14 July, Brussels: Whilst much of France was celebrating the fall of the Bastille and the end of the autocracy of the monarchy, the Press Club in Brussels kindly hosted us (mainly members of the Chambre belge des traducteurs et interprètes (CBTI)/Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) network but also other language aficionadoes) for a fun ‘franglais’ event moderated by Julian Hale.
As explained by one of our group, meeting in petit comité (nous étions une dizaine) that evening, a ‘contre-soirée’ is also when, if someone’s holding a party (remember le film ‘La Boum’ avec Sophie Marceau!), a group move into the kitchen for a ‘side party’.
Contre-soirée – Événement social organisé pour rivaliser ou coïncider volontairement avec une autre soirée se déroulant simultanément.
Source : https://www.lalanguefrancaise.com/dictionnaire/definition/contre-soiree
In an evening full of linguistic nuances, cultural insights and the odd ‘boutade’ (rejoinder, quip, witty remark) which the Anglophile raconteur (one of many French words the English have adopted) Voltaire would, I like to think, have enjoyed, we decided to switch between English and French. We dipped into the history of how French entered the English language (via the Normans and the Norman conquest in 1066), looked at differences between French and English (a highly linguistically protective Academie Française vs no English academy (the English are insouciant in this regard); the French ‘quart d’heure académique’ vs no equivalent in English; the abundance of ‘bises’, including a ‘bises map of France’ vs the lack of ‘bises’ in the UK; expressions like ‘tu as les chevilles qui gonflent’ vs ‘you’re too big for your boots’). I also used a photo collage (another English borrowing from French as ‘coller’ means ‘to stick, glue’) of French icons from the worlds of sport, royalty and popular culture to illustrate a few points. We began with why ‘Honni soit qui mal y pense’ is on British passports (NB you’ll have to come and meet us at a future event to find out this and other ‘Franglaisisms’)…
The famous Anglophile and 18th century philosopher/salon comedian/anti-autocrat hero Voltaire also featured. I read a short passage from Candide in which he makes fun of the philosophy of ‘Optimism’ by using its slogans to describe the amorous activities of the philosopher Pangloss with Cunégonde. And there were plenty of fascinating contributions from each of the guests, with one referring to the French fad for adding ‘ing’ to words as if that then makes them English. Faire le footing (go jogging) and le relooking (a makeover) were among the examples. A Belgian guest was not a fan of the Belgian proclivity (penchant if you like) to use English words in French where French equivalents exist (e.g. ‘forwarder un mail’ instead of ‘transmettre un courriel’).
A conclusion: In times of sometimes excessive nationalism, why not hold more events about exchanging between nations/languages? Why not hold a ‘Franglais Day’ every year, perhaps not on 14 July but maybe on the day Britain and France signed the Entente Cordiale (8 April 1904) or the day of the opening of the Eurotunnel (6 May 1994) or a day between Wimbledon and Roland Garros (the French Open as we Brits call it)?
I’ll leave you with a new expression for me this year and an example of how a sportsman wowed a court/courted the French with his limited French. The new expression: After the match between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannick Sinner in the French Open, the commentator described it as ‘un match d’anthologie’, a match for the annals or a classic in English. It’s literally a ‘collection of flowers’, as Larousse explains via some etymology.
anthologie, nom féminin
(grec anthos, fleur, et legein, cueillir, choisir)
Source : https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/anthologie/3850
The word ‘sport’ is, as Etymology Online explains, from the ‘Old French desporter, deporter « to divert, amuse, please, play; to seek amusement, » etymologically « carry away » (the mind from serious matters), from des- « away » (see dis-) + porter « to carry, » from Latin portare « to carry »’
Source: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sport
The sportsman who wowed the French!: the American Jim Courier, who used a lovely French expression after he won the French Open many moons ago (il y a belle lurette). “Je parle le français comme une vache espagnole….” (literally, I speak French like a Spanish cow !) and had the crowd in his hands from that moment on. Wonderful that he dared to speak in French (il a osé!) and all credit to him.
I’ll leave you also with a link to a radio show called Flux Détendu (literally, ‘Relaxed flow’, so ‘Chilled out vibes’ or something like that) where I’m an animateur. It’s a 30 minute interview with Carine Girac-Marinier des Éditions Larousse, which will be right up your alley if you like the French language.
https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/flux-detendu/flux-detendu-du-19-avril-2025
You can just listen to particular parts if you like, by clicking on the time codes.
And if you want to know more about Franco-English connections, read Henriette Walter’s book ‘Honni soit qui mal y pense’. For a fun deep dive into French, visit the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts (where François I signed a decree in 1539 that marked the shift from Latin to French), just north of Paris. I’ll leave you with two ‘must reads’ (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, set during the time of the French Revolution, and Animal Farm by George Orwell) plus two ‘must sees’ (Anatomie d’une chute de Justine Triet and Les Diaboliques avec Simone Signoret).
Photo courtesy: France Bucket List (c) / Data & Maps: JL Benoit-Guyod (personal work)
A review of the Cité internationale de la langue française in Paris (by Julian Hale): https://togethermag.eu/a-celebration-of-the-french-language/
Book recommendations about the French language
Honni soit qui mal y pense by Henriette Walter
Le français dans tous les sens by Henriette Walter
A History of the French Language by Peter Rickard
Mille ans de langue française, histoire d’une passion by Alain Rey, Frederic Duval, Gilles Siouffi
Histoire des mots français by Olivier Bertand
J’en perds mon Latin by Françoise Nore
Books on the use of English words in French
Pour en finir avec l’anglais (Chanteclair, éditions Hors collection)
En vrai français dans le texte – dictionnaire franglais-français (Alfred Gilder, Le cherche midi éditeur)
If this kind of thing flicks your switches (fait votre bonheur), join Julian Hale’s Whatsapp group by emailing him your phone number (JulianAHale@gmail.com) so that you can hear about monthly events covering different languages. Upcoming are ones on Russian, Arabic, German, Spanish, Italian and more… Volunteer speakers are welcome too…
Stay also tuned for more RAF (read: ‘réseau anglo-français’) events at the CBTI, in synergy with the ITI: https://www.cbti-bkvt.org/agenda/