The French Institute (french: Institut français) in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

is a cultural centre promoting French language and French culture in

and in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and part of the wider

Institut Français The Institut Français (French capitalization, Institut français; "French institute") is a French public industrial and commercial organization (EPIC). Started in 1907 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting French, francophone as ...

network around the world. It operates alongside the

Institut français du Royaume-Uni The Institut français du Royaume-Uni is a branch of the Institut français, which represents and promotes French learning and culture in the United Kingdom. It is situated in London's South Kensington at Queensberry Place, a turning off Cromwell Ro ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and is administered by the

French Foreign Ministry The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs () is the ministry of the Government of France that handles France's foreign relations. Since 1855, its headquarters have been located at 37 Quai d'Orsay, close to the National Assembly. The term Qu ...

. It is co-located with Edinburgh's French

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...

on the city's Royal Mile. The Institute itself comprises a cultural department, a courses department and a media library. It also hosts the Education officer for Scotland.

History

The Auld Alliance, which is the beginning of the friendship between Scotland and France against England was signed in 1295. In 1942, the General de Gaulle said about this alliance it was the "oldest alliance in the world". Founded in 1946 by

René Massigli René Massigli (; 22 March 1888 – 3 February 1988) was a French diplomat who played a leading role as a senior official at the Quai d'Orsay and was regarded as one of the leading French experts on Germany, which he greatly distrusted. Early ca ...

, ambassador of France to the United Kingdom, the French Institute relocated from a row of townhouses in Randolph Crescent in Edinburgh's West End to

Lothian Chambers Lothian Chambers, formerly Midlothian County Buildings, is a municipal structure on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland. The structure, which accommodates the Consulate-General of France and the French Institute for Scotland, is a Category ...

in 2018.

Directors of the French Institute for Scotland

*2010 - ... : Vincent Guérin *2008 - 2010 : ''Vacant'' *2006 - 2008 : Anne Laval *2003 - 2006 : Olga Poivre d'Arvor *2001 - 2003 : Ashok Adicéam *1997 - 2001 : Jean-Marc Terrasse *1993 - 1997 : Stéphane Crouzat *1987 - 1993 : Alain Bourdon *1978 - 1980 : Pierre Alexandre *1975 - 1978 : Michel Sciama *1970s : Henry Monteagle *1966 - 1969 : Georges Prudhomme *1960s : René Escande de Messières (c. 1957)

Activities

Cultural events

In 2011, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the French Institute presented a show, 'Two Johnnies live upstairs', especially created for the building by the French compagny Mythos festival. This show has been selected as one of the highlights of 2011 by

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

. The French Institute is also involved in the Edinburgh cultural life and is a partner of

the Cameo, Edinburgh The Cameo is an Edinburgh cinema which started life as the King's Cinema on 8 January 1914 and is one of the oldest cinemas in Scotland still in use. Since becoming the Cameo in 1949, it has had a tradition of showing art house films. From 1949 on ...

and hosts the office of the French Film festival UK.

Cultural events list

= Exhibitions

= Théâtre, cinéma, concerts...

The Media Library

Activities

The Media Library organises activities for kids in French. ''L'Oreille Musicale'', workshop about French music is new from 2011. On November edition, ''l'Oreille musicale'' invited the Breton band Santa Cruz to speak about their musical tastes and influences. The library is open all week days and access is free. By contrast, only the French Institute members can borrow documents.

Collection

The media library contains over 10.000 documents, mainly in French, about a lot of different aspects of France and French culture. You can find documents about literature, art, history, geography, humanities and children's literature. A lot of references book are available, like dictionaries, encyclopaedias and travel guides. The novel collection contain many novels by Scottish authors translated in French (e.g.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

, Ian Rankin and Val McDermid). You can read or borrow newspapers like:

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

Le Point ''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and news magazine published in Paris. History and profile ''Le Point'' was founded in September 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of '' L'Express'', w ...

, general-interest magazines: ELLE, Les Inrockuptibles and more specialised magazines like Beaux-Arts and Positif. The CD & DVD shelves contain 1500 CDs (audio-books and music) and almost 1000 films and documentaries.

Language classes

Every term, about 500 students come to the Institute to learn French.

Bibliography

*Alan John Steele (professeur à l'Université d'Édimbourg), L'Institut français d'Écosse, cinquante ans d'histoire, 1946–1996, Institut français d'Écosse, 1996, 85 p. () *Alan John Steele, 60@ifecosse : 1946-2006, Institut français d'Écosse, 2006, 208 p. ()

References

External links

An article about the French Institute in ''Français du Monde'' n° 157
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French Institute websiteFranco Scottish Society websiteFrench Alliance in GlasgowWebsite of the French Consulate in Edinburgh
{{Coord, 55.95233, N, 3.21231, W, display=title Cultural organisations based in Scotland Organisations based in Edinburgh France–Scotland relations