By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, the white smoke came out of the Centre National de la Cinématographie chimney: Habemus Filmus Oscarum (or something like that). Yes, the French committee has finally decided which movie to send to the Oscars. It will be Les Misérables, the fascinating movie about a riot in French suburbs...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique.

My dear francophile, francovorous and francophageous friends, summer is almost over. We saw in those last few weeks that France was kind of everywhere on America’s cultural map. Will it be the same in the next season? Oh heck yeah.

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, after taking care of your French movies cravings in America this summer, let me see what I can do for the other French cultural cravings. Are you in need of some French music? It’s absolutely not a problem...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique.

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, after taking care of your French culinary cravings in America this summer, let me see what I can do for your French movie craving…

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d’Amérique

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, how’s your singing voice? If  I’m asking this question, it’s because in our next episode, we have a story about French rap singer Orelsan’s concert in New York; in a Brooklyn theater, to be more accurate. And in this story, you will see the entire audience, everyone in the room, starting to sing a capella with the band. It’s a very strong moment: an entire theater in New York singing with a famous musician from France. It gave me goosebumps…

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique.

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, let me tell you a funny (or kind of funny) story. It’s the story of one of the most famous French movie directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The year is 1997. At this time, Jean-Pierre and his co-director Marc Caro had just given the world some of the most promising, fresh and interesting movies of their times. From their French short films (Le Bunker De La Dernière Rafale, Pas de Repos Pour Billy Brako) to their features (Delicatessen, City Of The Lost Children), they were bringing something really new to cinema. And not just French cinema, worldwide cinema. No wonder Hollywood called them...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends: nowadays, it’s not too likely you’ll get homesick when you’re a French expatriate in America...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

My dear francophiles, francovorous and francophageous friends, I have a confession to make: I love to be surprised. In a good way, of course, we have enough bad surprises in life not to wish for more. I love the Chef’s selection in a Sushi restaurant, the surprise screening in a festival, and not knowing what’s under the Christmas tree. I just love good surprises. Especially when you really have no idea that you’re in for an excellent one...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

My dear friends, francophiles, francovorous and francophageous, I have a confession to make. Since the beginning of the show, 9 years ago, I have been a huge fan of The Walking Dead. Yes, I have no shame in that I’ve been an adult for a while now but I have never missed one episode...

By Didier Allouch, host of Rendez-vous d'Amérique

In this week's episode of Rendez-Vous d’Amérique, we have a long story about Machine de Cirque, a circus company from Quebec playing on Broadway. In recent shows, we had a band from Benin performing in a New York festival, the Belgian artist Magritte in L.A., a famous French director trying his talents in an American TV show, an Algerian choreographer that charmed Manhattan, and even an astronaut from Normandy visiting the US…