I loved this course! Professor Helou is very kind and understanding and the topics covered in this class are very interesting. The workload is completely manageable and the exams are very fair. It's definitely a great class to take and a good GE option!

I enjoyed this class as a pretty standard GE. It honestly felt like I was taking AP European History again, just with a focus on France. It's definitely a lot of work in terms of reading. If you're a fast reader, then you should be able to read the three articles per week pretty quickly. You have to do a forum post of 350 words per week about the readings or what you learned during lecture. Additionally, you have a reading quiz of about 10-12 questions per week but they are relatively pretty easy, especially because you can take your time on them. It's just a lot to remember to do per week. That's the only challenge. You also have a midterm and a final. The midterm is a open essay format but you only have 50 minutes to do it because it's in class, so it's pretty painless. I just remembered the story behind the Dreyfus Affair, and only wrote about that topic and was good repeating my knowledge on each question. The final is a take-home essay. You have the weekend to do it. It's only 2 questions, 350 words each. I just took my reading forums and used them to inform my answers. The best part of this class is that it only meets 3 times a week for 50 minutes. There's no discussion section because the class is only 60 students, so be sure to participate for credit. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAKING THIS CLASS WITH A FRIEND. I literally knew nobody by the end of the class because the way the professor formats it makes it really hard to speak to your neighbors, and trust me you want people you know in this class. It's a lot of just lecturing at your face with slides. The lectures were on a different topic each week and gave me a deeper appreciation of French culture. I especially liked the fashion part that occurs week 10. The good thing is that this professor offers extra credit if you see a performance or watch a French movie and write a 350 word response to it. She also gives out a study guide and goes over everything in class before the tests, so you're good. This was a overall decent history class.

I really enjoyed taking this course with Professor Helou. She is really engaging and knows her stuff. I enjoyed learning about fashion, colonialism, gastronomy, laïcité, and more. If you're minoring or majoring in French or need this course to fulfill one of your GE's, I really recommend taking this class with Helou, you won't regret it one bit! I look forward to taking a class with prof Helou again.