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Festival

IQ2: The London Paris Festival

From 27/07/2006 at 07:00 to 08/10/2006 at 07:00

A MEETING OF TWO CULTURES

6-8th October 2006

Royal Geographical Society and the Institut Français

Considering the histories of France and Britain have been entwined for well over a thousand years, it is astonishing to see just how little intellectual contact there is today between the two nations. In the 18th and 19th centuries London and Paris may have gone to war, but there was nevertheless a lively correspondence of ideas across the Channel; three centuries on we hardly talk, even though we are now joined at the hip politically through the European Union.

The IQ2 London:Paris Festival, to be held on October 6th-8th, seeks to fill this hiatus in Anglo-Gallic relations. A weekend of debates and discussions involving leading intellectual, and political figures from both countries, the Festival provides a rare opportunity for us to celebrate our distinctive ways of life, to explore the points of contact and divergence between our cultures and to make sense of our idiosyncratic ways of looking at things.

On this side of the Channel many of the questions we would like to see answered have to do with those French attitudes and institutions that mystify, attract and repel us in equal measure: What is so special about France's social model? Do the French still believe in it or is it already acquiring the status of an historical relic? Is French foreign policy, and in particular its stance on Iraq, defined by any principle other than self-advantage? Is it all the better for that? Why are French philosophers so handsome, hirsute and hip compared to British ones? And why do French people pay them more attention than we do ours? Is the French health service really so much better than ours? Or just a lot more expensive?

For our part, we assume there is a whole range of British idées fixes that in the eyes of those looking across from the Calais side, must appear equally curious, admirable or despicable. What is this British fixation with the "Special Relationship for example? Is it just a sham? Why do the British have such poor dress sense when they have so many good designers? There must be many such questions puzzling the French: we need help in identifying these.

The IQ2 London:Paris Festival will be based at the Royal Geographical Society and the Institut Français in South Kensington. Debates and discussions will be fuelled by excellent food and wine throughout.

The Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 and L'Institut Francais, 17 Queensberry Place, London, SW7

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livre, Buy in London, film, medals, goose foie gras, ta douleur, noël, London Fashion Week, Au pair & Childcare agencies, Children, london, cookies, Life and Style, Chanteroy, Web Development and Design, Tintin, boules tournament, Charlotte Gainsbourg, April, london, Monin Sirops, Gabrielle, Matthieu Kassovitz, wine tasting,

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