La coupe du monde (the World Cup) is raging on and importantly for French learners, ever since la demi-finale (the semi-finals) un pays francophone (a French speaking country) has had an assured spot en finale (in the finals). With la Belgique (Belgium) being left behind, la Francophonie marches on with les Français shouting one thing.

Image from Pixabay. Licensed under CC0.

On est en finale !
We are in the finals!

The excitement around France bringing home the World Cup is being felt from Toulouse to Brest. The Paris-Marseille rivalry is even being eased while everything cheers:

Allez les Bleus* !
Let’s go France!

*En français the French national team is called les Bleus (the blues), referencing the color of their uniform.

The wave of enthusiasm has les Français fully embracing their national slogan, especially the third part:

Liberté, Égalité, Fratinernité

La dévise (the slogan) is easy for un anglophone (an English speaker) to understand. All three words have English equivalents, even if fraternity has another meaning. La fraternité in la devise française refers to the idea that is more commonly called brotherhood, while the English fraternity may make some people think of college associations.

It’s a perfect storm of le patriotisme (patriotism) running through the country with World Cup fever reaching a high point just as le 14 juillet (July 14th, French National Day, Bastille Day) rounds the corner! Adding to that, all the emotions are thoroughly heightened by the sense of la nostalgie (nostagia) that the 2018 World Cup is also giving la France. La fraternité is truly being shown by les Français all over the world as les Bleus inch closer to a historical victory.

The last time La France a gagné la Coupe du monde (France won the World Cup) was in 1998. Winning it again 20 years later has everyone on edge, hoping to finally bring it back home. After la France solidified its place in the finals, the whole country erupted in a chorus of:

On est en finale ! On est en finale ! On est finale !
We are in the finals! We are in the finals! We are in the finals!

There’s something smaller also contributing to the atmosphere of la finale. It’s possible l’Angleterre (England) will be France’s opponent  and the addition of a multi-millennia spanning rivalry to the games makes it all the more intense!

Cependant (however), les Rosbifs (Playful slang for British people, literally Roast Beef) first have to be good enough to beat l’incroyable équipe (the incredible team) from la Croatie (Croatia) !

No matter who it’s against, all of France is behind les Bleus as they make their way to the final round of la Coupe du monde !

Relive la victoire de la France contre la Belgique (France’s victory over Belgium) with some local reactions à Bordeaux :