How to access French books

Lycée Francais La Pérouse
The CDI (Center for Documentation and Information), located on the third floor of the SF Lycée, is open to all parents who wish to read periodicals and books. The hours and rules are available at the door.

Alliance Française Library
1345 Bush St., between Bush and Polk St.s. This Alliance houses the largest library on the West Coast (approximately 25,000 volumes) and open during school vacation. Hundreds of children's books, including the animated classics Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke and lesser known characters as well.

Alliance Française Library of Marin
By appointment with Marie Goff. Call (415) 459-7352. 1200 volumes, featuring many recently published novels.

Alliance Française Library of Berkeley
Call(510) 548-7481 Book and video libraries for adults.
Library Exchange – la Biliothèque Tournante
Contact Genvieve Laverne, 8 Marr Ave, Oakland, CA 94611
http://www.bibliotheque-tournante.org/
http://sfpl.llob.ca.us

San Francisco Public Librairies
At each branch, you'll find a small selection of books in French in the Children Foreign Language section, as well as instructional video and audio cassettes teaching French.

Main Library
Located at 100 Larkin St. @ Grove, at the Civic Center. (415) 557-4400. There are four shelves of French films in French to borrow or screen on site. You can find them at the entrance to the foreign language video section. At the Fisher Children's Center on the second floor, there are approximately 300 books and books on tape in French. The choice is somewhat greater for children who already know how to read (CE2-CM2 level), but there are a number of books for very young children. On the third floor at the International books in French in about Franch langage are available for adults. The rest of the French language collection is on reserve (refer to the catalogue). Le Monde and several other French publications are also available. This floor also houses the ESL Center, with instructional books, videos and audio cassettes available for check-out. Patrons may access the Internet on the first and third floors.


Corte Madera Public Library
707 Meadowsweet Drive, Corte Madera, CA (415) 924-5100 http://www.countylibrary.marin.org/ This library has a few books for children in French.

Buying French language books and periodicals
Subscriptions to Bayard Presse et L'Ecole des Loisirs
High quality publications issued at all levels: from Maternelle through Senior year. Subscribe through the Lycée, in order to get the group discount. Brochures and order forms are available during the back-to-school season. Check out the samples in the library. Consider splitting a subscription with another family.

Le Journal Francais and France Today
1051 Divisadero St., San Francisco. (415) 921-5100 www.journalfrancais.com These two newspapers are published in San Francisco. Le Journal Francais covers news in French, while France Today's audience is composed of American Francophiles (in English).

The Lycée Book Fair
A week-long fair, allows purchases of books in French and English (Scholastic Editions) for all occasions at greatly reduced rates. The fair takes place prior to the Thanksgiving recess and profits go to the Lycée's library. In Corte Madera, the book fair is presented in cooperation with Book Passage.

Café de la Presse
352 Grant Ave, corner of Bush St. (415) 398-2680. Open every day from 7AM to 11PM. Sells French as well as international periodicals, videos and notebooks for children.

European Book Company
925 Larkin St., between Geary and Post (415) 474-0626. www.europeanbook.com Located near the Alliance Française. Open Mondays 11 AM 4 PM, Thursday through Saturday 10 AM 6 PM. Sells books, periodicals, reference books, books on tape, CD-ROMS, workbooks, educational games. Accepts special orders.

Karikter
418 Sutter St. (between Stockton and Powell St.), San Francisco (415) 434-1120. Open Monday through Saturday 10 AM-6 PM Sunday 11 AM-5 PM. Gifts and decorative objects based on classic comic strip heroes or French juvenile literature. Look for Le Petit Prince, Babar, Martine, Tintin, Asterix, as well as educational CD-ROMS like Adidou, Oui Oui, and Lapin Agile.

Borders
400 Post St. @ Powell, San Francisco (415) 399-1633. Open nights until 11 PM. Houses several shelves of books and dictionaries in the children's section, paperback books in a section entitled "Untranslated Literature" and numerous approaches to language in the section entitled "Language."

Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera (415) 927-0960 www.bookpassage.com Houses a small section of books in French, but will order any book worldwide.

Summer Workbooks
The Lycée sells Summer Workbooks each Spring for the coming Summer (until level CM2)

French radio and television

Scola
http://www.scola.org/ A half hour of French programming on Cable Channel 27. Monday-Friday at 5:30AM and 9PM Saturday 2AM, 5:30AM and 6:30PM Sunday 5:30 and 4PM. Note: the schedules vary.

French-American TV
(415) 377-0245 http://www.french-american.tv/ A daily show produced in San Francisco on different cultural events and experiences of French expatriates in California. Check Channel 29 public access TV on Friday at 9:30 PM

TV5-USA
International TV broadcast in French, 24 hours a day. To subscribe, you must have a satellite dish. Soon to be available through ATT Broadband. Details at (888) 902-5322 http://www.tv5.org./

Internet Connection
http://frenchculture.org/ provides a concise list of all the links to French television and radio stations including ARTE, TF1, France 2, Canal Plus, Radio France Internationale, France Culture, etc.

French films
The Clay, Lumiere, Embarcadero cinemas and the San Rafael Film Center frequently feature films in French with English subtitles (original version, no dubbing).
The cine-clubs of the Alliances Françaises offer programs throughout the year.
The Palo Alto French Film Society hosts the annual French Film Festival in October.

French language videos

The Lycée's Video Club
French language versions of Madeline, Babar, Caroline, Schtroumpfs (Smurfs). Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, various Disney titles (dubbed in French) are available for loan, as well as numerous adult titles. Volunteers staff the loan desk. The schedule, the rules and suggested contributions per family are announced at back-to-school time.

Video Library of the Alliance Française of San Francisco
The Alliance has approximately 500 documentaries, classic films and new features available for loan. They have approximately 40 children's titles.

Le Video
1231 9th Ave, between Lincoln and Irving St., San Francisco (415) 566-3606. Note that parking is extremely limited. Great choice of French films for rent in both original/subtitled or dubbed versions for children and adults. They have everything from the great classics to the most obscure. Also rents a few DVDs.