From the Revolution to the Resistance, from Napoleon to de Gaulle. How much French history do you actually know?
France has given the world the Revolution, Napoleon, the Resistance and the Fifth Republic. This quiz takes you through the moments that matter, seen from the other side of the Channel.
Pick your level
France has been at the centre of European history for well over a thousand years. The normal quiz covers the chapters most English speakers have met at some point: 1789 and the Bastille, Napoleon's coronation, the Armistice, de Gaulle's broadcast from London, D-Day and the Fifth Republic. No French school curriculum required.
Hard mode looks at France the way British history lessons do, from the other side of the Channel. It covers a Norman duke who became an English king, a war that lasted longer than its name suggests, a teenage commander burned at the stake and a French president who kept saying no to Britain. Five out of ten is a good result.
For most of the last thousand years, the story of France and the story of England have been tangled together, through marriages, claims to each other's thrones, wars and, eventually, alliances. Many of the dates that matter most to French history are also turning points in British history, which is where hard mode spends most of its time.
Some of the best-known stories about French history do not survive a closer look. A famous line about cake was almost certainly never spoken by the queen it is pinned on, and very few people in France heard de Gaulle's appeal of 18 June 1940 live. The explanations point out these nuances where they exist.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Maximilien Robespierre
Robespierre, who ended up under the guillotine himself in 1794.
Correct answer: Waterloo
Waterloo, in present-day Belgium, against Wellington and Blücher.
Correct answer: 14 July
14 July, marking the storming of the Bastille in 1789.
Correct answer: La Marseillaise
La Marseillaise, named after the volunteers from Marseille who sang it marching into Paris.
Correct answer: A prison and fortress
A fortress used as a prison. It held only seven prisoners on the day it fell.
Correct answer: The English
The English, during the Hundred Years' War.
Correct answer: The United States
The United States, in 1886, with a skeleton designed by Gustave Eiffel's engineers.
Correct answer: The Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry, about 70 metres long, still kept in Normandy.
Correct answer: The guillotine
The guillotine, named after Dr Guillotin, who promoted it but did not invent it.
Correct answer: France and the United Kingdom
France and the UK, under the Channel.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: 1789
The French Revolution began in 1789, marked by the storming of the Bastille on 14 July and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen the following August.
Correct answer: Louis XVI
Louis XVI had been king since 1774 when the Revolution erupted. He was guillotined on 21 January 1793 on the Place de la Révolution, now known as the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Correct answer: 1804
Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris, in the presence of Pope Pius VII. He famously placed the crown on his own head.
Correct answer: Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle delivered his appeal from BBC studios in London on 18 June 1940, refusing to accept defeat against Nazi Germany. Very few French people actually heard it live at the time.
Correct answer: The Normandy Landings
6 June 1944, known as D-Day, saw Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy. It was the largest amphibious military operation in history, involving nearly 156,000 troops.
Correct answer: 1958
The Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 during the Algerian crisis. De Gaulle returned to power and pushed through a new constitution that significantly strengthened the executive branch.
Correct answer: 1981
France abolished the death penalty on 9 October 1981 under President François Mitterrand. The last person to be executed was Hamida Djandoubi, in 1977.
Correct answer: 1889
The Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889 for the Paris World's Fair. Designed by Gustave Eiffel, it was originally meant to be dismantled after 20 years but was saved thanks to its use as a radio antenna.
Correct answer: 11 November 1918
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the fighting in World War One. The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, formally established peace and imposed heavy penalties on Germany.
Correct answer: I.M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei, known as I.M. Pei, designed the Louvre Pyramid. Controversial when it opened in 1989, it is now one of the most photographed museum entrances in the world.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Hastings
Hastings, where William of Normandy defeated Harold Godwinson. For the next three centuries the English court spoke French, which is why so much English vocabulary, from beef to justice, comes from Norman French.
Correct answer: Rouen
Rouen, then under English control, after a trial run by a pro-English bishop. She had lifted the siege of Orléans two years earlier and brought Charles VII to Reims to be crowned. She was about 19.
Correct answer: Henry V
Henry V, whose outnumbered army, built around English and Welsh longbowmen, crushed the French nobility in the mud. Shakespeare turned it into the St Crispin's Day speech in Henry V.
Correct answer: 116 years
116 years, from 1337 to 1453, with long truces in between. It ended with England losing every French possession except Calais, which it held until 1558.
Correct answer: Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette. A similar line appears in Rousseau's Confessions, attributed to "a great princess", in a passage written when Marie Antoinette was still a child in Austria. The French original talks about brioche, not cake.
Correct answer: Ajaccio, Corsica
Ajaccio, in 1769, just a year after Genoa had ceded Corsica to France. His first language was Corsican, and he spoke French with an accent all his life.
Correct answer: 1904
1904, a set of agreements that settled colonial disputes and ended centuries of rivalry. Ten years later the two countries were fighting side by side on the Western Front.
Correct answer: Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle, in 1963 and 1967, arguing that Britain was too close to the United States. The United Kingdom finally joined in 1973, under his successor Georges Pompidou.
Correct answer: Saint Helena
Saint Helena, a British island in the South Atlantic, chosen because it was almost impossible to escape. His first exile, on Elba in the Mediterranean, had lasted less than a year before the Hundred Days.
Correct answer: Two elephants, Castor and Pollux
The elephants Castor and Pollux, elephants from the Paris zoos, shot and sold to a butcher as the starving city ran out of food. Menus from that winter also list cat, dog and rat.