Sites en francais

September 18, 2007 9:28 AM

Please recommend some French websites.

I want to do some daily reading to keep my French up to date. Can anyone recommend some good blogs, online magazines, or other sites in French?

Some of my favorite sites in English are BoingBoing, Reddit, and MeFi (of course). I also enjoy Harper's Magazine and would love to find something similar in French.

For news I go to news.google.fr, but I'm looking for something a little off the beaten path. Something well known to francophones perhaps, but not a typical news site.

posted by spacewaitress to writing & language (13 comments total)

I would suggest www.monde-diplomatique.fr/, but that may be too much like a news site for you?
posted by andree at 10:00 AM on September 18, 2007

Well, I read Pierre Assouline's blog. Books, books and more books. Not so much off the beaten path considering it is a Le Monde blog, though.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2007

Another news site ... Radio France Internationale. However, what my friend and I like is that they also include a transcript of the news broadcast, so you can read along. It helps me w/ my listening comprehension.

And La Blogotheque is a cool French MP3 blog that films bands playing in unusual places (usually around Paris).
posted by pfafflin at 10:28 AM on September 18, 2007

Monde Diplo is indeed a great place to stop.

Rue 89 is only a few months old but already hugely successful. Newsy and bloggy at the same time. Clearly left of center.

Le Nouvel Observateur, a left of center weekly mag.

Interesting listing of influencial francophone blogs over here. Always updated. You may also enjoy the site that publishes this list.

A fun free weekly from Montreal: Voir.
posted by amusem at 10:34 AM on September 18, 2007

I've asked a similar question.
I found list of Digg like sites around the world.
This site provides a list of Europe centred sites of interesting sites.
posted by jouke at 10:37 AM on September 18, 2007

In France, two wednesday newspapers are continuously fighting the power : Le Canard enchaîné and Charlie Hebdo. The first makes use of unofficial informations collected in the neighbourhood of power (bruits de couloir). The second one is essentially lefty and relies on the craft of its many drawing artists. Samples. The later has been on trial recently, after a controversy with muslim fundamentalists. Explained here (english wiki).
Something a little bit loftier : the College de France podcast.
Arte, the french-german channel, offers a wide range of blogs (aud, vid, etc..) and a radio too.
i'm not a big believer in french websites, but as far as blogs are concerned, you can try to scan these.
posted by nicolin at 10:40 AM on September 18, 2007

oups, I forgot : to keep track of what's going on in Charlie & le Canard : charlie enchaîné. (Really focused on french politics).
posted by nicolin at 10:44 AM on September 18, 2007

french.about.com/library/motdujour/bl_motdujour.htm has "Le Mot du Jour" and many other features.
posted by JimN2TAW at 11:46 AM on September 18, 2007

There's always the 'French MetaFilter'. Check out the answers to this previous AskMeFi question too.
posted by wannalol at 12:07 PM on September 18, 2007

Not a website but 2 people whose columns I wouldn't miss. They both write for the Montreal daily La Presse.

Pierre Foglia is a columnist at large whose column is published three times a week. He writes wonderful stories about little nothings like his cats or how to make plum jam and also handles big political or societal questions. He is a former sports writer who loves cycling, and he has had his freewheeling column for the past 15 or 20 years. He works on his writing like a jeweler to the point it looks all effortless and natural. He sometimes use coarse language and can as well be dark or hilarious or both.

Bruno Blanchet is published once a week in the Travel section. He was a successful humorist (he had his own tv show) when he decided 3 years ago to travel around the world. He travels very light and meets strange people, totally out of the usual tourists traps. He began with roller blading through Japan and a few weeks ago he walked through Lebanon from North to South. Last week he was in Khartoum and it was not pretty. Priceless.
posted by bru at 12:46 PM on September 18, 2007

something much more useful than the list I previously gave you : les 200 blogs francophones autour du monde, found on aeiou. (You made me find some cool french sites... thank you)
posted by nicolin at 10:17 AM on September 19, 2007

If you read Harper's Magazine, you might enjoy L'actualité, a Quebec news and essay magazine.
posted by racingjs at 10:19 AM on September 19, 2007

Here's another list for the 300 most popular blogs.
posted by nicolin at 10:58 AM on February 1, 2008