1. La Montgolfière

I owe this first explanation to my husband who is not French. I currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the US, and every year there is an amazing hot-air balloon festival. One morning the sky was full of hot-air balloons, and my husband asked me, “How do you say ‘hot-air balloon’ in French?” And my answer was: “montgolfière.” (Be careful, the T is silent.) And, of course, his reaction was, “Why is this word so complicated?” Answer: Simply because the Montgolfier brothers invented la montgolfière. Thanks to this invention in 1783, the first human flight was possible.

2. Le Hachis Parmentier

Another strange word in French, le hachis parmentier is a delicious French dish similar to shepherd’s pie in Great Britain. Le hachis parmentier is a classic dish made with ground meat, and topped with mashed potatoes.

Where does this noun come from? The French pharmacist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier discovered the potato when he was a prisoner in Germany during the 7-year war. At the time the potato was already consumed in Germany and Spain, but in France it was reserved for animals because people thought that it could cause disease. Convinced that this dish would be beneficial for French citizens, Parmentier offered different potato dishes, including the renowned hachis parmentier, to Louis XIV.

Voilà, now you know how the potato was introduced in France.

3. Le Croissant

Did you know that the croissant is not French?

The “viennoiserie” originates from Vienna, Austria. At that time Vienna had been invaded by the Ottoman Empire, and in 1683 the Ottomans, readying to attack the City at dawn, started to build tunnels. Bakers heard them and raised the alarm, and thus saved the city. To celebrate the victory, the bakers created this “viennoiserie” in a crescent shape in reference to the Turkish defeat. It was the Queen Marie-Antoinette of Austria, wife of King Louis XVI, who introduced the croissant in France.

4. Le Jean et Nîmes

Did you know that the word “jeans” is not English?

In French the word “Gênes” became “jeans” in English, and the first jeans fabric was exported from Genoa, Italy, an important shipping port on the Mediterranean Sea. But the fabric didn’t actually come from Genoa. It came from Nîmes, France. Nîmes, in the South of France, was an important textile industry producer in the 18th century. The fabric, renowned for its durability and resistance, was named “sergé de Nîmes” and it is from “de Nîmes” that we get the English word “denim”.

5. Le Pantalon

France can be avant-gardist, and can, at the same time, be the exact opposite.

A law introduced on November 7, 1800 prohibited women from wearing pants. The goal of this law was to prohibit cross-dressing and thereby restrict women’s access to certain professions.

The law was still in effect as late as 1909, and women could only wear pants for riding a horse or a bicycle. And what’s more surprising is that the law did not disappear from the Constitution until 2013! Of course, French women did not wait until 2013 to wear pants, but officially the law was still in effect until then.

6. The Pose of Napoléon

The perpetual myth about Napoléon is that in many portraits he is depicted with a hand under his vest and on his stomach because he suffered from stomach problems.

While it is true that he had stomach issues and probably died from a stomach cancer or ulcers, this not the reason he posed this way.

In fact, at the time of Napoleon, a renowned priest Jean-Baptiste La Salle in 1695 had written “A New Treatise on the Duties of Christian Towards God”. The treatise referenced good manners, and went so far as to recommend this particular “honest and decent pose”. It is for this reason that Napoléon and other men, for example Mozart, were painted in this position

7. Covid: Le or La?

Is Covid feminine or masculine in French?

The majority of French people say le Covid.

What do French dictionaries say about it? Le Petit Robert gives the choice: masculine or feminine. Larousse uses the masculine form.

The Académie Française, which will always have the last word regarding French language, chose the feminine gender. Why? The noun “coronavirus” is masculine because “virus” is a masculine noun in French. However, “Covid” is an acronym of the corona virus disease. The heart of this sequence of related words is “disease”, and “maladie” in French is feminine, therefore “Covid” is feminine.

Note that this rule applies for every acronym. For example, “le P.I.B” (produit interieur brut) (G.D.P is English for gross domestic product) is masculine because the noun “product” is masculine.

It’s that simple!

8. Why in French do we say “15 days” for 2 weeks?

In French you can say 2 weeks or 15 days. But why not 14 days?

Yes, I know, it is a very existential question. But there is an answer! The reason comes from our Roman heritage that divided the month in 4 periods. A 30-day month divided into 2 periods of 8 days plus 7 days each would be 15 days in total.

Also at the time it was common to count the first day as one. Instead of counting a 24-hour period from, for example Monday to Tuesday as 1 day, in antiquity it was counted as 2 days. Hence what is commonly thought of as 14 days (or 14 periods of 24 hours) is treated in French as 15 days.

So, it is common in French, for example when you are taking vacation for 2 weeks to say “I am taking 15 days”.