World Starts Tonight


I hate the French because they are all slaves and wear wooden shoes.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Essays


They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

The Great Gatsby


What's the big deal with France? How come everyone wants to go there? Let me tell you about France. Their music sucks. Their movies suck. Their berets suck. Their croissants are pretty good, but the place overall still sucks.

DAVID LEVITHAN

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List


Let's face it, the French Army couldn't beat a girls hockey team.

BILL BRYSON

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe


The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk,
Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.

WILLIAM COWPER

Table Talk


France is like a shell-shocked soldier, her body wasted, her mind is abnormal. The attitude of America under these conditions should be one of patience and tender sympathy.

NEWTON MARSHALL

"France Victorious But Tragic", The Congregationalist, November 2, 1922


But of Paris it can be said that the right bank of the Seine belongs to the world, and the left bank to France.

MARY BUTTS

The Complete Stories


You have to feel for the French; they were great once.

MIKE MURPHY

"Romney guru thrives in political 'show business'", The Boston Globe, June 12, 2005


At the risk of sounding like a boozehound, one of my favorite things about visiting France is its approach to happy hour. Filling the interlude between the end of the workday and dinnertime, "l'heure de l'apéro" is a time to relax, catch up with friends, and celebrate the beginning of the night. Unlike its American counterpart, this French ritual is less about getting drunk on cheap beer and wolfing down greasy nachos, and more about sipping light, refreshing cocktails paired with snacks designed to wet your appetite--not destroy it.

ERICA JACKSON CURRAN

"Bar Fly: Falling for l'heure de l'apéro at Swan Dive", Richmond, November 20, 2018


Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease
Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Traveller


France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme.

MATTHEW ARNOLD

"To a Republican Friend", The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems


The Trump-Cruz police state exists. It's called France.

ELI LAKE

Bloomberg, 2016


The most beautiful county is Flanders; the most beautiful duchy, Milan; the most beautiful kingdom, France.

VICTOR HUGO

Notre Dame de Paris


I like France, where everybody thinks he's Napoleon--down here everybody thinks he's Christ.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Tender Is the Night


What is now the EU was set up so that France and Germany could hug each other so tightly in a loving embrace that neither would be able to get an arm free with which to punch the other.

TIM MARSHALL

Prisoners of Geography


In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.

JULIA CHILD

New York Times, Nov. 26, 1986


France bleeds, but liberty smiles; and in the presence of liberty's smile, France forgets her wound.

VICTOR HUGO

Les Misérables


France is an absolute monarchy, tempered by ballads.

CHAMFORT

attributed, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations