If you have suggestions for how to use materials in this website for course units, please post them on our discussion forum.

Below are a few ideas to start with.

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Many of the manuscripts in the site may be used to introduce subjects in French civilization, history, language, and literature:

People
Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I
William the Conqueror
King Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici
Kings and Queens

Places
Bordeaux
Châteaux of the Loire Valley
New France
Village life in Auvergne

Topics
Calligraphy
Daily life (Digital Collections for the Classroom)
Fur trade in New France (see also Champlain map)
Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
Warfare and fortresses
Women and marriage in Ancien Régime France
Spiritual life

Language & Literature
Historiography
French outside France
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Romances, novels and tales

Diplomatic Descriptions

Students in a French language or literature class could be given the assignment of writing formal diplomatic descriptions of documents included in this site or elsewhere. Click here to see a model.

Sound recordings

For four of the manuscript documents included in this site, we have provided a recording of a portion of the text. You will find a link to the recording in the Notes field in the metadata for each of these manuscripts:

• Harangue faicte à la Royne mere du Roy à Poictiers par le seigneur de Salevert, presidial de ladicte ville, le lendemain de son arrivée qui fut le vingt huictiesme novembre 1575

• Investiture de l'Ile d'Orléans donnée au procureur des concessionnaires par le gouverneur général de la Nouvelle-France

• Les xv joyes Nostre Dame

• Jehan Marion, Vers d'amour