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Help choose ‘France’s favourite monument’
Pick your choice and tune in to the live final to see who wins the top spot
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D-Day 80 years: France to send a ‘Liberty flame’ to UK and USA
The flame has already been welcomed at a memorial ceremony in France, and will be received at similar events in the UK and USA to remember the pivotal 1944 landings
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Are there any rules for having a garden pond in France?
Sarah Bright-Thomas of Bright Avocats answers a reader query
Why do the French say Pékin, not Beijing?
There are several examples in French of place names which have long since been replaced by alternative versions in the English language
Reader question: Why does France still call Beijing ‘Peking’ and Mumbai ‘Bombay’?
They changed their names decades ago. Beijing is the official version of the city’s name in the western alphabet recognised by the Chinese government and the UN, though Peking is not necessarily objected to – Peking University still uses this.
France has retained Pékin, developed by 17th century Jesuit missionaries. It is not clear if this is due to conservatism, ease of pronunciation, or other reasons. Germany still uses Peking, and Italy Pechino.
Read more: French regions mull joint bid to host 2030 Winter Olympics
French speakers also tend to favour Bombay, a name many Indians link to colonialism, rather than the official Mumbai. Linguists note that history and politics influence placename spellings, and Bombay is the colonial name of a former British colony.
So, refusing to adopt its new self-chosen name could harm UK-India relations, whereas France is not as sensitive to that issue. The Portuguese also use Bombaim.
Generally, French does generally appear to be more conservative than English in this regard.
While UK and US media have begun calling the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the French press has mostly stuck to the Russian version Kiev, with the exception of the left-leaning newspaper Libération.
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