Alliance Française

The Fondation des Alliances Françaises provides oversight of the worldwide Alliance Française network.

The Fédération des Alliances Françaises USA features its own events as well as those from U.S. Alliance Française chapters, and the “One Book One Federation” and "One Film One Federation” programs.

Check out classes and cultural events at the Alliance Française de Chicago.

The Alliance Française DuPage offers conversation groups, travel opportunities, book clubs and other events.

Cultural, Professional and Governmental Organizations

The Association des Français et Francophones de Chicago serves French and Francophone Chicago.

The American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) Chicago/N. Illinois Chapter is part of the only national association devoted exclusively to the needs of French teachers.

Belgium, Canada, France, Québec and Switzerland have representatives in Chicago.

Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States lists cultural events and French language programs in the Midwest.

French Heritage Corridor: The Seven States will help you get to know the many facets of French heritage present in the seven states of the French Heritage Corridor.

Language Help

Learn French at ThoughtCo., with thousands of pages of free lessons, French verb conjugations, tips and more.

Linguee.com offers millions of translations, bilingual dictionaries, example sentences and recorded pronunciations.

You'll find online dictionaries, conjugations, audio pronunciations and forums for your questions at WordReference.com.

Media

France 24, international news channel, broadcasts 24/7.

Radio France International, a French public radio service, broadcasts in Paris and throughout the world.

TV5Monde, a French public television network, broadcasts several channels of French language programming.

The Evanston, Glenview, Skokie and Wilmette public libraries offer French films for checkout.

Facets Multimedia, Chicago, screens international films and rents DVDs.

World War II Remembrances

History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future. —Robert Penn Warren

Remembering Our Past
Too often, we rely on writings of those with whom we have no personal connection. We are truly fortunate that members of the Alliance Française du North Shore recorded their own stories of World War II.

Souvenirs de guerre—1939–1945—World War II Remembered is their collection of experiences as children, adolescents and young adults encountering danger, loss and hardship.

This 2014 bilingual compilation—video and booklet—is as close as we can get to the stories of those who experienced World War II. Each medium offers insights not replicated in the other.

World War II Remembrances

The Booklet
Forty narratives—17 in French and 23 in English—make up this set of personal stories. The French texts also appear in English.

These poignant stories draw a picture of life during a time of momentous upheaval for those in the path of bombings by Axis and Allied Powers and those targeted by Hitler's Final Solution and by the Empire of Japan. They tell of the horrors of German, Russian and Japanese occupations, but also of miracles and hope.

Stories take place in 14 countries (France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Morocco, the Netherlands, Austria, England, Switzerland, Denmark, the Philippines, Peru, the United States and Canada) and five continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America).