{"id":33720,"date":"2021-05-11T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T03:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=33720"},"modified":"2021-05-10T01:05:09","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T23:05:09","slug":"anniversaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/anniversaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many French learners, the word anniversaire<\/span> is perhaps most with associated with the expression Joyeux anniversaire<\/strong><\/a> but it can also refer to un anniversaire de<\/span> mariage<\/strong><\/a>, or like in this past week, l’anniversaire d’une mort<\/strong>1<\/a><\/sup>the anniversary of a death<\/em><\/span>, or l’anniversaire de la fin d’une guerre<\/strong>2<\/a><\/sup>the anniversary of the end of a war<\/span>. So this week, let’s explore anniversaries.<\/p>\n

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Photo of the Arc de Triomphe [CC0] by\u00a0Antonio Conte<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

200 years after the death of Napol\u00e9on<\/h3>\n

Le 5 mai<\/strong>3<\/a><\/sup>May 5th<\/em><\/span>, President Emmanuel Macron s’est rendu \u00e0<\/strong>4<\/a><\/sup>went to<\/em> (lit. delivered himself to<\/em>)<\/span> l’H\u00f4tel des Invalides<\/a>, site of Napol\u00e9on’s tomb, to commemorate the life of l’Empereur <\/strong>on the 200th anniversaire de sa mort<\/strong>5<\/a><\/sup>anniversary of his death<\/em><\/span>, an event not without controversy.<\/p>\n

While Napol\u00e9on brought many improvements to France and the French people including l’\u00e9ducation nationale<\/strong> and le Code civil<\/a><\/strong>, he also put an end to France’s first Republic<\/a>, reinstituted slavery, and ravaged much of Europe in his quest to build an empire.\u00a0 As a result, Macron – who as Bridgette reminded us in this great post on French politics<\/a> is the youngest leader of France since Napol\u00e9on! – is (also) the first French president to mark the occasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the Elys\u00e9es<\/strong>6<\/a><\/sup>The Elys\u00e9es Palace is the official residence of the French President. As here, the name can also refer to the administration of the President\/the president’s office.<\/span> said though \u00ab\u00a0comm\u00e9morer n\u2019est pas c\u00e9l\u00e9brer\u00a0\u00bb<\/strong><\/a>7<\/a><\/sup>commemorating is not celebrating<\/em><\/span> and there is much we can learn from Napol\u00e9on’s history.<\/p>\n

This video<\/a> from FranceInfo highlights a variety of opinions about Napoleon from some of the countries outside of France where he left his mark. If you’d like to learn more, this site<\/a> from the French National Ministry of Education has many great resources. Or if you’d like to see the day’s events, you can visit this site<\/a> for a video, photos, and transcript of President Macron’s speech.<\/p>\n

La France et l\u2019esclavage<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Before he brought it back, France was actually one of the first countries to abolish slavery. Like many countries at the time, French colonial trade relied on l’esclavage<\/strong>8<\/a><\/sup>slavery<\/em><\/span>. In 1791 though, the leaders of the new Republic were among the first to officially abolish slavery. Following 1789’s D\u00e9claration des droit de l’homme et du citoyen<\/strong><\/a>, they declared that “tout homme est libre en France, et que, quelle que soit sa couleur, il y jouit de tous les droits de citoyen<\/strong>“9<\/a><\/sup>every man is free in France, and, regardless of his color, he benefits from all the rights of citizenship<\/em><\/span>. Just over 10 years later (in 1802) Napoleon would undue the abolish and bring slavery back to French colonies. <\/div>\n

Le 8 mai<\/h3>\n

Saturday was one of the the many May holidays in France<\/a> and President Macron participated in another commemoration. Over the weekend he made his way to the Arc de Triomphe10<\/a><\/sup>Another legacy of Napol\u00e9on’s<\/span> to mark the 76th anniversary of the end of la Deuxi\u00e8me Guerre Mondiale<\/strong><\/a>. Like last year, the day’s traditional parades and celebrations were muted due to the on-going Covid-19 crisis, but you can learn more about the day and “follow” the events here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An update<\/h3>\n

Last year in a post about interesting oddities of French architecture<\/a> I told you about Paris’s fa\u00e7ades factices<\/strong>. I recently came across this fun little video from the travel vlog The Tim Traveller that highlights a number of these “b\u00e2timents<\/em>” across the city. If you enjoy this video, I encourage you to check out Tim’s YouTube channel<\/a>. He’s British and his videos are in English, but he’s got lots of great quick visits to more interesting and odd places in Paris, around France, and more.<\/p>\n