Paris’s new metro line adds 4 nouvelles stations¹new stops, statations between la gare Saint-Lazare²the Saint-Lazare train station and la Mairie de Saint-Ouen³the city hall of Saint-Ouen.

Originally planned for 2017, la ville de Paris⁴the city of Paris and the RATP finally made things easier for people to get around the city and suburbs with the prolongement vers le nord de la ligne 14⁵northern extension of the no. 14 metro line.

Paris s’élargit⁶Paris is getting bigger; Paris is growing

This next phase of the projet du Grand Paris will add much needed capacity to the north-west of the city and, according to Stéphane Troussel, the president of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, encourage du développement économique et urbain⁷economic and urban development.

Pour les passagers⁸for the passengers, it comes just in time. “La ligne 13 était complètement saturée”⁹The no. 13 line was totally saturated/full and the nouvelle ligne “sera dix fois plus pratique… et plus rapide vu que c’est une ligne automatique”¹⁰new line “will be ten times more practical … and faster since it is automated.

It will also be “plus facile d’inviter des amis qui seront plus à l’aise pour venir, la ligne 13 fait un peu peur.”¹¹easier to invite friends who will feel more comfortable since the 13 was a little scary

Whatever the reason, que ce soit pour aller au travaille ou au centre-ville de Paris¹²whether it’s to go to work or the center of Paris, the public proclaims they are ravis de l’avoir¹³thrilled to have it.

Pour approfondir votre vocabulaire

This week I’m introducing a new element to my post. From time to time I come across new words, interesting vocabulary, or other related tidbits that don’t make a whole post. I try and save these for a related topic, but sometimes I never quite find the right place … So I decided to make my own place to deeper your vocabulary.

L’après-midi
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more confusing? I learned last week (doing a challenging dictée from the great video blog Parlez-vous FRENCH? that the word après-midi can be either masculine or feminine!

While L’Académie française leans towards the masculine¹⁸according to a number of articles at least; the only firm reference I could find from the Académie is this entry in their on-line dictionary (in their estimation the since le jour, le matin, et le soir are all masculine, so is le/un apres-midi … ) but as the related expressions of duration tend to be feminine (la journée, la matinée, la soirée are all feminine) you can also go in that direction.

Note, that as highlighted in this post, there is a subtle difference between the meaning of un après-midi (one afternoon / a specific afternoon) and une apres-midi (implied a passage of time/duration; or an afternoon spent doing something).

• 1
  new stops, statations
• 2
  the Saint-Lazare train station
• 3
  the city hall of Saint-Ouen
• 4
  the city of Paris
• 5
  northern extension of the no. 14 metro line
• 6
  Paris is getting bigger; Paris is growing
• 7
  economic and urban development
• 8
  for the passengers
• 9
  The no. 13 line was totally saturated/full
• 10
  new line “will be ten times more practical … and faster since it is automated
• 11
  easier to invite friends who will feel more comfortable since the 13 was a little scary
• 12
  whether it’s to go to work or the center of Paris
• 13
  thrilled to have it
• 14
  Just for fun; lit. A little wink
• 15
  celebrate the end of 2020
• 16
  new signs
• 17
  Good News the year 2020 is over!
• 18
  according to a number of articles at least; the only firm reference I could find from the Académie is this entry in their on-line dictionary