Day 2062 (Monday) 30th January 2023.

Today’s online photos…

This is Nice in the winter

This is La Darse in Villefranche sur Mer

Huw went to Nice with Geno this morning to order the awnings for the big apartment and while he was out our landlord came to see the cracks in the wall. I’ve never met him and Huw has only met him once and he was a lovely man, all smiles and he wished me a happy new year and strangely enough I understood most of what he was saying, he’s going to the syndic because the cracks start in the flat upstairs. Apparently he still speaks Niçard nissart/Niçart niçois French:  or nizzardo (Italian:  is the dialect that was historically spoken in the city of Nice, in France, and in all the area of the historical County of Nice. The affiliation of Niçard is debated: it is generally considered a subdialect of Provençal, itself a dialect of Occitan, while some scholars argue that the historical dialect spoken in Nice was more strictly Ligurian. 

Most residents of Nice and its region no longer speak Niçard, and the very few who  do are fully bilingual in French as Nissard has lost its function of a vehicular language since decades. Nonetheless, today there is a developing revival of the use of the language. Some local television news is presented in Niçard (with French subtitles) and street signs in the old town of Nice are written in the dialect as well as in French. The Niçard song Nissa La Bella is often regarded as the "anthem" of Nice.

What’s happening in France this week

From the French pancake festival to school holidays and another mass strike, here's what is happening in France this week.

Published: 30 January 2023 08:43 CET

Photo by FRED TANNEAU / AFP

Monday 

Anti-discrimination plan – Prime minister Elisabeth Borne will present the government plan to combat racism, anti-semitism and discrimination based on origins.

Tuesday

Strikes and demos – January 31st is the second ‘mass strike’ day in the ongoing battle between unions and the government over pension reform. Expect severe disruption on public transport, school closures and possible power cuts. The day will also be marked by demos in towns and cities across France – the last one saw 1 million people take to the streets, and unions are hoping for a similar turnout.

Pension strikes: What to expect on January 31st

Some unions have announced their intention to continue with industrial action into February.

Wednesday

Immigration bill – the immigration bill – which includes, among other things a requirement for foreigners to take a language test in order to obtain certain types of carte de séjour – is presented to the Council of Minister, before it comes before parliament.

Language tests and easier expulsion – what’s in France’s new immigration bill?

Electricity bills rise – from Wednesday, domestic electricity bills can rise by a maximum of 15 percent after the 2022 price shield expires.

Thursday 

Pancake day – the French festival of La Chandeleur is a celebration of the crêpe. It’s not a public holiday, just a chance to eat lots of yummy pancakes and indulge in some of the stranger pancake-based rituals (crêpe on the wardrobe, anyone?) which are said to bring good luck for the year ahead.

La chandeleur: The day France goes crazy for crêpes

Saturday

School holidays – schools in zone A begin the two-week February holiday on Saturday. The February holidays have different dates in different zones, with one B beginning holidays on February 11th and zone C on February 18th.

Sunday

Rugby – France take on Italy in Rome in the opening weekend of the 6 Nations rugby tournament, with the French team hoping to repeat last year’s result, which saw them win the tournament.

It’s a big strike day tomorrow, I’m not worried because I’m not working, but here are some tips on ‘How to stop worrying and learn to love French strikes’

If you intend to spend much time in France, sooner or later you are likely to be affected by strike action and remaining philosophical during strike chaos is an important French skill. Here are some tips.

Not only does France regularly (although not always) top the European tables for days of strike action, but French strikes usually aim to be as disruptive as possible.

Strikes often target public services, particularly transport, and unions call them for days when they will have maximum impact – such as the start of the summer holidays for airline strikes – after all, is it even a strike if no-one is inconvenienced by it?

But if you get furious every time there is a strike you will quickly give yourself ulcers, so here are some tips to try and become more philosophical about it.

1. Think of the social benefits. If you live and/or work in France the chances are that you enjoy all sorts of benefits from generous annual leave to grants to go on holiday.

But these didn’t just fall from the sky into the laps of French workers, they were fought for over many years, often by unions.

So as you jam yourself into the single, packed Metro that is running on a strike day, close your eyes and think what you’ll do with your (minimum) 25 days of paid leave.

2. Think of the services. One thing that a skeleton rail service will flag up is how comparatively good the service is the rest of the time.

France has an excellent network of public services from trains to hospitals, leisure centres to schools. They’re good because they’re comparatively well funded by the state and why are they well funded by the state? Because governments are too scared of mass strike action to totally defund them.

A strike will also give you a new appreciation for certain workers.

It’s hard to find a positive side to those days when the waste collectors go on strike and stinking garbage is piled on every street corner, other than to appreciate how truly vital the low-paid and unglamourous job of éboueur (waste-collector) is to society. 

3. Think of your inalienable rights. The rights of workers and citizens are fairly well protected in France and that’s not because all French politicians are lovely, cuddly altruistic types (far from it).

It’s that they know that attempts to infringe on the benefits of their citizens will result in major protests and probably strikes. Sometimes they push ahead and do it anyway, of course – for example Emmanuel Macron in 2019 – but at least the power of the street gives them pause.

4. Think of the valuable lessons for your kids. French teachers are a fairly feisty bunch, unafraid to strike if they’re not happy with their pay, conditions or whichever reform the Education Ministry is proposing this week.

This is a major headache for parents, who often have to find childcare at short notice.

But think of the great lesson this is imparting to your children on standing up for their rights and taking an active part in democracy. By the time they get to lycée (high school) the students themselves get militant, and setting fire to street signs at a demo is practically part of the curriculum.

5. Think of your French vocab. Strike days are a good opportunity to learn some new French words. Yes, there’s some technical vocab but we’re really talking about learning French swearing.

Keep an ear open and you’re bound to learn some colourful phrases from your fellow passengers/service users, from sighing over the la pagaille (the shambles) to cursing the bordel de merde (total f**k-up) it’s all a good learning experience. If you’re into your fifth hour of delays at the airport, set yourself the challenge of counting all of the different ways the French passengers use putain as they wait.

Grève illimitée or générale: 12 bits of French strike vocab you need to know

If you're learning French it's a good idea to stick to everyday topics - and what is more quintessentially French than a strike? Here is some vocabulary to help you understand what is going on at strike times.

Not all French strikes are created equal, so it’s important to know what type of strike is going on, as this will help you understand how much disruption it’s likely to cause.

Une grève – a strike. This is the basic word for strike, and striking workers are en grève (on strike)

Un mouvement social – literally translated as ‘social movement’ this is another way of saying strike. It’s the word that transport companies tend to use, so if you hear an announcement that starts with En raison d’un mouvement social (because of a strike) it’s likely to be telling you that your train/plane/bus is either cancelled or delayed.

Une grève illimitée – unions must file notice of their intention to strike, and this is either a notice for a set date or series of dates, or an ‘unlimited’ strike notice. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the strike will continue indefinitely, unions sometimes file an ‘unlimited’ notice and then decide to take only only on certain days, for example every Wednesday

Une grève generale – a general strike is when all or almost all workers (including public and private sector) are on strike. These are very rare and haven’t really been seen in France since 1968. Most strikes are either specific to a sector – eg a teachers’ strike – or cover multiple sectors such as transport workers, teachers and civil servants. You will, however, hear people calling for a ‘general strike’ at times of social tension.

Intersyndical – this means that several different unions have joined together to back a strike. Because of the fragmented nature of the French union landscape, strikes usually only cause major disruption when most or all of the eight union federations unite.

Très suivi – literally ‘very followed’ this means a strike with strong backing from workers, which is therefore likely to cause a lot of disruption.

Se mobiliser – the general verb ‘to mobilise’ signifies that workers are taking action – usually by striking but sometimes by staging protests (this is particularly the case among the essential workers who are banned from striking such as police and certain health workers) and demonstrations.

Manif – the verb is manifester (to demonstrate) and the noun is une manifestation but the phrase you will probably hear most often is the shortened form to describe a march or demo.

Perturbé/ perturbations – delayed/delays. This is the general word telling you that a certain service will be disrupted by strike action. You might also hear fortement pertubé (severely disrupted) or légèrement pertubé (mildly disrupted).

Retardé – delayed. If your train/bus/plane is delayed this is what will appear on the announcement board or app, usually followed by a indication of the length of the delay eg retardé 1h (one hour delay).

Annulé – cancelled

Supprimé – literally translated as ‘deleted’ this also means cancelled in the context of transport

6. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Go through a list of French clichés and it won’t be long before you get to strikes.

Yet thousands of people still move here, and many others travel – despite its world-renowned striking France is also the world’s most-visited tourist destination.

If nothing else, tourists end up with a good story to tell once they get back home.

7. Think of the cheese. All countries have things that really suck (try spending February in Stockholm if you don’t believe us) and French strikes make it onto that list for many people.

But as we mentioned, people continue to flock here, and that’s probably because the country has so much great stuff – from culture to natural beauty, history to architecture, wine to cheese.

So as you face having to revise your plans because ‘c’est la grève’ try to see strikes as a kind of cosmic tax, balancing things out.

And you know who virtually never strikes? Wine-makers, so at least there will always be a cheering glass of something at the end of your strike day.