Cette semaine on fête le 14 juillet ou la fête nationale or Bastille Day as it’s known in English speaking countries. Le 14 juillet is something like la version française (the French version) of the fourth of July.
Pendant le 14 juillet there are a few big celebrations: le défilé militaire (the military parade) during the day and then at night les spectacle de feux d’artifice (the fireworks shows). However, cette semaine (this week) I learned something about les feux d’artifice that I didn’t know before.
Au 13 juillet, while at home I suddenly heard the loud bangs des feux d’artifice going off in the distance. I thought I’d missed le spectacle!
It turns out that les spectacles de feux d’artifice are spread out over a few days. Smaller towns have their spectacles earlier so that everyone is sure to come to the bigger cities during la fête nationale.
One other way to fêter (celebrate) is, bien sûr, to have a good time avec tes amis (with your friends). Just be careful, if you have too much fun you might wake up the next day with la gueule de bois (a hangover)!
Voici un petit vocabulaire de feux d’artifice :
Black snake, Pharaoh’s serpent le serpent du pharaon
Bottle rocket la fusée
Firecracker le pétard
Firework le feu d’artifice
Fireworks show le spectacle de feux d’artifice
Fountain la fontaine
Roman candle la chandelle romaine
Sparkler le cierge magique
