Francophile
A Francophile may enjoy French artists (such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse); authors and poets (such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Voltaire, Honoré de Balzac, and George Sand), musicians (such as Daft Punk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Serge Gainsbourg, Édith Piaf, Johnny Hallyday, and Carla Bruni), filmmakers (such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Pierre Melville), and cuisine (such as baguettes, croissants, frog legs, French cheeses, and French wine).
Historically, Francophilia has been associated with supporters of the philosophy of Enlightenment during and after the French Revolution, where democratic uprisings challenged the autocratic regimes of Europe.
[8][9] No doubt the most famous contemporary Romanian Francophile is Eugen Weber (1925–2007), a prodigious author and lecturer in Romania on French history.
[12] Boia writes: "Once launched on the road of Westernization, the Romanian elite threw itself into the arms of France, the great Latin sister in the West.
"[9] He quotes no less than the leading Romanian politician Dimitrie Drăghicescu, writing in 1907: "As the nations of Europe acquire their definitive borders and their social life becomes elaborated and crystallized within the precise limits of these borders, so their spiritual accomplishments will approach those of the French, and the immaterial substance of their souls will take on the luminous clarity, the smoothness and brilliance of the French mentality.
[13] Other notable Romanian Francophiles include Georges Enesco, Constantin Brâncuși, Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade, Eugène Ionesco and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
The Russian elite, in the early 18th century, was educated in the French tradition and made a conscious effort to imitate the manners of France.
On the other hand, in the French parliament, Victor Hugo asked France to assist in protecting Serbia and the Serbian population from Ottoman crimes.
Before the war, France would win sympathy of local population by building railways by opening of French schools and a consulate and a Bank.
These sought to remake Spanish institutions, society and culture on humanist, rationalist and constitutionalist grounds, drawing strongly from the example of the Philosophes.
The French began widely introduced Cambodian education, initially being limited to the elite class before spreading to the masses nationwide as the economy grew significantly by the 1920s.
[citation needed] Prince Saionji Kinmochi, a genro (elder statesmen) was educated in France, where he received a law degree at the Sorbonne.
The Justice Minister, Etō Shimpei was an admirer of the French who modeled the legal and administrative systems together with the police force after that of France.
[43] Another French lawyer, Prosper Gambet-Gross served as the special advisor to Kawaji Toshiyoshi who created a French-style police force for Japan.
The Japanese writer Kafū Nagai wrote after visiting France: "No matter how much I wanted to sing Western songs, they were all very difficult.
Was there a Japanese song that expressed my present sentiment -- a traveler who had immersed himself in love and the arts in France but was now going back to the extreme end of the Orient where only death would follow monotonous life?
"[44]In Lebanon, Francophilia is very common among the Christian Maronites who have since the 19th century viewed the French as their "guardian angels", their special protectors and friends in their struggles against the Muslims.
[46] Orientalism first arose in Early Modern France with Guillaume Postel and the French Embassy to the court of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
[47] Later, when Mehmed IV sent the ambassador Müteferrika Süleyman Ağa to the court of Louis XIV in 1669, it caused a sensation that triggered the Turquerie fashion craze in France and then the rest of Western Europe, which lasted until well into the 19th century.
Bokassa was a great Francophile who maintained extremely close relations with France, often going elephant hunting with the French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Côte d'Ivoire was described as a "staunch Francophile" who maintained very close links with France, and successfully insisted that the French name for his country be used instead of the Ivory Coast.
Léopold Sédar Senghor was the first African to become the member of the Académie Française in Paris after he wrote the memoirs of his native country of Senegal as its leader of Francophone Africa since it was colonized by France in 1677 that has located the oldest colonial city of Saint-Louis as a trading post.
[62] In Haiti, the question of whatever one speaks French or Kréyol is racially charged as the elite tended to be of Afro-European ancestry while the masses are black.
[63][64] Even during the excesses of the Reign of Terror, Jefferson refused to disavow the revolution because he was, as Jean Yarbrough wrote, "convinced that the fates of the two republics were indissolubly linked.
"[66] Jefferson would often sign his letters "Affectionately adieu" and commented late in life "France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth.
[70] Massachusetts Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. spent his first three grades in a Parisian school and majored in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard.
The Francophile filmmaker Preston Sturges always considered France his "second home" where he spent much of his childhood, was fluent in French and was greatly influenced by the films of his close friend René Clair.
[73] Other notable francophile actors include Bradley Cooper, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matt Groening, Sam Simon, James L. Brooks, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Seth MacFarlane, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Bill Maher, Blake Lively,[79] Natalie Portman, Molly Ringwald, Steven Gabrielle and Robert Crawford.
[citation needed] The director and actor Woody Allen is a Francophile whose films often made references to French cinema, philosophy and novels.
[84] Australia is tied to France through history: visit from Lapérouse and assistance during World War I. Australian also appreciate and look up to French culture and cuisine.
