57 official questions are about history and culture: the kings and the Revolution, Napoleon and the republics, major reforms, the Second World War, colonisation, writers and artists. For each topic: the questions, the answers, and why.
Lists: CSP = multi-year card · CR = resident card · NAT = naturalisation
Two kings come up. Louis XVI is the king of the French Revolution: he was executed, guillotined, during the Revolution. Louis XIV is the “Sun King”; the château de Versailles, near Paris, symbolises his royal power.
Napoleon I was an Emperor of the French, and the Code civil was adopted under his rule. France has had five republics: today it lives under the Fifth Republic. Charles de Gaulle founded it and was its first elected president. Georges Pompidou was also a president of the Fifth Republic.
Jules Ferry made school free, secular and compulsory: that is the aim of the Third Republic’s school laws for primary school. Victor Schœlcher abolished slavery in France, and Montesquieu, an Enlightenment philosopher, denounced it. The death penalty was abolished during François Mitterrand’s presidency.
The Shoah is the genocide of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis. It is taught at school to remember the victims and to fight antisemitism and racism. That is the duty of remembrance: remembering past tragedies so they do not happen again. Jean Moulin is a figure of the French Resistance during the Second World War.
Algeria and Senegal were colonised by France. After the Second World War, Africa was the continent most affected by French decolonisation.
Molière was a 17th-century playwright and actor; Jean de La Fontaine, the poet of the Fables; Baudelaire, a 19th-century poet; George Sand, a 19th-century novelist. Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables. Simone de Beauvoir was a feminist philosopher and writer, Albert Camus a Nobel Prize winner in literature, Marguerite Yourcenar the first woman elected to the Académie française. Marie Curie, twice a Nobel Prize winner, studied radioactivity.
Claude Monet painted the Nymphéas (Water Lilies); Auguste Renoir was an Impressionist painter, Paul Cézanne a French painter, Marc Chagall a Russian-born painter who became French. Eugène Delacroix painted “Liberty Leading the People” and Auguste Rodin sculpted “The Thinker”. Claude Debussy was a composer, Édith Piaf a singer, Joséphine Baker an artist and Resistance member who became French. The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre, and the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne holds prehistoric paintings. During the European Heritage Days, cultural sites can be visited for free.
These answers look alike. Here is how to tell them apart, side by side.
Questions from this page, drawn from every topic. After each answer: the right answer and why.
In French: Qui était le roi de France au moment de la Révolution française ?
The correct answer: Louis XVI
Why: Louis XVI was King of France in 1789. He was guillotined in January 1793.
See the official questionIn French: Quel roi de France a été exécuté pendant la Révolution française ?
The correct answer: Louis XVI
Why: Louis XVI was tried by the Convention and then guillotined on 21 January 1793 in Paris.
See the official questionIn French: Quel roi de France a été guillotiné pendant la Révolution française ?
The correct answer: Louis XVI
Why: Louis XVI was tried by the Convention and guillotined in Paris on 21 January 1793.
See the official questionIn French: Quel était le surnom de Louis XIV ?
The correct answer: The Sun King
Why: Louis XIV, king from 1643 to 1715, was nicknamed the Sun King. He had the Palace of Versailles built.
See the official questionIn French: Quel château célèbre se trouve près de Paris et symbolise le pouvoir royal de Louis XIV ?
The correct answer: The Palace of Versailles
Why: Louis XIV enlarged the Palace of Versailles and moved the royal court there in 1682. It became the symbol of absolute monarchy.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Napoléon Ier ?
The correct answer: An Emperor of the French
Why: Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor of the French in 1804 as Napoleon I. Among other things, he created the Civil Code.
See the official questionIn French: Parmi ces textes, lequel a été adopté sous Napoléon Ier ?
The correct answer: The Civil Code
Why: The Civil Code was enacted in 1804 under Napoleon Bonaparte. It still governs civil life today: family, marriage and property.
See the official questionIn French: Dans quelle République est-on aujourd'hui ?
The correct answer: The Fifth Republic
Why: France has been living under the Fifth Republic since the Constitution of 4 October 1958.
See the official questionIn French: Combien y a-t-il eu de républiques en France ?
The correct answer: Five
Why: France has had five republics. The Fifth Republic has existed since 1958.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a fondé la Ve République ?
The correct answer: Charles de Gaulle
Why: Back in power in 1958, Charles de Gaulle had a new Constitution adopted by referendum: this was the birth of the Fifth Republic.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a été le premier Président élu sous la Ve République ?
The correct answer: Charles de Gaulle
Why: Charles de Gaulle was elected President of the Republic in December 1958. He was the first president of the Fifth Republic.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a été président de la Ve République ?
The correct answer: Georges Pompidou
Why: Georges Pompidou was President of the Fifth Republic from 1969 to 1974, after Charles de Gaulle. The others held office under earlier Republics.
See the official questionIn French: Lequel de ces personnages historiques est français ?
The correct answer: Charles de Gaulle
Why: Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman. He led Free France and founded the Fifth Republic.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a rendu l’école gratuite, laïque et obligatoire ?
The correct answer: Jules Ferry
Why: Jules Ferry, Minister of Public Education, had the laws of 1881 and 1882 passed: public primary school became free, secular and compulsory.
See the official questionIn French: Quel est l’objectif des lois scolaires de la IIIe République ?
The correct answer: To make primary school free, secular and compulsory
Why: The Jules Ferry laws of 1881 and 1882 made public primary school free, secular and compulsory for girls and boys.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a aboli l'esclavage en France ?
The correct answer: Victor Schœlcher
Why: Victor Schœlcher, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, prepared the 1848 decree that definitively abolished slavery.
See the official questionIn French: Quel célèbre philosophe des Lumières a dénoncé l'esclavage ?
The correct answer: Montesquieu
Why: In ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ (1748), Montesquieu criticises slavery with irony. Voltaire and Condorcet also denounced it.
See the official questionIn French: Durant le mandat de quel président la peine de mort a-t-elle été abolie ?
The correct answer: François Mitterrand
Why: The death penalty was abolished in 1981, under the presidency of François Mitterrand, through the law championed by Robert Badinter.
See the official questionIn French: Sous quel président a été abolie la peine de mort en France ?
The correct answer: François Mitterrand
Why: The death penalty was abolished in 1981, under President François Mitterrand, through the law championed by Robert Badinter.
See the official questionIn French: Qu'est-ce que la Shoah ?
The correct answer: The genocide of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis
Why: The Shoah is the extermination of about six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its accomplices during the Second World War.
See the official questionIn French: Pourquoi la Shoah est-elle étudiée à l'école ?
The correct answer: To remember the victims and fight antisemitism and racism
Why: Studying the Shoah passes on the memory of the victims and helps understand where hatred and racism lead, so that it never happens again.
See the official questionIn French: Qu'est-ce que le devoir de mémoire ?
The correct answer: Remembering the tragedies of the past so that they do not happen again
Why: The duty of remembrance means remembering the victims and tragedies of history, such as the Holocaust or wars, to prevent them from happening again.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était une figure de la Résistance française pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale ?
The correct answer: Jean Moulin
Why: Jean Moulin unified the Resistance movements at General de Gaulle's request. Arrested in 1943, he died under torture.
See the official questionIn French: Quel pays ou région du monde a été colonisé par la France ?
The correct answer: Algeria
Why: Algeria was colonised by France from 1830. It became independent in 1962.
See the official questionIn French: Quel pays a été colonisé par la France ?
The correct answer: Senegal
Why: Senegal was a French colony. It became independent in 1960. Kenya and Ghana were British, Angola Portuguese.
See the official questionIn French: Quel pays a été une colonie française ?
The correct answer: Senegal
Why: Senegal was part of the French colonial empire, in French West Africa. It has been independent since 1960.
See the official questionIn French: Quel continent a été le plus concerné par la décolonisation française après la Seconde Guerre mondiale ?
The correct answer: Africa
Why: After 1945, most of the French colonies that became independent were in Africa, especially around 1960, and Algeria in 1962.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Molière ?
The correct answer: A 17th-century playwright and actor
Why: Molière was a famous 17th-century author of comedies, such as The Imaginary Invalid. French is called 'the language of Molière'.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Jean de la Fontaine ?
The correct answer: A French poet, author of the Fables
Why: Jean de La Fontaine was a 17th-century French poet. He is famous for his Fables, such as The Crow and the Fox.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Charles Baudelaire ?
The correct answer: A 19th-century French poet
Why: Charles Baudelaire was a great 19th-century French poet. His best-known work is The Flowers of Evil.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était George Sand ?
The correct answer: A 19th-century French novelist
Why: George Sand is the pen name of Aurore Dupin, a 19th-century French novelist. She wrote The Devil's Pool.
See the official questionIn French: Quel écrivain est français ?
The correct answer: Victor Hugo
Why: Victor Hugo was a great 19th-century French writer, author of Les Misérables. Shakespeare was English, Cervantes Spanish and Goethe German.
See the official questionIn French: Quelle œuvre a été écrite par Victor Hugo ?
The correct answer: Les Misérables
Why: Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables, published in 1862. The Red and the Black is by Stendhal, Madame Bovary by Flaubert and Germinal by Zola.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Simone de Beauvoir ?
The correct answer: A French feminist philosopher and writer
Why: Simone de Beauvoir was a 20th-century French philosopher and writer. Her book The Second Sex (1949) shaped the fight for women's rights.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était une écrivaine française célèbre ?
The correct answer: Simone de Beauvoir
Why: Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer and philosopher, author of “The Second Sex”. Piaf was a singer, Curie a scientist and Chanel a fashion designer.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Albert Camus ?
The correct answer: A French writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Why: Albert Camus was a French writer and philosopher born in Algeria. The author of The Stranger, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Marguerite Yourcenar ?
The correct answer: A writer, the first woman elected to the Académie française
Why: Marguerite Yourcenar was a writer, author of “Memoirs of Hadrian”. In 1980, she became the first woman elected to the Académie française.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Marie Curie ?
The correct answer: A scientist, twice a Nobel Prize winner, who studied radioactivity
Why: Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist. She received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and in Chemistry in 1911. She rests in the Panthéon.
See the official questionIn French: Quel peintre célèbre a peint les Nymphéas ?
The correct answer: Claude Monet
Why: Claude Monet, an Impressionist painter, painted the Water Lilies of his garden in Giverny. They can be seen at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
See the official questionIn French: Quel peintre est français ?
The correct answer: Claude Monet
Why: Claude Monet is a French painter, one of the founders of Impressionism. Rembrandt was Dutch, Goya Spanish and Botticelli Italian.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Auguste Renoir ?
The correct answer: A French Impressionist painter
Why: Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was a French Impressionist painter. His painting “Bal du moulin de la Galette” is in the Musée d’Orsay.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Paul Cézanne ?
The correct answer: A French painter
Why: Paul Cézanne was a 19th-century French painter, born in Aix-en-Provence. He often painted Mont Sainte-Victoire.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Marc Chagall ?
The correct answer: A Russian-born painter who became a naturalised French citizen
Why: Marc Chagall was a painter born in 1887 in the Russian Empire. He settled in France and became a French citizen in 1937.
See the official questionIn French: Qui a peint "La liberté guidant le peuple" ?
The correct answer: Eugène Delacroix
Why: Eugène Delacroix painted ‘Liberty Leading the People’ in 1830, after the July Revolution. The painting is in the Louvre.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Auguste Rodin ?
The correct answer: A French sculptor, creator of “The Thinker”
Why: Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was a great French sculptor. His best-known works are “The Thinker” and “The Kiss”.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était un célèbre musicien français ?
The correct answer: Claude Debussy
Why: Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a famous French composer, author of “Clair de lune”. Mozart was Austrian, Beethoven German and Verdi Italian.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était un célèbre compositeur français ?
The correct answer: Claude Debussy
Why: Claude Debussy (1862–1918) is a great French composer. Mozart was Austrian, Beethoven German and Verdi Italian.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était une chanteuse française célèbre ?
The correct answer: Édith Piaf
Why: Édith Piaf is a very famous French singer, known for La Vie en rose. The others are American, Egyptian and British.
See the official questionIn French: Qui était Joséphine Baker ?
The correct answer: An entertainer and Resistance member, born in the United States, who became French
Why: Joséphine Baker, a singer and dancer born in the United States, became French in 1937. A Resistance member during the war, she entered the Panthéon in 2021.
See the official questionIn French: Dans quel grand musée parisien est exposée la Joconde ?
The correct answer: The Louvre Museum
Why: The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, is displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is one of the most famous paintings in the world.
See the official questionIn French: Où peut-on voir des peintures préhistoriques en France ?
The correct answer: In the Lascaux cave, in the Dordogne
Why: The Lascaux cave in the Dordogne contains paintings of animals made about 20,000 years ago. Today visitors see faithful replicas.
See the official questionIn French: Quand peut-on visiter gratuitement des lieux culturels en France ?
The correct answer: During the European Heritage Days (Journées européennes du patrimoine)
Why: Every year in September, during the European Heritage Days, many monuments and museums open to the public free of charge.
See the official questionIn French: Pendant quelles journées peut-on visiter gratuitement des lieux culturels en France ?
The correct answer: During the European Heritage Days (Journées européennes du patrimoine)
Why: Every year in September, the European Heritage Days open many monuments and cultural sites to the public, often free of charge.
See the official questionIn French: Parmi ces pays, lequel attire le plus de visiteurs chaque année ?
The correct answer: France
Why: France is the most visited country in the world. It welcomes about 100 million foreign tourists each year.
See the official questionIn French: Combien de personnes parlent français dans le monde ?
The correct answer: About 400 million people
Why: According to the International Organisation of La Francophonie (2026 report), about 396 million people speak French worldwide, on all five continents.
See the official questionIn French: Quel est le classement de la langue française parmi les langues les plus parlées dans le monde ?
The correct answer: It ranks 4th
Why: According to the International Organisation of La Francophonie (2026 report), French is the 4th most spoken language in the world, with about 396 million speakers.
See the official questionIn French: Quel plat est une spécialité de la cuisine française ?
The correct answer: Beef bourguignon (bœuf bourguignon)
Why: Beef bourguignon is a traditional French dish from Burgundy. Paella is Spanish, moussaka is Greek and goulash is Hungarian.
See the official questionAnswers: 1 C · 2 B · 3 A · 4 C · 5 A · 6 C · 7 D · 8 D · 9 A · 10 B
Questions come from the official lists of the French Ministry of the Interior: formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr (multi-year card, resident card) and immigration.interieur.gouv.fr (naturalisation). Each question page gives its own sources. The options, answers, translations, explanations and illustrations are written by Recite.
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