This post has 3 items, all relating to the horrific attack on Nice, France, yesterday.
1) your basic French vocabulary about terrorism
2) graphic showing love for France
3) my response to the horror of yesterday’s attack
Basic French vocabulary about terrorism:
la fête de la liberté – freedom celebration (July 14)
la fête du quatorze juillet – Bastille Day
le cauchemar > la nuit cauchemardesque – nightmare > a horrific night
l’attaque (f) 0
un camion – truck
écraser > tuer
Le/s coup/s de feu est/sont tiré/s – The shot/s was/were fired
la trajectoire délibérée – the deliberate path
le meurtrier abattu – the killer shot
le chauffeur – the driver (different from English)
la mort > le mort, la morte, les morts – death, the dead man, the dead woman, the dead (pl)
la Promenade des Anglais – the most touristic site of Nice, along the ocean, site of killing.
J’ai eu peur. – I was afraid.
Je suis hébété/e, Je suis sidéré/e – I am dazed/ flabbergasted
Tout le monde crie, pleure – Everyone is screaming [not crying], crying. (crier / pleurer)
Les gens tombent – People are falling.
Le drapeau est en berne – The flag is at half-mast.
le bilan: 84 morts – bottom line: 84 dead people
Des victimes sont de toutes les origines et de tous les âges – The victims are of all origins and all ages
I was wearing a French Revolution Bicentennial t-shirt all day when I heard and watched the horrific news. It made me really want to go shout our support out for France, who, coming to the end of a 3-month State of Emergency, just had to prolong it for 3 more months. The French Library/Alliance française of Boston held its annual Bastille Day party here right here on our block – with vigor, loud music, lots of children and more police protection than it’s ever had before.
Back Bay Français 