{"id":34681,"date":"2022-04-19T05:33:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T03:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=34681"},"modified":"2022-04-18T02:14:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T00:14:24","slug":"french-news-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-news-update\/","title":{"rendered":"French News Update Current Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this \u201cbetween two tours\u201d1<\/a><\/sup>Remember that French presidential elections<\/a> often take place in two rounds.<\/span> time, a lot of the news coming out of France is related to the upcoming Presidential run-off scheduled for\u00a0le dimanche 24 avril<\/strong>2<\/a><\/sup>Sunday, April 24<\/em><\/span>. But that\u2019s not the only thing happening! So this week, in addition to a presidential update, we\u2019ll look at the recent holidays and get an update on the work taking place at Notre-Dame.<\/p>\n

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Photo CC0 from Andrea Piacquadio at www.pexels.com<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Macron v. Le Pen, part II<\/h3>\n

Next Sunday, current President Emmanuel Macron will once again face off against Marine Le Pen, leader of le Rassemblement national (RN), in the second round of the French presidential elections \u2026 a rematch of 2017 with a twist.<\/p>\n

In 2017, despite (or perhaps because of?) his lack of experience, Macron easily won the \u00c9lys\u00e9es palace with 66%+ of the votes in the second round<\/a>. This time around, the final outcome looks like it might<\/em> be the same overall, but with a much smaller margin.<\/p>\n

Current polling (which right after the first round looked like a statistical tie) give the edge to Macron, but only by about 10 points<\/a> (55% for Macron to 45% to Le Pen).\u00a0While the current trends reflect current sentiment, they would have been almost unthinkable just 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Marine\u2019s father Jean-Marie (founder of the far-right National Front party) came in second in the first round of the presidential election, a shocking result that lead to protests in the streets around France<\/a>. I happened to be in Paris on vacation at the time and saw first hand the marches up the rue de Rivoli to the Place de la Concorde and the Assembl\u00e9e \u00a0Nationale. \u00a0The reaction led to a near sweep for Le Pen\u2019s rival, Jacques Chirac, who carried the second round 82%+ to 17%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

P\u00e2ques, Pessa\u2019h, et Ramadan<\/h3>\n

A rare3<\/a><\/sup>According to this article<\/a>, an occurence that comes only once every 33-odd years.<\/span> calendar alignment this year means that the festivals of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan overlapped this past weekend.<\/p>\n

Falling right in the middle of the month-long Muslim holy month of Ramadan (2 avril – 2 mai<\/strong>4<\/a><\/sup>April 2 – May 2<\/em><\/span>\u00a0this year), Friday, April 15 was both le vendredi Saint<\/strong>5<\/a><\/sup>Good Friday<\/em><\/span>\u00a0and the first night of the eight-day Jewish Passover (Pessa\u2019h in Hebrew, P\u00e2que in French).<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until researching this week\u2019s post that I learned that in French, the Christian holiday of Easter and the Jewish holiday Passover are both P\u00e2ques<\/a>. Easter is P\u00e2ques with an \u2018s\u2019; Passover is P\u00e2que with no \u2018s\u2019 (though it is also sometimes called la P\u00e2que juive<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Notre-Dame<\/h3>\n

Vendredi 15<\/strong> was also the troisi\u00e8me anniversaire du feu qui a d\u00e9truit les toits de Notre-Dame<\/strong>6<\/a><\/sup>third anniversary of the fire that destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

With the cathedral still closed for repairs<\/a>, no public services could take place inside the cathedral (though \u201ctrois membres du dioc\u00e8se de Paris se sont recueillis \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur de Notre-Dame de Paris, au milieu des \u00e9chafaudages\u201d<\/strong>7<\/a><\/sup>three members of the Diocese of Paris gathered inside Notre-Dame, amidst the scaffolding<\/em><\/span>) so \u201cdes croyants [ont c\u00e9l\u00e9braient] le Vendredi saint devant la cath\u00e9drale, [\u2026et p]our la premi\u00e8re fois depuis l’incendie [ont pu prier] sur le parvis de la cath\u00e9drale\u201d<\/strong>8<\/a><\/sup>believers celebrated Good Friday in front of the cathedral, [and f]or the first time since the fire were able to pray on the cathedral\u2019s esplanade<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

And while the fire is an undoubted tragedy, the repair work has recently lead to two amazing discoveries.<\/p>\n

Des arch\u00e9ologues<\/strong>9<\/a><\/sup>Archeologists<\/em><\/span> working at the site have unearthed \u201cles fragments polychromes de l’ancien jub\u00e9 de la cath\u00e9drale datant du 13e si\u00e8cle et d\u00e9truits au 18e si\u00e8cle, et un sarcophage anthropomorphe en plomb, enfermant le corps que l’on imagine \u00eatre celui d’un haut dignitaire de l’\u00e9glise inhum\u00e9 au plus tard au 14e si\u00e8cle<\/strong><\/a>\u201d10<\/a><\/sup>multi-colored fragments of the old 13th-century choir-screen (separating the choir from the nave), destroyed in the 18th century, and an anthropomorphic lead sarcophagus, enclosing one imagines the remains of a top church dignitary buried no later than the 14th century<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Amazing reminders that the history of this amazing church – which was almost lost in just a few hours in 2019 – goes back almost a millennium \u2026 and also that the period leading up to and following the French Revolution were not so kind to religion and religious institutions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joyeuses P\u00e2ques ! Easter Vocabulary in French<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n