We have researched the 2022 French magazine landscape thoroughly so you won’t have to spend hours hunting for the good ones. History, tech, entertainment, travel, fashion, cooking… we have a recommendation ready for all tastes and interests. There are many great French sites and online magazines out there, and we’ve collected the best of the best.
| Frenchanted has combed through dozens and dozens of websites and hand-picked the ones we deemed to be the most worthy of your time as a French learner. This list includes big names and smaller names, and all are great in different ways. |
Our decisions about which magazines to include were governed by a simple question: Do we find it great enough to want to read it on a regular basis ourselves? And if yes, would it be useful for someone who’s in the process of learning French?
We made sure to include everything that might interest you about these titles: what topics they cover, what their best features are, what we love about them and why, the degree of their visual appeal, and some possible disadvantages. (Although we think none of these are serious enough to be a dealbreaker – otherwise we wouldn’t have included them here.)
| Like the majority of online publications, most of these sites, blogs and magazines reserve some content for subscribers. That being said, we made sure we only included titles in our selection that also offer articles for free. All of these publications have something to offer even if you don’t have a subscription. |
These site recommendations are based entirely on our honest opinion, and we don’t earn a commission for including them here. Have fun checking them out!
Jump to
- Best Films and series sites in French
- Best Tech & video games sites in French
- Best Culture & books sites in French
- Best History sites in French
- Best Nature & science sites in French
- Best Fashion sites in French
- Best Cooking sites in French
- Best Travel sites in French
- Best Sports sites in French
1. Films and series
Télérama vodkaster
https://vodkaster.telerama.fr/
Topics covered: cinema, films/ TV series, film news, community section
Pros: With tons of movie critiques and countless articles on directors, actors, Hollywood & French films, the cinema edition of Télérama doesn’t disappoint. Thanks to its vast database of movies and series, it’s a wonderful resource for picking a movie to watch. This site also has bitesize news articles, which are great when you only have a few minutes to work on your French. It’s a sleek, easy-to-navigate website without annoying features like popup videos.
Feature we love: Picking a movie by genre + the possibility for the Vodkaster community to write reviews and have conversations about them. It’s great for learning slang and getting used to familiar speech in French (although as with all comment sections, you’ll need to watch out for typos! Articles and reviews tend to have high-quality comments, but spelling is not always perfect).
Our picks:
“Dix pour cent” primée aux International Emmy Awards 2021, en passe de conquérir le monde
Picking a movie with Télérama Vodkaster
Konbini Biiinge
Topics covered: film/ series news, streaming, reviews and analyses, pop culture, directors/actors
Pros: Biiinge offers mostly light, cinema-centered entertainment, with a marked emphasis on streaming and series. Fun & casual writing style, visual appeal, a clean design… it’s just great for learning French while also getting your daily dose of series-related content.
Possible cons: Popup videos. But basically that’s it.
Our picks:
Inventing Anna : comment Netflix a permis à la vraie Anna Delvey de sortir de prison
Vidéo : le cast de Skam France nous dévoile ses secrets de tournage
Honorable mentions in films and series
2. Tech & video games
ActuGaming
Topics covered: video games (news, tests, tips, game guides, books and merch), gaming paraphernalia
Pros: This one’s all about gaming. Articles tend to be short, which makes it a great site to browse while on the go. If you read ActuGaming, you’ll be fully up to date when it comes to new releases and gaming-related news. And then we haven’t even mentioned gaming vocabulary in French.
Our pick: Aperçu Elden Ring – L’aboutissement de la formule From Software ?
Jeux Actu
Topics covered: video games: news, tests, tips, gaming platforms/ devices, new releases
Pros: Jeux Actu also deals with all things gaming, including news, but their articles tend to be lengthier than those published on ActuGaming. That’s not to say you can’t find bitesize articles on Jeux Actu, so if that’s something that appeals to you, check out this site, too. You can browse content based on games – choose one and you’ll see articles categorized by type (e.g., tests, videos, images, tips).
Our pick: Test Tunic : Moitié Zelda, moitié Dark Souls, et la réussite est totale !
3. Culture/ Books
La vie est un roman
Topics covered: reviews – books in all genres, shapes and forms (novels, comics, graphic novels, kids’ literature), book therapy/bibliotherapy, publishing
Pros: La vie est un roman is a nice-looking little blog that soothes the soul. It’s about books, reading and writing, but it covers a wide range of topics connected to those things. Posts also tend to be relatively short, so you won’t find yourself idly staring at a wall of text instead of reading. If you like those things, you’ll definitely be able to find something of value here. Need any ideas on which (French) books to read? This site has you covered.
Possible cons: Navigation can be a bit tricky, but otherwise it’s a really great blog about books!
Our picks:
BIBLIOTHÉRAPIE : Quand les livres nous font du bien
Honorable mentions
Culture Livresque, L’île aux trésors (children’s literaure), La Bibliomanique, Les Inrocks
4. History
Le monde histoire & civilisations
https://www.histoire-et-civilisations.com/
Topics covered: history (from the prehistoric era to recent events), news related to history and geopolitics, the contemporary era
What we love about it: It’s a magazine co-edited by Le monde and National Geographic, two titles you can trust. Many articles are followed by a chronology section, so you can better understand the historical background of the given event.
Cons: It’s a rather simple website, and the longer texts might look intimidating to a French learner. That’s because Le monde histoire & civilisations is primarily a print magazine (you can subscribe to the electronic version, too), and that’s where you can feast your eyes on the beautiful page layouts. That makes learning French all the more enjoyable. If you’re interested, look inside the magazine edition here.
Our picks:
Tout comprendre sur : le Machu Picchu
Alexander Selkirk, le véritable Robinson Crusoé
Hérodote.net
Topics covered: historical eras (20000 articles in total!), history news (films, books), profiles of historical figures and historians, videos/podcasts
What we love about it: Hérodote.net is an all-compassing repository of history articles. On the main page, you’ll see history articles that shed some light on the roots and whys of current events. And that’s what learning about the past is the most useful for, right?
It’s a treasure trove of articles about history, you’ll just never run out of content to read. There’s also a nice history calendar that shows you the important events that had transpired in the past on a particular day in the year. Just choose a month, click on a day, and you’ll see a list of historical events that happened on that day in different years across the centuries. You can read further if you’d like.
Possible cons: without a subscription, you won’t see full articles (although a large portion of a given article is available for free). You can get behind the paywall for a modest annual price. Also, at the moment it’s a rather no-frills site – it puts more emphasis on text than visuals.
Our picks:
19 septembre 1870 – 28 janvier 1871 : Siège de Paris
Les dossiers de l’histoire (a huge collection of history articles by topics)
Honorable mentions in history
5. Nature & science
National Geographic France
https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/
Topics covered: history, animals, sciences, environment, travel & adventure
Pros: The French edition of NatGeo offers truly interesting and engaging content. The topics touched upon are well-balanced, and there are lots of new articles appearing at regular intervals.
There are lots of visuals and large pictures – it’s a pretty website. All articles are freely accessible. The site also has videos with French narration. Can only recommend!
Possible cons: Some videos might be only available from certain locations – but you can visit the French edition of NatGeo on YouTube, where all videos work just fine. Obviously.
Pro/con, depending on your tastes: Articles tend to be longform!
Our picks:
L’incroyable destin des alpinistes de Staline
Conseils de femmes à femmes : comment voyager seule ?
Okinawa, l’île où l’on vit centenaire
Sciences et avenir
https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/
Topics covered: space, health, nutrition, nature, tech, archeology, physics/biology.
Pros: Sciences et avenir is a great option for the scientifically enclined. It’s basically a news site with a penchant for science-related topics. Thanks to Sciences et avenir, you can keep informed about what’s happening out there in the world and learn about science at the same time. This is a great site to visit if you’re interested in absorbing and in-depth science articles.
A big pro: You can listen to some of the articles while reading the text, which is great for learning French pronunciation (including the word boundaries where liaison can apply).
Possible cons: This website is admittedly not too flashy. Choose this if you don’t mind having fewer pictures accompanying the text. Some articles (just some!) might be too technical for a French learner.
Our picks:
Les virus sont-ils vivants ? (with audio)
“Code Dickens”, chimpanzés et vaccins ARN : l’actu des sciences en ultrabrèves
Ces Français ont (presque) marché sur Mars ! (with audio)
6. Fashion
Elle
Topics covered: fashion, beauty, culture, stars, kitchen, home décor, lifestyle, popular psychology, astrology, news + podcasts in French
Pros: The French online version of Elle is simple but chic. It’s one of the rare websites where you won’t really be running into news articles… so if you happen to be taking a break from constantly checking the news, Elle would be a great choice. It has lots of pictures and easy-to-digest content.
Functions we love: If you have an account, you can save articles you like. And podcasts.
Possible cons: Some articles are paywalled (while most aren’t). Like many fashion sites, Elle also has an astro section, so brace yourself if that’s not your thing. Or just avoid clicking on that section.
Our picks:
Lady Diana : un portrait inédit de la princesse dévoilé
Une journée avec Pénélope Bagieu
7. Cooking
CuisineAZ
Topics covered: recipes, menus, trends, traditional recipes, holiday menus, news
Pros: Planned menus! They put together full menus according to the season, which takes the stress out of cooking. It’s an easy-to-navigate/ no-frills website with large pictures, and you won’t get lost among hundreds of auto-start videos while browsing.
Possible cons: All articles are freely available, which also means more ads than usual.
What we love about it: Menu tips are nice. You can also browse no-waste recipes and mom–baby recipe collections. (Recipes for moms-to-be and babies/ kids, sorted nicely into categories based on the kid’s age.)
Our pick: Fête des mères : nos recettes pour régaler toutes les mamans
Honorable mentions in cooking:
Papilles et pupilles and 100% vegetal.
8. Travel
AR Magazine Voyageur
Topics covered: travel in all its forms! travel stories, trip ideas and guides for any country on all continents (including France, of course)
Pros: AR Voyageur has a nice-looking website without a cluttered feel. It mainly concentrates on travel and trip ideas all over the world. It gives off a soothing vibe, so reading it can help you get into a more relaxed mindset.
Possible cons: AR is primarily a print magazine. While many articles are available online in full, that’s not always the case. In some cases, you can only read a portion of the article online. If you’re interested in reading the rest, you’re invited to subscribe to the physical magazine (at the moment, they don’t offer online subscription). If you live in Europe, though, shipping fees are low (2 euros every 3 months at the time of writing this article), so the costs are not prohibitive if you’re interested in reading the actual physical magazines. More about subscriptions here.
Our pick: Le Friluftsliv norvégien : mode d’emploi pour la vie au grand air
Honorable mentions in travel
Votre tour du monde, Bestjobers, and Vincent Voyage.
9. Sports
Sports Orange
Topics covered: News covering a wide range of sports (football, rugby, racing, cycling, basketball, handball, winter sports, swimming… the list goes on).
Pros: Thanks to the Sports edition of Orange, you can get all your sports news from one place. Often in real time, thanks to the “results” table on the main page (although it operates with French hours). You can follow their live text-based coverage of football matches – they publish the transcript of the narration, so you can follow a match online even if you’re not available to watch the broadcast.
Possible cons: Articles can look dense – paragraphs tend to be long.
Our pick: Tour de France 2023 : Le Grand Départ mettra le Pays Basque à l’honneur