France

This a Useful Notes page.

Vive La France!

"Toute ma vie, je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France." —Charles de Gaulle

"Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité" (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) —The French Republic's motto

The French Republic and its predecessors.

• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys (a common stereotype)
• French Films
• French Literature
• Les Grandes Ecoles
• Snails and So On

Geography

• The City of Light (Paris)
  • Le Métropolitain (Paris's transit system)
• Departemental Issues (Administrative divisions of France)

History and Politics

• Les Cops Sportif (French police)
• L Etat Cest Moi (Louis XIV and the other Louises)
• The French Revolution
  • Vive La Revolution (timeline of the Revolution)
• Napoleon Bonaparte ('cause The Napoleon is a different trope)
• The French Colonial Empire
• French Political System
• Gauls With Grenades
  • The Ultimate Resistance (French nuclear weapons)
• World War I
• World War II
  • La Résistance
  • Les Collaborateurs

the French national anthem

the French flag

Allons enfants de la patrie Le jour de gloire est arrivé Contre nous, de la tyrannie L'étendard sanglant est levé (bis) Entendez-vous dans les campagnes Mugir ces féroces soldats Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras Égorger vos fils et vos compagnes

Aux armes, citoyens Formez vos bataillons Marchons, marchons Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons

--

Let us go, children of the motherland The day of glory has come Against us the tyranny Has raised its bloody standard (bis) Can you hear in the countries These ferocious soldiers bellowing They come into your arms And cut your sons and wives' throats

To arms, citizens Form your batallions Let us march, let us march So that an impure blood flows in our furrows

It was written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle as a military song during the 1792 war against European royalist forces. The "impure blood" is a topic of contreversy: one interpretation is that it designates the blood of the patriots who sacrifice themselves for freedom, opposed to the self-proclaimed "pure blood" of the nobles. Another, opposite one, is that it is the blood of the enemy.

This is the first verse of seven (in the final version). Rest assured: they are all equally violent.