Oo La La - We're French! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fashion designer

Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy, to give him his full title, founded the fashion house bearing his name in 1952. It was located in Paris, and Givenchy was only aged twenty-five at the time. Audrey Hepburn was one of his famous clients. The company became part of LVMH in 1988 - the group also owns Moet and Chandon (champagne), Hennessy (cognac) and Louis Vuitton (fashion).

Answer: Writer

Sagan was born in south-west France as Francoise Quoirez. She published her first novel, 'Bonjour Tristesse', in 1954 and it is the best known of her works. Sagan produced many other novels, the last being in 1996, some collections of short stories and several plays. Her non fiction work includes various autobiographies and biographies of Brigitte Bardot and Sarah Bernhardt.

Answer: Pop singer

Since he's French, you probably won't be too surprised to learn that Johnny Hallyday is not his real name. He was born in Paris as Jean-Philippe Smet, so the 'Johnny' part comes from Jean while 'Hallyday' was adapted from a stage name used by an American relative. Known as the 'French Elvis', Hallyday was a big star in France with numerous number one hits, and also had some success in Belgium and Switzerland.

He died from cancer in December 2017.

Answer: Actor

Born in Paris, Catherine adopted her mother's maiden name as her stage name when she began her acting career. She worked with many well known film directors, including Roger Vadim, Roman Polanski and Francois Truffaut, mainly in French language films. Among her films are 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg', known in English as 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg', a direct translation, in 1964 and 'Belle de Jour' from 1967.

Answer: Motor racing driver

Born in a town not far from Lyon, Prost took up karting while in his teens. This led him into a career in motor racing, and he began racing in Formula One (F1) in 1980 with the McLaren team. By his second season he had joined the Renault team and proved his ability by finishing higher in the standings each year. Prost became F1 World Champion four times, in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993.

Answer: Artist

Born in 1841, Morisot was one of the painters known as the 'impressionists' and spent her time with many of them, including Cezanne, Monet and Degas. Edouard Manet was a friend and Berthe married his brother, Eugene. Morisot left a large body of work and is recognised as an influential figure in art history.

Answer: Classical composer

Born near Grenoble, Berlioz is classed as one of the Romantic composers. He studied in Paris and Rome, before returning to France in 1832 to devote his time to composing music. Most of his works were written between 1830 and 1847 and the best known of them are 'Symphonie fantastique' from 1830, and 'Romeo et Juliette' dating from 1839.

Answer: Tennis player

Francoise Durr played professional tennis from 1968 until 1984. She was a contemporary of Billie Jean King, who rather overshadowed other female players of the era, but Durr did reach a ranking of number three in the world in 1967.
She was born in Algiers, which was still a French possession at the time. Durr won the French Open Singles championship in 1967 and also won several titles in doubles, including winning the US Open title twice.

Answer: Poet

Another Parisian to make it into this quiz, Baudelaire was born in 1821 and died in 1867. Although best known as a poet, Baudelaire also wrote critiques on various contemporaries including Manet, Wagner and Delacroix. He is also credited with translating much of Edgar Allan Poe's work into the French language. Baudelaire's best known collection of poems is called 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (The Flowers of Evil), which was published in 1857.

Answer: Politician

Born in Boulogne, Cresson became the first female Prime Minister in French history in May 1991, when she was picked for the role by President Francois Mitterand. She held the position for less than a year, when her party, the Socialists, lost seats in the 1992 regional elections.

As well as being the first female, Cresson also holds the less enviable record of being Prime Minister of France for the shortest time in the twentieth century, at least during the time of the Fifth Republic.