Parlez-vous Fran? (continued)

THERE are two French words which I know you know, even if you don’ speak French. One is “Boulevard” and theother is “Avenue.” You have probably always thought they were English words, but they are both French words. Paris has many Boulevards and one of the finest Avenues in the World. This Avenue is lined with trees and runsdirectly toward the setting sun, and was thought beautiful enough to be a street in Paradise, so it was called the Champs-Elysées, which means “The Fields of Paradise.”

In London a square is called a Circus, but in Paris it is called a Place, as if spelled “Plass.” The most beautifulPlace in Paris is the Place de la Concorde. In the center of this Place is a monument made of one single tall stone standing on end. It is called Cleopatra’s Needle. The Place de la Concorde is at one end of the Champs-Elyséesand at the other end is a beautiful arch like a huge gateway across the avenue. It is called “L’Arc de Triomphe,” which it is easy to guess means The Arch of Triumph. No automobile nor carriage may pass through thisArch of Triumph, however, for underneath it in the pavement is the tomb of the French Unknown Soldier, and from this tomb a flame flickers day and night—a flame to be kept burning forever to the memory of the brave Frenchmenwho died in the World Wars.

The French people love beautiful things. They love beautiful pictures and beautiful sculpture and beautiful buildings,and they know how to make them; so young men and women from our country and from other countries go to Paris to learn from the French how to make beautiful things—to become painters and sculptors and architects.

But the French love beauty in everyday things as well—in such everyday things as hats and clothes and cooking andmanners. French hats and French clothes and French cooking and French manners are famous. Strange to say, the most famous French dressmakers are men. Also, strange to say, the most famous French cooks are men too. We callthem “chefs.” Our dressmakers go to Paris to study and copy the fashion in clothes and the style in hats, and we get French chefs for our finest hotels and restaurants. Perhaps you have noticed that the bill of fare inmany of our restaurants is printed in French. That is because our cooks copy not only the way the French cook but the names of the dishes they cook. The French can make delicious soup out of a piece of bread and a bone. InAmerica soup is just soup, but in France soup is called potage or consommé instead of soup—it sounds better, and anything that sounds better you expect will taste better, too, and it usually does.