The International French Language City is a “crazy dream”, come true, which establishes French whose goal, according to the President of the Republic, “must be to continue to spread and be understood”.
By inaugurating the International City of the French Language, Emmanuel Macron said he was pleading for “unity and universality”. “The French language builds the unity of the nation”It is “a language of freedom and universalism”declared the President of the Republic on October 30 during the inauguration of the International City of the French Language in the courtyard of the Château de Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne) which houses this “place of living culture”.
It was in this Renaissance castle, 80 km from Paris, that Francis I signed the ordinance in 1539 imposing French in legal texts, the beginnings of its use as an official language. The City is both “a heritage gesture” and a way of “show how much (French) plays a political role” today and “tomorrow”confided Emmanuel Macron during an interview given after the inauguration ceremony.
La Cité, the first place in the world dedicated to the French language, is a “crazy dream” which was “accomplished”, declared Emmanuel Macron, whose flagship cultural project it is. In 2017, during his first presidential campaign, he spotted this former royal hunting residence in an advanced state of disrepair. It was completely restored at his request by the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN). With 210 million euros invested, it is President Macron’s second largest cultural project, after Notre-Dame de Paris.
Culture to reestablish the Republic
In addition to the history of the place, the choice was also dictated by “the economic and social difficulties of the territory”, specifies the Elysée. Marked by unemployment and deindustrialization, Villers-Cotterêts, 10,000 inhabitants, has for several years turned towards the far-right vote, like its mayor, the elected National Rally (RN) Franck Briffaut. While estimating the “calculation” anti-National Rally doomed to failure, the councilor however sees the project, and its 200,000 visitors hoped for per year, as “tremendous luck” for his city. “(The) reconquest is achieved through reindustrialization (…) This reconquest (…), this reinstallation of the Republic also involves culture”said President Macron when asked about the choice of this region.
The CMN, while recognizing that the attendance objective is “very ambitious” in an area with little tourism, is optimistic: the City is only 45 minutes by train from Paris, he points out. The institution hopes to quickly find an investor for a hotel project yet to be realized in an annex to the castle.
At the heart of a territory, the City of the French Language is also the reflection of a language.which does not belong only to the French”, spoken on five continents, recalled Emmanuel Macron. Referring to political tensions in the Middle East during his interview, the president stressed that French was there “the language of those who loved freedom”. Earlier, he had insisted that the Frenchman was not part of any resistance and had always been happy to travel with “several other languages”. The Head of State thus assumes the responsibility of launching “to international investors” who only understand English, “Choose France” because’ “we make ourselves understood better.”
Geopolitics of French
Dialogue with other languages also involves translation.“Having our French-speaking authors travel in foreign languages also means taking the French language on a journey”, underlined the President of the Republic. He announced that he was entrusting a mission to the Franco-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, with the support of the National Book Center and publishers, to “multiply” translations of French-speaking authors into other languages, including Arabic. Books in French are “too rare or too expensive” in many countries, said Emmanuel Macron.
“The translation of French into foreign languages becomes in many places a form of political combat”, declared the Head of State, during the inauguration of the International City of the French Language in Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne). Emmanuel Macron took as an example “the African continent” where we access, according to him, “almost for nothing to books which convey obscurantism, which tell lies about this or that religion and which prepare for the worst”. On the contrary, “it is very difficult to have access to books, sometimes by another African author if he writes them in French, or to our classics”he lamented.“It’s a reality because we are too expensive or too poorly translated”continued the President of the Republic, adding that “the goal of French must be to continue to spread and be understood.”
At a time when Paris maintains tense political relations with several French-speaking African capitals, the French president seems to be banking on the language of Molière to maintain cultural ties. Emmanuel Macron spoke about the Creative Africa program “which aims to structure the cultural and creative industries sector in Africa. He also recalled that Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was the city where French was spoken the most. Villers-Cotterêts will succeed him in the organization of the Francophonie summit in 2024. The City will then be “the beating heart” of an event to which the leaders of 88 states will be invited.
A city dedicated to those who “keep French alive”
Initially scheduled for October 19, the inauguration was postponed due to the funeral, that day, of French teacher Dominique Bernard, murdered in Arras (Pas-de-Calais) by a young jihadist. At the Cité internationale de la langue française, will also be honored “especially (…) five essential figures” of the French language: teachers, writers and creators, actors, librarians and translators, “who transmit and bring French to life in this constant pulsation”.
Irony of the political calendar, language developments are on the Senate’s agenda on the evening of October 30: the right has submitted a bill to ban “so-called inclusive writing”a text judged “retrograde” from the left. Emmanuel Macron also called on Monday to “do not give in to the times”in allusion to neologisms aimed at making visible the feminine of words, according to their defenders in order to fight against inequalities between women and men.