Season’s Greetings to all my readers. Thank you for reading the blog this year and for all your emails and comments here and on Facebook and elsewhere.

Welcome to the 12th Edition of the Life on La Lune French Christmas Quiz, my little Christmas gift to you, chers lecteurs. Twenty questions on aspects of French history, culture, language, cuisine, geography and politics with multiple choice answers. Something to exercise your brain cells during Twixmas.

A few rules

• Try to answer without using the internet if you can. You are, however, authorised to search this blog, and you’ll find the answers to many of the questions buried here somewhere. Search box in the sidebar or at the bottom of the screen on some devices.
• Attention ! Some questions might have more than one correct answer. This is deliberate, so please don’t comment below that question x has y number of correct answers.
• Similarly, don’t post up your answers in the comments. Please wait until I post them in a week’s time.
• Don’t take it too seriously; it’s all in fun.
• There are no prizes. Virtue is its own reward.
• I will provide the answers on Friday 30th December, so you have a week to puzzle over it.

Allez ! C’est parti

1. Which French food item was inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2022?

a) Baguette

b) Foie gras

c) Roquefort cheese

2. Which international celebrity has their own dedicated La Poste sorting office?

a) Gérard Dépardieu

b) Le Père Noël

c) Zinedine Zidane

3. What did King Charles IX offer every lady at the French court on 1^st May?

a) A brooch in the shape of a fleur-de-lys

b) A pair of silk stockings

c) A sprig of lily-of-the-valley (muguet)

4. What is le drac?

a) A form of torture on a spiked wheel

b) An attack of nerves, stage fright

c) A fearsome mythical beast

5. Which of these towns in Southwest France is known as ‘the pinkest of the pink cities’?

a) Albi

b) Montauban

c) Toulouse

6. What is believed to be the longest postal delay ever in France?

a) 120 years

b) 150 years

c) 220 years

7. Picture question. What is this apparatus?

a) An apple press

b) A chestnut press

c) A wine press

8. Which French president appointed France’s first woman prime minister?

a) François Mitterrand

b) Jacques Chirac

c) Emmanuel Macron

9. In 2022 Villefranche-de-Rouergue was the film set for a dramatisation of which World War II novel?

a) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

b) Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

c) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

10. What is a cantou?

a) An Auvergnat mountain song

b) An inglenook fireplace

c) A stew of duck and sausage

11. What is un poulet?

a) A chicken

b) A pulley

c) A slang name for a policeman

12. Which of these famous artists is not buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris?

a) Gustave Caillebotte

b) Georges Seurat

c) Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

13. Septfonds is famous as the regional birthplace of which clothing industry?

a) Clog making

b) Straw hat making

c) Linen cloth weaving

14. Which of the following towns in Southwest France does not hold a truffle market?

a) Laguépie

b) Lalbenque

c) Limogne-en-Quercy

15. Which of the following French actors played Commissaire Maigret?

a) Bruno Crémer

b) Philippe Noiret

c) Jean Richard

16. What is a bolet?

a) A type of mushroom

b) A women’s short evening jacket

c) A covered balcony

17. Which monastery in Southwest France has the largest cloisters in France?

a) La Chartreuse Saint-Sauveur, Villefranche de Rouergue

b) Le Couvent des Jacobins, Toulouse

c) L’Abbaye Saint-Pierre, Moissac

18. What does ‘faire le pont’ mean ?

a) Act as a mediator

b) Take the day(s) off work between a public holiday and the weekend

c) Have a lie-in

19. Which beverage was known as ‘la boisson qui rend fou’ (the drink that makes you mad)?

a) Eau de vie

b) Pastis

c) Absinthe

20. Finally, a topical question. How many times has France won the FIFA World Cup?

a) Once

b) Twice

c) Three times

Amusez-vous bien.

I’ll leave you with some Christmas-spirited pix I took this December. Wishing you and yours Joyeux Noël et Bonnes Fêtes de fin d’année.

Copyright © Life on La Lune 2022. All rights reserved.