The politics of teaching languages at school in France historically distinguishes itself for the great number of languages it offers in secondary schools (collège for students aged 11 to 15, lycée for students aged 15 to 18), including Portuguese, which was introduced in 1973 and has been present ever since. Aiming to establish what place and representations this teaching gives to and of Brazil - the biggest Portuguese-speaking country - the first 25 years have been privileged, that is from 1973 to 1998. Indeed, one can observe a coherent discursive and ideological formation. This angle of approach requires, as a first approach, a research concerning the socio-historical contexts in which Portuguese lessons were introduced in France, such as Portuguese immigration and the end of Salazar's dictatorship in 1974. These contexts will have undeniable repercussions on the representation of Brazil. The history of the introduction of this language in teaching, vacillating between mother tongue and foreign language, and the images associated to the language prompted the development of an image of Brazil which is centred on the Portuguese history, on the colonial past or on the historical relations connecting Brazil to Portugal and (to a lesser extent) to the other Portuguese-speaking countries. This representation is outlined by the Lusophonic ideology, a concept which appeared after the end of the Portuguese colonial empire so as to maintain, through language, an imaginary union between these countries. The contemporary Brazil, studied in lycée, is considered from the point of view of geographical studies and its dominant representation remains that of a “land of contrasts”. From then on, the almost sole interest is focused on social or environmental contexts, which are strongly problematized, for instance the “problems of the North-East region” or of the Amazon, according to the programmes' own words. This historical and discursive whole would partially find its justification in the identity issues related to the Portuguese immigration. The research will rest upon the discursive analysis of the official texts (laws, decrees, teaching programmes...), associative documents, material produced in France for the teaching of Portuguese at that level of studies and interviews with secondary school teachers.