Taking place on March 11th at Discovery Green Park in Houston, the French Cultures Festival 2016 kick-off concert will feature 2 French bands and a local band as well as food vendors showcasing French culinary favourites. Stay tuned for the line-up and the festival program on frenchculture.org and in our next newsletter.

Follow the latest updates of the Festival on Facebook,  Instagram and Twitter!

A Stage Pédagogique de Courte Durée - SPCD is a professional development grant aimed at helping teachers perfect their skills in methodologies for teaching French language and culture. The SPCD grants are intended for teachers of French as a foreign language who teach in American elementary or secondary schools. Sessions last two weeks and take place in France at a training center selected by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
20 participants will be selected in 2016.
Each grant includes :Training fees, train tickets from Paris to the city of the training center, homestay with a French family and two allowance (expenses and for the cost of the international flight)

Please send in your application to the Cultural Service

The BELC program is an intensive professional training course offering over 100 thematic modules aiming at four main objecives: teaching, training, evaluating and piloting better. It is aimed at teachers wishing to conduct training sessions for teachers of French as a foreign language (FLE) and teachers in Immersion and dual language programs in the USA. The training will take place Monday 4^th to Friday 29^th July 2016 at the University of Nantes.

Two grants will be awarded in 2016, covering the training costs, train costs from Paris to Nantes, housing and food costs on campus and a $1200 financial aid for the plane ticket.

Please send in your application to the Cultural Service

The French Embassy in the United States and the FACE Foundation are accepting applications for the Partner University Fund (PUF). PUF promotes innovative collaborations of excellence in research and education between French and American institutions of higher education. The program supports emerging transatlantic partnerships with the potential to continue beyond the initial 3-year grant.

The February 2nd Webinar will be on "Créativité en classe de FLE" with Mrs Régine Llorca.

The third session will be Thursday March 3rd, with Mrs Catherine Nicolet on « Créer un journal en ligne en classe bilingue ».

The University of Franche-Comté is hosting a summer training program. If you are an educator, a teacher trainer or an educational official, and wish to develop your skills and discover new practices, take part in the CLA's education training courses this Summer. Six training courses and a wide variety of modules are available, such as supplementing your teaching methods, using new technologies in FLE classes, enhancing your specialities (bilingual teaching, FOS -Français sur Objectif Spécifiques, FOU-Français sur Objectif Universitaire) and more!

A two week training course costs 685 euros and a four week training course, 1110 euros.

FORT WORTH, TX | FEBRUARY 2, 9, 16 & 22

Texas Christian University's Department of Modern Language Studies is one of the recipients of the Tournées Festival grant. A FACE program, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, it brings French cinema to American college and university campuses. All screenings are free and open to the public.

Enjoy four French movie screenings in February: Diplomacy, Girlhood, Daybreak & The Connection.

The University of Saint Thomas, Houston, will be hosting Tournées Film festival in March. Among the six films showing will be Tip-Top (Tip top), Gilrhood (Bande de filles), and Mood Indigo (L'Ecume des jours).

The Centre de Francophonie des Amériques, in cooperation with Richelieu International, invites you to participate in the second edition of theTwittérature competition, for students in elementary, secondary and high school, students in higher education and French-speaking adults. This year's theme is "Améripoésie".

Dis-moi dix mots is a project initiated by the French Ministry of Education for classes to create a collective of literary and artistic pieces of work corresponding to a selection of 10 French words. Several contests are taking place :

- Concours des dix mots, open to middle and high school students, deadline to apply is February 15th

- Chansons sans frontières, deadline: February 28th

- Bataille des dix mots, the deadline to submit projects is March 11th

The Alliance française in Dallas is inaugurating it's new office by celebrating the traditional pancake festival Chandeleur, sponsored by Whisk Crêpes Café. Come celebrate!

Celebrate Mardi Gras at the Alliance française on Tuesday  February 9th at 6pm.