Maîtres mots

  • Il y a longtemps que notre pays est beau mais rude.

       --Newspaper editor Olivier Séguret, 25 January 2012

    The USA are entirely the creation of the accursed race, the French.

       --Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), writing to Nancy Mitford, 22 May 1957

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French Freedom of Speech

Today the cheminots are:


  • "À nous de vous faire préférer le train!"
    "Voyager autrement"
    "Avec le SNCF, tout est possible"
      --Former ad slogans of the SNCF (French national trains), each in turn quickly dropped

Fun French words

  • ouistiti

    (literally: marmoset)
    Etymology: onomatopoeia from the sound a marmoset makes. Actual meaning: this is what you say in France when you want people to smile for the camera.

    Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire.

Who's en colère today?

  • Private sector

    First strike in 43 years at an aeronautics company in Toulouse, Latécoère


    Public sector

    The SNCF (toujours eux), regional train employees in the Lyons area guaranteeing unpleasant travel from the 17th-21st December
    Also yet another strike by Sud-Rail, a particularly truculent SNCF union in the south of France, this time five days in January: 6,7, 21, 22 and 23. "We have no choice." Right.

    Marseilles trams on strike until February

Go back to school in Paris!

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Comments

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Isn't the purpose of listing the saints so that people can know when their name day is?

Yes, but justement, why do they care when their saint's name day is? Does anything special happen that day? I haven't noticed that it does.

My French family will celebrate each person's "fete" with a nice meal or special dessert. It's always fun :) In fact, until 1966, you had to name your child after one of the names that appeared on the calendar (http://www.affection.org/prenoms/loi.html ). My mother-in-law was actually named for her saint because she was born on that saint's day. So there is a long tradition of using these saint's days this way. Of course, my French family is from the South of France, so perhaps these customs are more provincial?

What a nice custom! No one I know is named for their birthday saint. Some of the names are really unusual, like Enguerrand, Judicaël, Guénolé, Gabin, Amandine....

I also know a lot of people who celebrate their name day with a special dessert too. And my clients always get a kick out of it when I happen to notice it's their name day and wish them "bonne fête".

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Today's quotation

  • In Paris, the purest virtue is the object of the filthiest slander.

      –Honoré Balzac (1799-1850), in Scènes de la vie privée

    À Paris, la vertu la plus pure est l'objet des plus sales calomnies.

Le petit aperçu d'Ailleurs

  • Annual Geminids meteor shower (shooting stars!) coming this weekend, if it's not too cloudy out at night.

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