{"id":31756,"date":"2019-12-31T05:09:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T04:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=31756"},"modified":"2019-12-28T21:33:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T20:33:02","slug":"french-culture-oh-what-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-culture-oh-what-a-year\/","title":{"rendered":"French Culture – Oh what a year!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is once again New Year’s Eve<\/a>, and around the world people are greeting un nouvel an<\/strong> even as they look back at the year (et toute une\u00a0<\/strong>d\u00e9cennie !<\/b> \/\u00a0and a whole decade)<\/em> that is coming to an end. And what a year it was!<\/p>\n

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Les Fran\u00e7ais dans les rues<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far back as\u00a0La R\u00e9volution de 1789<\/strong>, the French have been taking to the streets to protest against what they don’t like. This year saw on-going demonstrations from les gilets jaunes\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>(protests that actually started back in November of 2018<\/a>, but saw weekly demonstrations that disrupted life around la capitale<\/strong> and throughout France) and is ending on a whole new mouvement<\/a> (with no end in sight) thanks to protests over the planned retirement plan reforms in France.\u00a0Ce samedi (le 28 d\u00e9cembre)<\/strong> (This past Saturday)<\/em> was the 24th day of strikes and the 59th Saturday in a row<\/a> of yellow vest protests)!<\/p>\n

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Des hauts et des bas<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a year that started with highs and lows.<\/a> We celebrated the 90th birthday of the famous Belgian reporter, Tintin. And we lost a great musical artist, Michel Legrand.<\/p>\n

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Notre-Dame en feu<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tragically, this was also the year that the world almost lost one of the most famous churches<\/a> and for the first time in over 200 years, there was no mass held in Notre Dame on Christmas eve. In April, most likely due to\u00a0une \u00e9tincelle\u00a0<\/strong>(a spark)<\/em> from a worker’s tool, the wooden roof structure known as la f\u00f4ret <\/strong><\/a>(the forest)\u00a0<\/em>burned, taking down much of le toit<\/strong> (the roof<\/em>) and – if not for the heroic efforts of Paris’s finest fire brigades – might have destroyed all of Notre-Dame. And now despite efforts to shore up the building<\/a>, it seems that the scaffolding that was in place for the work before the fire may be putting the remaining structure at risk, with some now saying there is only a 50% chance of saving the remaining structure.<\/p>\n

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Les Tops de 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

My post about Notre-Dame avant le feu turned out to be the most popular post of the past year here on Transparent Language’s French blog.<\/p>\n

These four rounded out your favorites:<\/p>\n

French Lessons Hiding In Un Caf\u00e9 – Coffee Order Mistakes<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n