Congratulations to the Maison Française d'Oxford which is 80 this year. The MFO, in Norham Gardens is well-known to students in French and beyond. The idea of a French academic site in Oxford had been in the air for some time before it was formalised in 1946 in a spirit of postwar collaboration.
The MFO has very close ties to the University but is also affiliated to the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs and directly connected to the University of Paris. It is a CNRS centre which welcomes researchers from across France who often work in close collaboration with Oxford academics. It is also frequently the venue for seminars, conferences and colloquia as well as public conversations with French intellectuals and writers or artists.
An exhibition celebrating the anniversary has been put up in the driveway of the MFO.
Traditionally, the director (currently 18th-century Historian Stéphan Van Damme) is affiliated to the Medieval and Modern Languages as a mark of the historic ties between our Faculty and the MFO.
All of us at MML wish the MFO all the best for the next 80 years!