“The study of the French culture has recently become a recognized discipline and a cause for much puzzlement among teachers.”2 This sentence was written some twenty-two years ago. It is fair to say that the “puzzlement among teachers” has not quite disappeared. Why? This is the question I would like to try to answer by reflecting on the changes that took place in the theory and practice of civilization teaching in foreign language departments. My remarks will be based on my experience as a teacher of French in American universities, but I believe that，to some extent at least, I am addressing a problem that is common to all foreign language teachers. After presenting a brief summary of what happened over the last thirty years in undergraduate and graduate curricula, I will look at some of the reasons why changes occurred. This will lead us to the key question: is there a field called civilization, and, if so, how do we define it? Finally, I will examine the options we have for teaching civilization in a foreign language classroom.