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France honours China with Champs Elysees new year parade
PARIS: Two days before the arrival of President Hu Jintao on a state visit, France is affording China a rare honour when it opens up the Champs Elysees in Paris for a traditional dragon-and-drums new year parade.
La Marseillaise: France national anthem
History
La Marseillaise is a song written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle on April 24, 1792. Its original name is Chant de marche de l’Armée du Rhin (Marching song of the Rhine Army). It became the rallying call of the French Revolution and was so-called because it was first sung on the streets by troops from Marseille upon their arrival in Paris.
La Marseillaise was rearranged by Hector Berlioz around 1830.
In 1917, after the collapse of the tsarist regim La Marseillaise became the national anthem of Russia, the Russian lyrics being very different from the French lyrics. It was soon replaced with The International by the Bolsheviks.
France, Germany urge US action to avoid sanctions
The duties would grow by 1 percent each month through the end of the year unless the United States complies with World Trade Organization rulings against the measures.
Legislation to eliminate the tax breaks and provide new measures aimed primarily at helping U.S. manufacturers has advanced in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
But it may not be possible for Congress to approve a final bill in the next month.
The Flag of France: Tricolore
The national flag of France, more commonly known as the Tricolore (Tricolour), features three equal vertical bands coloured blue (hoist side), white and red. It first appeared during the French Revolution and was a combination of the colours of the coat of arms of Paris (red and blue) and the royal colour (white), with the combination often being credited to the Marquis de Lafayette.
How to love a French man?
I have found a French man who loves me very much and I think I like me also but I’m an Asian girl… I don’t know how be with him… Can somebody advise me, thanks.
Brgds
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), better known as Stendhal, was a 19th century French writer.
Born in Grenoble, France, he had a miserable childhood in stifling provincial France but blossomed in the military and theatrical worlds of the First French Empire. He travelled extensively in Germany and visited Russia (as part of Napoleon’s army), but formed a particular attachment to Italy, where he spent much of the remainder of his career, serving as French consul and writing.
Powell: France has annoyed me
Calling the French a proud people with “strong views,” U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted France has annoyed him at times — and he has been just as annoying to them.
“They have been with us through thick and thin. They were with us when we fought for our independence 229 years ago. But we have had disagreements with the French,” he told Philadelphia’s WPHT radio on Wednesday.
Seeking English or American people for penpals
Hello,
My mame is Pierre and I would like to improve my English.
e mail : pierre_duron@yahoo.fr
France probes Muslim leader for anti-Semitic remarks
Mohamed Latreche, who led a Paris protest last Saturday against a planned ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools, branded Israel a racist country and equated Zionism with apartheid in a speech to the marchers.
France Loses Its Head Over Headscarves
Ten thousand people, mostly Muslim women, marched in protest through Paris on Saturday. Similar demonstrations by Muslim women took place in other cities in Europe and the Middle East. Two thousand people turned out in Stockholm, 2,400 in London, 2,500 in Beirut, 300 in Nablus, about 100 in Washington, D.C. A typical chant: “My scarf, my choice.”
The demonstrators were protesting the French proposal to ban all “conspicuous” religious garb of students in its public schools, including the headscarves of Muslim women and girls, yarmulkes and crosses “of manifestly excessive dimension.” The purpose, French President Jacques Chirac says, is the protection of French secularism.