A few weeks ago I posted about the passing of the French singer France Gall. In researching her life and work, I came across this cute song that I wanted to share with you this week. Not only is it a catchy tune, but it has lots of great vocabulary, cultural tidbits, and even a little (fake) history.

* The word sacré, which literally means sacred or consecrated, shows up in many French expressions as a sort of exclamation or modifier/emphasizer. You see it in Sacrébleu (Holy smokes) or you might say of a friend “Sacré Paul, il est toujours en retard.” (Oh that Paul, he’s always late.)
** As we’ve discussed before, many French kids have school on Saturday, with a day (or at least a half day) off during the week (and of course Sundays, too). For many years now that day off has been Wednesday, but once upon a time jeudi (Thursday) was the week day French élèves (students) had free.

Le vrai histore/The real story:

Charlemagne, who lived from 742 – 814 was king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor ruling over what is now France as well as much of western Europe. While he wielded tremendous power and left his mark on the world, despite what the song says, one thing he didn’t do was to invent school!

Image of Charlemagne: This work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.