"French style"

[super_ardua]

Hear it a lot. What is the french style of playing anyway?

[lostinidlewonder]

Elasticity of tempo/volume? Making it your playing sound more organic rather than technical. I guess if you listen to lots of French Music, Ravel and Debussy for instance, you will hear it demonstrated.
Personally, i think that there is not really any more clearly defined schools of piano playing like it was years ago. I think it is more of a melting pot nowadays than anything else.

[julie391]

there are a few french styles

the baroque, the classical/romantic, and the impressionistic

in the romantic era, there was a 'style severe' that prohibited excessive rubato, and had a generally much stricter and classical approach - i believe saint-saens and alkan were advocates of this style.

[rachlisztchopin]

I think french music is my fav 

[julie391]

french music is often thought of as light-weight though

alkan should resolve this misconclusion

[minimozart007]

one of the form patterns of French music is two short phrases followed by a longer phrase.  See Conversations between Beauty and Beast from Ravel's Mother Goose.