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A Francophile is a person who has a strong affinity towards any or all of the French language, French history, French culture and/or French people. That affinity may include France itself or its history, language, cuisine, literature, etc. The term "Francophile" can be contrasted with Francophobe (or Gallophobe), someone who shows hatred or other forms of negative feelings towards all that is French. Some Welsh, who are closely connected to Brittany, prefer calling themselves "Gallophiles" to "Walophiles". A Francophile may enjoy French artists (such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse); authors and poets (such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Voltaire, Honoré de Balzac, and George Sand), musicians (such as Daft Punk, Serge Gainsbourg, Édith Piaf, Johnny Hallyday, and Carla Bruni), filmmakers (such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Pierre Melville), and cuisine (such as baguettes, croissants, frog legs, French cheeses, and French wine). Francophilia often arises in former French colonies, where the elite spoke French and adopted many French habits. In other European countries such as Romania and Russia, French culture has also long been popular among the upper class. Historically, Francophilia has been associated with supporters of the philosophy of Enlightenment during and after the French Revolution, where democratic uprisings challenged the autocratic regimes of Europe. Europe Armenia The Armenians of Cilicia welcomed the Frankish, or French, Crusaders of the Middle Ages as fellow Christians. There was much exchange, and the last dynasty to rule Armenian Cilicia, the Lusignans (who ruled Cyprus), was of French origin. During the reign of Louis XIV, many Armenian manuscripts were taken into the National Library of France. Armenia and Armenian characters are featured in the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau. The first instance of Armenian studies began with the creation of an Armenian department in the School of Oriental languages, at the initiative of Napoleon. An important figure of Armenian Francophilia was that of Stepan Vosganian (1825–1901). Arguably the first Armenian "intellectual" and literary critic, Vosganian "represents the prototype of a long line of Armenian intellectuals nurtured in and identified with European, and particularly French, culture". Educated in Paris, he was a champion of liberalism and the positivist philosophy of Auguste Comte, and he took part in the French Revolution of 1848. The French political classes were on the whole supportive of the Armenian national movement. The French–Armenian Agreement (1916) was a political and military accord to create the Armenian Legion in the French Army to fight on the Allied side of World War I, in return for promises of recognition of Armenian independence. The Armenian Legion engaged successfully in Anatolia and Palestine during World War I, particularly at the Battle of Arara and during the Franco-Turkish War. Belgium Francophilia or Rattachism is a marginal political ideology in some parts of Belgium. Rattachism would mean the incorporation of French-speaking Belgium, Wallonia (and sometimes Brussels; more rarely of entire Belgium) into France. This movement has existed since the Belgian state came into existence in 1830. The Manifesto for Walloon culture of 1983 relaunched in 2003, and a series of discussions witnessed a will of emancipation. Cyprus The establishment of the Crusader Kingdom of Cyprus, in 1192, was the beginning of intense French influence on the island for the next three centuries. That influence, which touched almost every aspect of life on the island, would endure even after the end of Lusignan domination. It survives as part of Cypriot culture. The Republic of Cyprus became an associate member of the Francophonie in 2006. Germany In the 18th century, French was the language of German elites. A notable Francophile was King Frederick the Great of Prussia or Frédéric as he preferred to call himself. Frederick spoke and wrote notably better French than he did German, and all of his books were written in French, a choice of language that was of considerable embarrassment to German nationalists in the 19th and 20th centuries when Frederick became the preeminent German national hero. One source noted: "Nor did Frederick have any time for German cultural chauvinism. As an ardent Francophile in matters literary and artistic, he took a low view of the German language, spoke it imperfectly himself, and once boasted that he had not read a book in German since his early youth. His preferences in music, art and architecture were overwhelmingly Italian and French". The French philosophe Voltaire when he visited Berlin to meet his admirer Frederick noted that everyone at the Prussian Court spoke the most exquisite French and German was only used when addressing servants and soldiers. Another German Francophile was King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a.k.a. "Mad King Ludwig". Ludwig felt a great deal of affinity for King Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King" and liked to call himself the "Moon King" to suggest a parallel between himself and his hero. Ludwig loved to collect memorabilia relating to Louis and his Linderhof Palace was modelled after the Palace of Trianon. An even more striking example of Ludwig's architectural Francophilia was the Palace of Herrenchiemsee, which was a copy of the Palace of Versailles. Italy The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1139. Joseph de Maistre was an Italian writer and an Francophile. He is more well known in France then in Italy, despite his opposition to the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. Umberto Eco is another Italian writer who was a Francophile. He admired the French for their anti-fascism and role in the de-Nazification of Germany and Austria. Romania Romania has a long and deeply entrenched tradition of Francophilia beginning after the Enlightenment and Revolutionary periods. No doubt the most famous contemporary Romanian Francophile is Eugen Weber (1925–2007), a prodigious author and lecturer in Romania on French history. In his book "My France: politics, culture, myth", he writes: "Social relations, manners, attitudes that others had to learn from books, I lived in my early years. Romanian francophilia, Romanian francophony.... Many Romanians, in my day, dreamed of France; not many got there". With the efforts to build Romania into a modern nation-state, with a national language and common national heritage, in the 19th century, the Romanian language was deliberately reoriented to its Latin heritage by a steady import of French neologisms suited to contemporary civilization and culture. "For ordinary Romanians, keen on the idea of the Latin roots of their language, 'Romance' meant 'French.'" An estimated 39% of Romanian vocabulary consists of borrowings from French, with an estimated 20% of "everyday" Romanian vocabulary. Boia.... Discover the Nancy Mitford Adam Gopnik popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Nancy Mitford Adam Gopnik books.