Activities to Energize your Daily Life

What can you do to stay active and brighten up your daily life? During these days of quarantine during the health crisis, France Alumni has decided to help by sharing a non-exhaustive list of the best ideas from major French institutions to continue enjoying arts and culture, having fun, studying and getting involved.

There are many online resources available for free to stay active and keep in touch with others.

ENJOY ARTS AND CULTURE

The quarantine period can also be an opportunity to explore the extraordinary array of French cultural offerings available online.

The Ministry of Culture and #Culturecheznous have created a mini-website for all audiences that provides access to excellent photography, audio and video resources on film, music, museums, dance, history, etc: https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Culturecheznous

The Institut Français' Culturethèque offers a fascinating overview of the latest French cultural productions: http://www.culturetheque.com/exploitation/default/accueil-portal.aspx

Universcience and #LaScienceEstLà offer digital events and activities on scientific culture: http://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/au-programme/offre-numerique/

Escape the daily grind with science  through 15 CNRS films that let you follow scientific missions all over the world: https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/dossiers/15-films-pour-sevader-avec-la-science

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France welcomes you for a visit to its virtual galleries on diverse subjects and media (literature, visual arts, photography, cartography, and more): http://expositions.bnf.fr/index.php

The Centre Pompidou lets you discover modern and contemporary art through its École portal, which offers free programming for all audiences. MOOCs, online courses, conferences, masterclasses and guided tours of the museum's collections are available: https://www.centrepompidou.fr/L-Ecole-du-Centre-Pompidou/L-Ecole

Enjoy virtual exhibits from home with France.fr (the Château de Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay, the Lascaux caves, and more): https://www.france.fr/fr/actualite/liste/5-expositions-virtuelles-a-visiter-de-la-maison

HAVE FUN

The Erasmus Student Network has come up with a variety of on-screen group activities to join (board games, video games, movie nights, language cafes, and more). Find them on the Discord app: https://discordapp.com/invite/GdwDeMt
 

The Meetup website, which lists 77 different book clubs, lets you get together (virtually) to learn more about a book or discuss an author: https://www.meetup.com/fr-FR/topics/bookclub/

The Forum des Images offers a variety of online content (films, videos, games, etc.): http://collections.forumdesimages.fr/
 

Enjoy free access to shows and concerts with Culture Box, France Télévisions' online catalog:  https://www.france.tv/spectacles-et-culture/
 

STAY IN SHAPE

The Ministry of Sports offers fitness activities that are easy to do at home: http://www.sports.gouv.fr/accueil-du-site/actualites/article/coronavirus-covid-19-avec-le-ministere-des-sports-faire-du-sport-chez-soi-c-est

Develop your culinary talents by joining the student chef community: https://www.cuisine-etudiant.fr/

Improve your diet with MangerBouger, the national nutrition and health program: https://www.mangerbouger.fr/

KEEP STUDYING

A few ideas for new ways to learn:

The FIED (Inter-University Distance Learning Federation) offers a work methodology for remote university studies. This free module provides an orientation and some good techniques for managing your distance learning: https://socles3.unisciel.fr/course/view.php?id=275
 

FUN-MOOC, the French MOOC platform,  has expanded access to as many people as possible. Gain knowledge and discover new areas of study and careers: https://www.fun-mooc.fr/

TV5MONDE helps you improve your French comprehension through shows televised on its mobile app "Apprendre le français avec TV5MONDE," which contains 3,000 exercises, from beginner to advanced level).  Download it free on Google Play or the App Store.

The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie's digital library offers access to 11 million educational resources for French-speaking students and researchers: https://bneuf.auf.org/#!/
 

The Collège de France offers free access, particularly to its famous "leçons inaugurales", conferences, videos and audio files: https://books.openedition.org/cdf/

The historical archives of the City of Paris are available free online, covering a wide variety of historical research subjects: http://www.archives.paris.fr/

Also, remember that you can use the online resources posted by your educational establishment to continue your studies remotely.

GET INVOLVED

The government has just launched a solidarity platform, jeveuxaider.gouv.fr, to assist "those that can and want to get involved and donate their time to keep the poorest and most vulnerable among us from becoming the main victims of this crisis." The projects are carried out in compliance with current health guidelines, and often by phone: https://covid19.reserve-civique.gouv.fr/

Animafac, the network of student associations, continues to support students who get involved in the community and develop their own initiatives: https://www.animafac.net/

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