David
04-04-2009, 06:53 AM
French Trivia
French: Statue de la Liberté, the Statue of Liberty was made in France (Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue), and given to the United States as a gift in 1886. It is not clear who was the model for the face of the statue, but two possibilities commonly accepted are: 1) the widowed Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, the sewing-machine industrialist. As the good-looking French widow of an American industrialist she may have been called upon to be Bartholdi's model. 2) National Geographic magazine also suggested that it was Bertholdi’s mother, noting that he never denied nor explained the resemblance.
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Florence at the time to shave them off.
The bikini is perhaps the most popular female beachwear around the world. The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test on July 1, 1946.
One theory of April Fools day is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.
French: Statue de la Liberté, the Statue of Liberty was made in France (Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue), and given to the United States as a gift in 1886. It is not clear who was the model for the face of the statue, but two possibilities commonly accepted are: 1) the widowed Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, the sewing-machine industrialist. As the good-looking French widow of an American industrialist she may have been called upon to be Bartholdi's model. 2) National Geographic magazine also suggested that it was Bertholdi’s mother, noting that he never denied nor explained the resemblance.
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Florence at the time to shave them off.
The bikini is perhaps the most popular female beachwear around the world. The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon test on July 1, 1946.
One theory of April Fools day is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.