French word of the day: Faire la fête (4/5/2023)
Happy May y’all! For us Frenchies, this is one of our favorite months of the year, the one that is filled with a whole bunch of long weekends! (I apologize in advance if this newsletter is a bit smug 😉
To recap, last weekend was a long weekend because May 1st was a holiday for Fête de Travail (May day and Labor day), this upcoming weekend is a long weekend for May 8th, the Jour de la Victoire en Europe (the end of WWII in Europe), and May 18th is kinda a long weekend for Ascension.
I say “kinda a long weekend” because May 18th falls on a Thursday, but everyone who is anyone (aka anyone who plans ahead) is going to take the Friday off to faire un pont and turn it into a long weekend.
Schools are going to be closed anyway (as I found out at the last minute last year when my 5-year-old announced it the evening before), because so many people take it off, the govt. decided to just declare it a school holiday.
Anyway, I’ve learnt my lesson this year and made copious notes in my calendar. It is not all fun and games though, because this is tax season here in France and I am currently performing an emu-like stance in front of a giant pile of (electronic) paperwork.
So not quite time to “faire la fête” (meaning to “have a party”), but as I understand it there is going to be a big party this upcoming weekend! No, not that big shebang our British neighbors are having for the King’s coronation, but rather the arrival of the Olympic flame in France.
Yup, Paris 2024 is almost here and on May 8th the Olympic flame is going to make its way from Greece to the former greek colony of Massalia. As I mentioned above, May 8th is the anniversary of the end of the war in Europe after WWII so a day filled with plenty of significance.
The flame will arrive by boat in Marseille, the oldest city in France, to then make its way all across the hexagone.
The organisers promise there will be a celebration on the Vieux Port, so if you’re hankering for more TV commentary next Monday after the coronation-extravaganza, have a look through a few news channels and see if you can find a reportage where you are.
- There is a new petition picking up steam across Paris to contest Mayor Hidalgo’s big plans for redesigning the gardens in the area around the Notre Dame Cathedral.
- The annual May day strikes in Paris this past weekend were relatively big depending on who you ask: According to the unions it was 550,000 protestors in Paris, for the government it was 112,000 people, and for the independent counting firm Occurrence it was 94,000 people in Paris. So clearly figures you can rely on then.
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