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Bloomington French Table
The Bloomington French Table (a.k.a. Table française de Bloomington; registered with IU as The Francophone Club) is a weekly conversation club, welcoming French-speakers of all levels. It meets at the Runcible Spoon between 8pm and 10pm every Tuesday night (year-round). Conversation is not structured but people from diverse backgrounds always find things to talk about.
Bloomington French Table's weekly mailing list has almost 200 subscribers. (The newsletter is sent by Nicolas-Guillaume Best, the group's secrétaire perpetuel since May 2009.)
History
The current French Table descends from number of French conversation groups that existed in Bloomington in recent history:
- The French Conversation Club (FCC), which met at Indiana University's Leo R. Dowling International Center, was founded by Michel (largely for the benefit of numerous SPEA students on exchange from The University of Paris XI).
- The French Appreciation Club (FAC), which met at Soma circa 2003-4.
- Veri-Table, founded by Daniel J. Petrie.
These three groups were unified by Alaa Abi-Haidar, under the name Hebdofrancofolie, and began meeting at The Runcible Spoon circa 2005.
In October 2010, the group re-established its link with IU under the name the Francophone Club.
Film Series
The group also shows francophone films approximately once a month, usually in Swain Hall East 105 and always free. Unlike The Ryder and IU Cinema, whose foreign-language films are shown with English subtitles, Bloomington French Table presents films in French with French subtitles to aid comprehension without the distraction of English text.
