Marie-monique steckel biography graphic organizer
Scholastic biography poster report...
Meet the Woman Helping French Culture Thrive in NYC
The first time Marie-Monique Steckel met an American was August 25, 1944, the day Paris was liberated after four years of Nazi occupation.
Marie-monique steckel biography graphic organizer
She was five years old, and a neighbor brought her to the Place de la Bastilleto witness the arrival of Allied forces as they marched in triumph through the city. A GI smiled and handed her an orange.
“I had never seen an orange before,” she recalls.
“And that chance encounter with that young American soldier became a wonderful memory.”
Nearly eight decades later, Steckel is still reveling in the encounters she has with Americans. As president of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) since 2004, she has worked to create a deep cultural relationship between France and New York.
“I grew up on an island the Île Saint-Louis — in the heart of Paris at the edge of the Pont Marie,” she says.
“Bridges were a part of my daily routine — and I didn’t know it at the time, but my life was to bui