Fine cuisine and sports exchanges boost Taiwan-France ties｜Taiwan News

Every year, France’s foreign missions hold a gastronomy festival called Good France to celebrate the cuisine and culture of the country. The event is held concurrently in 150 countries across five continents, with different themes year to year. In honor of the Paris Olympics, this year’s edition focuses on sports as well as food. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to French Representative to Taiwan Franck Paris to find out more.

Students take turns dribbling the ball and taking part in different drills.

As part of the Good France festival, the French Office in Taipei organized a soccer exchange between Yongchun Senior High School and the Lycee International Francais de Taipei. The first half of the day consisted of soccer training.

Nathan
Student
I really liked to play football with the new students that we meet today. We played soccer together. I liked that we mixed the groups to learn more about each other and to make some friendships.

Chiang Mei-ying
Student
I think the most rewarding part of this experience was learning about French culture. The French students were very enthusiastic and took the initiative to chat with us. They are also very good at languages. We can’t speak English well, so they spoke Chinese with us and they communicate with each other in French. I look forward for them to come to our school for more exchanges.

Latitia Sichere
Student
We are eating a delicious buffet. That is my favorite part because it is better to know new friends.

Lucie Naville
Student
I liked the buffet, playing with the kids, and the cards. That was really fun and the soccer.

In the afternoon, students learned how to cook French dishes. All this was part of the annual Good France gastronomy festival, which this year focused on sports as well as food. French Representative to Taiwan Franck Paris says more exchanges like this will be held throughout the year.

Franck Paris
French representative to Taiwan
Yes, there will have other experiences because today is a start. We are starting here in Yongchun because we wanted to thank Yongchun Senior High School to host next year the Franco-Taiwanese schools. That is why we also created the possibility of students from Yongchun and students from LIFT to meet today through football game but also through a nice lunch together. We are going to start today here. We are also going hopefully to go to other schools in Taipei and to promote French language and learning French for Taiwanese students.

Paris is getting ready to host the Olympic Games this summer, where athletes from all over the world, including Taiwan will compete for glory. In addition, Taiwan will have a pavilion of its own at the Cultural Olympiad, a companion event to the Games.

Franck Paris
French representative to Taiwan
We are very proud to hold the Olympics this summer. For a country, it happens once in a century. The last Olympic Games in Paris was in 1924. Just one century before. We are very proud to host Taiwanese sportsmen and sportswomen. We wish them the best of luck. We are also happy that it will also be an opportunity for Taiwan to show its culture to the whole world because there will be a Taiwanese Pavilion in the north of Paris that all people visiting the Olympics will be able to visit.

Paris assumed office in August 2023, after serving as foreign policy adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron. His main goals for his post in Taiwan are to strengthen bilateral ties in the fields of culture and science. He says he hopes to attract more Taiwanese students to study in France.

Franck Paris
French representative to Taiwan
We want the Taiwanese to put France of the map for scientific cooperation, business, and all human connections, including studying in France which can be a good option for Taiwanese students. We are now looking to catch up with the previous number which was around 3,000 Taiwanese students coming to France. We hope to reach this target in the next month.

The Paris Olympics will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11. Throughout the semester, the French Office in Taipei will hold a variety of Olympic-themed events in Taiwan.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53
#台灣新聞 #TaiwanNews #民視新聞 #FTV新聞 #Taiwan

Видео Fine cuisine and sports exchanges boost Taiwan-France ties｜Taiwan News канала 民視英語新聞 Taiwan News Formosa TV