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France in a nutshell: eight questions about the essentials that most people already half know. Everyone can play, young and old.
Strolling tourist 0–3 · Café regular 4–6 · True Francophile 7–8
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Paris takes its name from the Parisii, a Celtic tribe that lived there more than 2,000 years ago; the Romans called the town Lutetia. Its nickname, the City of Light, comes partly from its role as a centre of new ideas during the Age of Enlightenment.
Photo: Yann Caradec from Paris, France, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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The French flag has three upright stripes: blue, white and red. On French navy ships the stripes are not equally wide and the red one is the widest, because a flapping flag makes the part furthest from the pole look smaller.
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Baguette means 'wand' or 'stick' in French, the same word used for a magic wand. French law even sets the rules for what may go into a traditional baguette, and in 2022 the craft of baking it was added to UNESCO's list of cultural heritage.
Photo: Nick Thweatt, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Parisians nicknamed it 'the Iron Lady'. Its 7,300 tonnes of iron sound heavy, but melted down they would cover the square under the tower only about 6 cm deep. To keep rust away, it gets about 60 tonnes of fresh paint every seven years.
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The word lavender probably comes from the Latin 'lavare', to wash, because people once used it in their bathwater. Bees love it too and turn its nectar into lavender honey, and the nearby town of Grasse is famous for the perfumes made from flowers like these.
Photo: Robert Brink, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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The yellow jersey was officially introduced in 1919, and its colour probably matched the yellow paper of the newspaper that organised the race. The first official wearer, Eugène Christophe, grumbled that fans made canary noises whenever he rode past.
Photo: Le Coq Sportif, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, in 1769, just one year after the island became French. His first languages were Corsican and Italian, and at the age of nine he was sent to school in mainland France to improve his French.
Photo: Jacques-Louis David, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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Asterix first appeared in 1959 and has been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects. His big friend Obelix is never allowed the potion: he fell into the cauldron as a baby and has been super strong ever since.
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