Category Archives: France

Bilingual Brittany

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Before Brittany became part of France in the 16th century (see my post here), it was an independent duchy. The Breton language, a Celtic language related to Welsh, Cornish and Cumbric, was used there for many centuries, since before the year 1,000. It evolved from Old Breton over Middle Breton to today’s Modern Breton. The number of speakers fell dramatically in the mid-20th century due to the national policy of recognizing only French as official language in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today, however, the Breton language is part of the regional Breton movement, and there are not only over 50 Breton-speaking schools (Diwan schools) but also numerous private Catholic and public schools with Breton classes.

The Diwan school association estimates the number of Breton speakers at 400,000. (Brittany has around 3,3 million inhabitants.) However, many Breton speakers are elderly people, and few actually use it in everyday life.

Five times so far, France has chosen to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest with songs in regional languages, twice of those in Breton: in 1996 and in 2022. Numerous books and comics have been translated to Breton, local hero Asterix among them but also Belgian reporter Tintin, as well as the Peanuts.

When you visit Brittany, you won’t see it much until you are about halfway into the region. That is where the bilingual signposts will start, and where municipalities will put up signs with “Welcome” and “Goodbye” (Kenavo). However, the deeper you advance into Brittany, and especially in the département Finistère, you will see pretty much all signage in both languages, whether street names, the tourist office, the train station, or “other directions” (da lec’h all).

If you compare terms, you will be able to figure out some words. Ty, for example means house, and ker means town. So what might a ty ker be? A town hall, of course. My personal favorite is one I discovered this summer, a municipal library, or ty boukin.

The départements of Brittany (including historically Breton Loire-Atlantique)
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Electing the Assembly

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The French parliament is composed of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and the Senate (Sénat). The National Assembly is elected every five years, the same year as the presidential elections.

There are 577 seats in the National Assembly. The deputés (MPs) are elected in single-member constituencies in a two-round vote, just like the French president.

All candidates who receive at least 12,5% of the electorate (which includes all registered voters, whether they cast a vote or not) go into the runoff, unless one candidate gets the absolute majority of valid votes (=votes that were actually cast) and 25% of the electorate (=all registered voters), in which case this candidate wins the seat and there is no runoff.
In the runoff, which is held one week after the first round, the candidate with the most votes is elected.

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100 Posts on Letters from Paris!

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This is my 100th blog post!

To celebrate, I’ll go back to the beginning and share some fun facts of the Eiffel Tower.

  • The Tower takes its name from its architect, Gustave Eiffel.
  • Construction of the Tower took 2 years.
  • It was built for the World Fair of 1889, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.
  • Originally 312m high, the Eiffel Tower was the highest building in the word l for 40 years.
  • The highest viewing platform, the upper level of the third floor, is at 279,11m, the highest observation platform in the European Union and the second-highest in Europe:
  • The antennas at the top of the tower are used for the transmission of radio and digital tv signals.

For the fireworks of the national holiday Bastille Day on July 14, the Eiffel tower is incorporated into the show.

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A little bit of Magic in Paris

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Visiting Paris and your children need a break from Champs-Élysées and Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and Boulevard Saint Michel?

In the 4th arrondissement, between the Rue de Rivoli and the Seine, nestled in between storefronts of the Rue Saint Paul, hides one of Paris’ smaller and less-well-known museums – the Musée de la Magie.

Enter and immediately descend a flight of stairs into the underground realm of Magic and Automatons. A hundred automatons await you and your children, wind-up toys, optical illusions, magic mirrors and more. And of course, a magic show.

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La Baguette

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In terms of food, is there anything more French than the baguette?

Did you know the word baguette literally means “stick”? And that a baguette magique is not a magic bread but a magic wand?

La baguette is omnipresent in France. Every bakery (and every supermarket nowadays) sells it, and even if you don’t buy one yourself, you won’t spend a day in France without seeing someone carry a baguette.

A Parisian on his way home from the bakery caught by a tourist

Bread in this long thin shape was first mentioned in the 17th century. Back then, it was considered a luxury because it didn’t keep as long a the traditional round bread loaves. However, in 1957, it replaced the round bread loaf in the standard shopping basket of the French Statistics Office.

The classic baguette is made with only a few ingredients – water, flour, salt, yeast, and that’s it. It is 60cm long and weighs 250g.

If you go into a French bakery, it’s easy to get lost among all the long thin breads there. If you want to make sure you get the classic baguette, ask for a “Tradition”. In order to protect the bakers’ craft, a law of September 13, 1993, forbids any additive or fast freezing of these baguettes.
France being France, the Tradition is a candidate for the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.

Now you have bought your Tradition, what are you going to do with it?

Here’s what the French like to do:

  • eat part of it while it’s still fresh
  • cut it into fine stripes, butter them, and dip them into a soft-boiled egg
  • spread some butter on it and dip it into your café au lait
  • make yourself a jambon-beurre sandwich, with butter and jambon de Paris (ham)

My thanks to Jamy Gourmaud and his Youtube video on the baguette.

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An Introduction to the French Presidential Elections

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In France, the president is elected by direct popular vote in a two-round election every five years.

Let’s look at this more closely:

The president is elected directly by the people. If you’re French and over 18, all you have to do is make sure you’re on the voting list (and if you’re not, sign up at your local mairie, or city hall).

It’s a two-round election. On the first-round election day, you go to the polling station and cast your vote for one of the dozen or so candidates. If no candidate secures the absolute majority in the first round, the two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the second round. The second round takes place two weeks after the first.
By the way, elections are always held on a Sunday.

Current French President Emmanuel Macron (since 2017) at Musée Grévin, with former President Georges Pompidou (1969until his death in 1974) on the screen in the background

The election takes place every five years. It used to be every seven years, and as a president can be reelected once, he can potentially hold the presidency for a total of 14 years (like François Mitterrand did, from 1981 to 1995). In 2000, then-president Jacques Chirac held a referendum to change the term from seven to five years. It passed, and when he was reelected in 2002, he served for another five years, with a total of 12 years in office.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012)

So far, there have been no female presidents. A woman made it to the second round in 2007 and in 2017, and in the 2022 presidential elections, there are four women among the 12 official candidates.

In order to become an official candidate, you need the official support (“parainnage”) of 500 elected officials, such as members of parliament, mayors, or senators. In 2022, there were 64 individuals who received at least one parrainage, 22 of whom were not even trying to become a candidate (such as the astronaut Thomas Pesquet). Add to that 16 individuals who tried to but did not receive any parrainage.

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet doesn’t want to become President

You get the idea, the field is crowded. Some go in for the attention, or to make a statement (political or otherwise).
The serious contenders, those who become official candidates, need to obtain at least 5% of the vote to get a meaningful chunk of their campaign expenses reimbursed. With twelve official candidates vying for the votes, good luck to them.

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Say “cheese”

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Say “cheese”! And now say “Camembert de Normandie”.

The Camembert de Normandie isn’t just any cheese. It’s a cheese with a history. First of all, not any camembert made in Normandy may call itself Camembert de Normandie. That’s an AOP label, Appellation d’origine protégée, or Protected Designation of Origin.

A real Camembert de Nornandie (AOP)

That means a Camembert de Normandie has to respect a number of criteria. First of all, obviously, is has to be made in Normandy, and even more specifically, in the départements of Calvados, Orne, Manche, or the western part of the Eure.

grazing Normandy cows

At least 50% of the milk has to come from Normandy cows (that’s a breed). The cows, the Normandy ones and the others, have be out in the pasture at least 6 months of the year and are allowed only specific feed when they can’t graze outside.

After that, it gets very technical in how the Camembert is produced. A crucial point to remember however is that Camembert de Normandie is made with unpasteurized milk and as such might be banned in certain countries. Also, it is generally recommended not to eat raw-milk products during pregnancy.

The finished Camembert has the shape of a cylinder of 10,5-11cm in diameter and weights a minimum of 250g. It is sold in a round wooden box made from poplar.

a Camembert cheese and its wooden box

If you buy a Camembert in a cardboard box, or one that says only “Camembert” or even “Camembert fabriqué en Normandie”, you are not buying the real thing, the one we’re talking about.

But I promised history, right? Well, here we go:

As legend has it, the Camembert de Normandie was invented by Marie Harel in 1791, and the production was continued by her daughter, whose husband presented it to Napoléon III who gave it his seal of approval.

Normandy cow statue in Vimoutiers (adjacent to Camembert), where Marie Harel died

In better documented history, these factors advanced the spread of Camembert:

  • the railway expansion which linked the small Normandy towns to Paris in less than 6 hours instead of several days as well as the above-mentioned wooden box, replacing the straw bed, which allowed for a better transport of this fragile cheese
  • the First World War during which Camembert became part of the soldiers’ rations – those who returned home brought the Camembert into every part of France

And the name? Check your map of Normandy. Marie Harel came from a tiny town in the Orne called – Camembert.

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Open Doors at Foreign Affairs

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As I explained in my previous post, on Heritage Days in September, doors are opened to the public that remain closed the rest of the year. Very popular places to visit are the presidential palace (Palais de l’Élysée) and the various ministries, housed in hôtels or palaces in the center of Paris.

Several years ago, I visited the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in a building on the riverside road Quai d’Orsay, name which was transferred to the ministry by metonymy. “The Quay d’Orsay remained silent on this question”, a journalist might report.

King Henry II (son of François Ier) named the first minister of foreign affairs in 1547, Claude de l’Aubespine. The function was called Secretary of State, and Claude was in charge of the relations with Champagne, Burgundy, Bresse, Savoy, Germany and Switzerland. (He started small.)

The minister’s office and dining room

The Quay d’Orsay was built in 1844-55 specifically to house Foreign Affairs. The interior is in the style of Napoléon III, with the exception of the bathrooms set up in 1938 for the visit of King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth (parents and predecessors of Queen Elizabeth II).

Bathrooms of Queen Elizabeth (silver) and King George VI (gold)

In the Salon de l’Horloge, then-Foreign Affairs minister Robert Schuman pronounced on May 9, 1950 the Schuman Declaration, which laid the foundation for the European integration process resulting in the European Union. This is why May 9 is Europe Day.

Detail from the Salon de l’horloge
Location of the Quai d’Orsay
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Opening Doors in September

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Back in 1984, the French minister for Culture created the “Historic Monuments Open Door Days” in France. The idea was picked up by the Council of Europe, which is not an institution of the European Union but an international organization that predates the European Union and has currently almost 50 member states.

King George V’s bathtub at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

European Heritage Days (the name varies from one country to another) take place in September, and open doors to monuments that are usually closed to the public, or if open, grant free entry, or offer special events and activities, including for children and youth, such as workshops, guided tours, that are not available on a regular basis.

Some sites are more popular than others, such as the French National Assembly

In France, Heritage Days are called Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine (JEP) and take place on the third weekend of September.

activities and workshops galore at the Château Dourdan south of Paris

In this new series, Opening Doors in Paris, I’ll share some of the open doors I’ve entered over the last fifteen years.

the original machinery of the Eiffel Tower
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French school – part 2

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My first French manual in school had a lesson that started with this sentence:

En France, les enfants de onze à quinze ans vont au college.

Aside from the accumulation of nasals, this sentence contains more precious information about the French school system that hasn’t changed since I started learning French:

In France, the children from age eleven to fifteen go to collège.

The collège, then, is the rough equivalent of middle school. From grade 6 on, years are counted backwards, like a countdown to the baccalauréat:

Sixième (6e) – grade 6
Cinquième (5e) – grade 7
Quatrième (4e) – grade 8
Troisième (5e) – grade 9

a public collège in Paris

The counting continues in the lycée, high school, for the final three years:

Seconde (2nde) – grade 10
Première (1ère) – grade 11

and finally, at the end of the countdown:

Terminale (terminal year) – grade 12

This is when French students pass their leaving exam, the baccalauréat I mentioned in part 1.

a public lycée in Paris

Speaking of part 1, do you remember I said school in France is secular? That’s right, just as there is a separation between Church and State, there is a separation between Church and School (which, after all, is run by the state). So unless you send your kids to a private religious school, thew will get a secular education.

a private Catholic lycée in Paris

This has led to a curious characteristic of the French school system: the Wednesday.
At first, I assume when school ran Mondays through Saturdays, there was no school on Thursdays, so that children could receive the religious education of their family’s choosing. In 1972, the day was moved to Wednesday.

Écoles maternelles and écoles primaires were closed on Wednesdays, and this could extend to Wednesday afternoons in collège. As a result, extracurricular activities are concentrated on Wednesdays too (now supplanting religious education), and parents who work at 80% frequently have their Wednesdays off.

A few years ago, however, the government decided to rebalance school hours and open schools on Wednesday mornings to allow for shorter afternoon classes on the other days. This resulted in many protests, as the responsibility for after-school daycare is the responsibility of municipalities, which were not necessarily of the same political color as the government.

In the end, the government backtracked and allowed each département to choose whether to open schools on Wednesday mornings or not. Welcome to France.

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