French philosopher Denis Diderot produces the first encyclopedia while indulging in 18th-century decadence.

At the altar where he is marrying Séverine, the groom, Antoine, gets his first glimpse of her mother, Léa, and suffers what the French call a coup de foudre which we know as love at first sight.

The wildly popular British television show Absolutely Fabulous gets a Francophonic makeover with this film version directed by Gabriel Aghion. In this go around, Josiane Balasko and Nathalie Baye play the incorrigible Eddie and Patsy, who leave no impulse unenacted and no lust unsated -- be it for sex or the latest in designer clothing...

There is nothing we can do against the call of love. Amiens, 1713. Des Grieux is a noble young student, wise for his years, who's preparing to become a knight of the Order of Malta. With a fine future as a teacher of rhetoric ahead of him, he meets a young commoner, Manon Lescaut, a candle maker's daughter. It's love at first sight.

Frenchman Max Jacob becomes a prominent poet and writer.