Check out this article written by Seattle Weekly Food Critic Hanna Raskin about the Darigold Best Baguette Competition!  Merci to all of the participants and Félicitations to the winners:

Baguette d’Or:  Columbia City Bakery
Baguette d’Argent:  Breadfarm
Baguette Bronze:  La Panzanella

Where:  Leif Erikson Hall 2245 NW 57th Street Seattle, WA 98107

When:  Wednesday, March 27th, 2013, 6:30 to 10PM

For more information or to sign up, please click here.

Do you delight in Belgian moules-frites? Have you danced the Tahitian Fa’arapu or Québecoise claquettes?  Or perhaps you are a gas at France’s Mille Bornes.  Well, get ready for Seattle’s 1^st Annual French Fest: A Celebration of French-Speaking Cultures to take place on Sunday, March 24^th, 11am – 6pm, in the Armory/Center House at the Seattle Center.  The festival will be a free, family-friendly event open to the public with the purpose of promoting and raising awareness of Francophone cultures and traditions to the residents of the Greater Seattle area. During the one-day event, festival-goers will listen to live music, see theater and dance performances, taste international cuisine, learn from informative seminars and demonstrations, play games and enjoy a day full of fun activities!

Following the unanimous decision of the Board of Directors of France Education Northwest, the festival organizers, to transition away from the Bastille Day Festival, they sought to create a more inclusive venue for French-speaking cultures from around the world to celebrate their beautiful, unique differences and shared language.  French Fest will feature cultural groups and performance artists from all over the Greater Seattle area and beyond focusing programming on two major themes:  cultural traditions and contemporary representations.

For those interested in getting more involved with French Fest, sponsorship and other promotional opportunities, including vendor and community organization booths, as well as volunteer opportunities, are available.  Stay tuned for more French Fest announcements and the complete schedule of activities!  To learn more about the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie please visit www.francophonie.org

French Fest is a proud participant in Seattle Center Festál, a series of 22 world festivals highlighting the distinct cultures and common threads of ethnic communities in our region through traditional and contemporary art, music, foods, youth activities, workshops and more. This collection of cultural events is produced with the generous support of Coca~Cola, The Boeing Company, T-Mobile, Wells Fargo, Real Networks and KUOW 94.9 Public Radio. Additional support is provided by 4Culture, Washington State Arts Commission, Seattle Center Foundation and the City of Seattle.

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After consulting with French and French-speaking community members, FEN learned that there was a local void – Seattle is missing an inclusive, multicultural celebration of Francophonie.  Inspired by the mission of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie which is “to embody the active solidarity of French-speaking countries while respecting cultural and linguistic diversity, and promoting the French language, peace and sustainable development”, the aim of the Francophone Festival is to bring together the French-speaking communities of the Greater Seattle area for a one-day cultural celebration.  The official internationally recognized and annually celebrated Journée de la francophonie is on March 20^th, thus Saturday, March 24^th has been chosen for the celebration in Seattle.

FEN imagines this new festival to include music, dance, food, art projects, stories, lectures, workshops and more inspired by all of our unique and fascinating cultures.

Want to get involved? FEN will be organizing a brainstorming meeting in early October and we strongly encourage the Francophone community to attend and share your ideas.  More information about the date and location of this meeting will be announced soon.  Should you have any questions, comments or suggestions in the interim, please feel welcome to contact coordinator at faccpnw dot org.  We look forward to working with you and the Francophone community for a fabulous debut of Seattle’s Francophone Festival!

Bien amicalement,

Jack A. Cowan
Executive Director, France Education Northwest
Honorary Consul of France to Seattle

N.B. To learn more about the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie by visiting www.francophonie.org.

The French Government’s extensive pavilion, covering 15,000 square feet, was entitled “The toys of the Modern World”. The “toys” were illustrations of modern man’s technological advances that changed his everyday living environment, such as the telephone, automobile, television, airplane and future inventions. The French exhibit not only aimed at displaying France’s impressive scientific accomplishments, it also sought to define the social and psychological problems posed by modern times’ technological sophistication. The French exhibit was extremely provocative in questioning the threat of losing individuality and sensitivity in a world of mass communication and information. Solutions were proposed in order to ensure the fulfillment of modern man’s individual aspirations, such as a reaffirmed devotion to the arts and a bigger control over human environment.

Seattle & Paris 1962 to 2012: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or do they? This year, the Seattle Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In association with local French partners, France Education Northwest will take part in this celebration during the Bastille Day Festival with its involvement in the Seattle Center’s The Next Fifty. This project is a multimedia comparison of Seattle and Paris between 1962 and 2012. Enlisting the help and resources of a variety of Seattle institutions, including the Museum of History and Industry, the University of Washington, the Seattle Times, as well as schools and individuals, participants will dive deeper to attempt to answer the question: Are Seattle and Paris more alike today than in the past?

The major themes to explore include:
Cuisine – Fashion – Architecture
Goods – Exports/Imports – Politics
Major News – Cinema – Top 40 Music

How to participate:
After an in-class or online exploration of the cultural, historical and/or political environments in France and the United States in the early 1960s, participants of all ages are encouraged to express their creativity by coming up with original ways to compare France and the United States and show how these two nations differ or are more similar now as opposed to 50 years ago.
Submissions may include, but are not limited to: drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, stories, poetry, film clips, music and slides, as well as any other creative mediums that the students may produce. Please include a title and, if necessary, a description with each submission. Print submissions will be displayed at the Bastille Day Festival on July 14, 2012. Audio and video submissions will be posted on the Bastille Day website: http://seattle-bastille.org/.

Please fill the Participation Release Form that must be included with each submission.

Please submit your projects with the following guidelines:
- Print submissions: essay, photograph, collage, painting, drawing, etc.
Size: 8.5”x11” up to 11”x17”
- Audio submissions: music, interviews, discussions, etc.
Format: .mp3
- Video submissions: video clips, slides, etc.
Format: .mov

You can find here a collage example.

Submissions will be accepted until July 1, 2012. All materials, including participation releases, can be either dropped off in person or mailed to:
France Education Northwest
2200 Alaskan Way, Suite 490
Seattle, WA 98121

To thank our participants, BigFishGames.com has generously donated game coupons for the first 40 entries. Submit your entry today!

For more information or questions:
bastille@faccpnw.org