alliance francaise de londres
London
The Alliance Française de Londres is an educational charity dedicated to
teaching the French language. Our native French teachers are fully qualified and
committed to providing a high standard of tuition that takes you through a
structured syllabus from beginner to fluent. In 1987 the Alliance moved to its
permanent home at 1 Dorset Square, NW1, where we have air-conditioned classrooms
and a library, all equipped with interactive white boards. The Alliance
Française de Londres gives you a truly authentic French experience, the next
best thing to actually going to a French-speaking country. We are all here
because we want to be. We love teaching and we love London and the great variety
of people living or working here or just passing through. We are committed and
enthusiastic sharers of French language and culture and we welcome everyone. As
an apolitical and non-denominational organisation the AllianceFrançaise de
Londres was a pioneer in multicultural teaching. We are truly broad-based and
inclusive. The Alliance Française de Londres has a long and distinguished
history. Our roots go back to 1884 and the London Alliance Française took over
rallying the network during the second World War when the Paris Alliance was
closed down. For a glimpse of our history retrouvée see AFL down the years. Our
building housed a sectionm of SOE during the second world war and some scenes in
this film Les Anglais dans la Résistance with Jean-Louis Crémieux-Brilhac were
shot at 1 Dorset Square (and it was in what is now our classroom 01 that he was
handed his revolver and cyanide capsule). There is no better summary of where we
come from than « Nous avons, une fois pour toutes, tiré cette conclusion que
c’est par de libres rapports spirituels et moraux, établis entre nous-mêmes et
les autres, que notre influence culturelle peut s’étendre à l’avantage de tous
et qu’inversement peut s’accroître ce que nous valons. Organiser ces rapports,
telle fut la raison de naître, telle est la raison de vivre, telle sera la
raison de poursuivre de l’Alliance française. » Charles de Gaulle (from his
speech in Algiers on 30th October 1943 for the 60th anniversary of the Alliance
Française movement)
