Two events last week reminded me of the amazing nature of and possibility represented by our amazing home, la Terre¹the Earth. Come along with me this week as we journey from Earth Day to the moon!

Photo [CC0] courtesy of Pixabay vie Pexels.

From Earth Day …

Le jeudi 22 avril²Thursday April 22 was le Jour de la Terre (alternatively known as la Journée de la Terre), “un rendez-vous annuel de célébration écologique instauré pour rappeler l’importance de la nature et de la préservation de la planète.“³A yearly appointment celebrating the environment and reminding us of the importance of nature and the need to preserve the planet

A l’occasion  de cette 51e  Journée de la Terre⁴Coinciding with this 51st Earth Day, IFOP conducted a survey to understand the opinions of the French on la transition écologique. In the survey of 1504 people, they found that while a majority of French people over 18 reconnaissent l’urgence de la transition écologique⁵acknowledge the urgency of becoming more ecologically minded/green, almost 40% feel like they don’t know enough about the topic.

Part of the official campagne média⁶press campaign, this video reminds us (in an ironic way) that Heureusement que les animaux sont là pour ramasser nos déchets.⁷Good thing (lit. happily) the animals are here to pick up our trash.

Prenons soin de la planète.⁸Let’s take care of the planet.

… to the moon

Ok, not quite the moon, but closer than most of us will ever get! Le vendredi 23 avril, Thomas Pesquet, l’astronaute français⁹On Friday, April 23, Thomas Pesquet, the French astronaut, and 3 other astronauts took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a journey to la Station spatiale internationale¹⁰the International Space Station (ISS).

This is the second trip for Pesquet, the tenth French person in space, to the ISS. Click here to see coverage of the décollage¹¹launch, lift-off, also take-off (of an airplane). Or check out this fun video to see how Thomas coped with life during Covid lockdown ahead of this trip to space.

Thomas is very active on social media and you can follow his adventures in space on Instagram and Twitter.

… to Rotterdam?

With just over three weeks to go until the 2021 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, it’s time to get excited!  After last year’s competition was cancelled due to the pandemic, this year’s 65th edition of the competition will take place in the Dutch¹²Dutch is the adjective for things from the country of Holland, also known as the Netherlands. In French, the country is known as Les Pays-Bas (the low countries) city of Rotterdam.

In this fun video you can revisit the history of France’s participation in the competition. Or for more recent updates, click the year to see previous blog posts about France in Eurovision from 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

And while it’s low on French content, if you like Eurovision, you might enjoy the Netflix original film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. The duo’s (fictional) song Husavik (My hometown) was a 2021 Oscar nominee for best song!

Le Jour de la Terre

• 1
  the Earth
• 2
  Thursday April 22
• 3
  A yearly appointment celebrating the environment and reminding us of the importance of nature and the need to preserve the planet
• 4
  Coinciding with this 51st Earth Day
• 5
  acknowledge the urgency of becoming more ecologically minded/green
• 6
  press campaign
• 7
  Good thing (lit. happily) the animals are here to pick up our trash.
• 8
  Let’s take care of the planet.
• 9
  On Friday, April 23, Thomas Pesquet, the French astronaut
• 10
  the International Space Station (ISS)
• 11
  launch, lift-off, also take-off (of an airplane)
• 12
  Dutch is the adjective for things from the country of Holland, also known as the Netherlands. In French, the country is known as Les Pays-Bas (the low countries)