| | France Culture : Architecture, Literature, Cinema, Music... |
 | | French people address each other with formality, calling each other Madame, Mademoiselle or Monsieur in a way which may seem formulaic to outsiders, but signifies a respect for the individual which permeates the French way of life. |
 | | Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the French Renaissance was the construction of the Chateaux of the Loire Valley: no longer conceived of as fortresses, these pleasure palaces took advantage of the richness of the rivers and lands of the Loire region and they show remarkable architectural skill. |
 | | The French neoclassical style would greatly contribute to the monumentalism of the French revolution, as typified in the structures La Madeleine church (begun in 1763 and finished in1840) which is in the form of a Greek temple and the mammouth Panthéon (1764-1812) which today houses the tombs of great Frenchmen. |
| www.bonjourlafrance.net /france-facts/culture-of-france.htm (3751 words) |