La Légion d'honneur
French Listening Comprehension
Study Guide
Take a look at the following for help with any vocabulary that you might not
have understood in la Légion d'honneur, then take
the test.
| Vocabulary | |
| abolir | to abolish |
| conscient | conscious, aware |
| une dérogation | special dispensation |
| fastueux | lavish |
| fixer | to set, establish |
| un gonflement | swelling, increase |
| récompenser | to reward |
| un savant | scientist |
| Notes | |
| 29 floréal An X | Date in the French Republican calendar. Floreal was the eighth month. |
| Angélique Brulon | Marie Angélique Brulon (née Duchemin) came from a family of soldiers based in Brittany. In 1791 she went to Corsica with her husband, who was to fight in the campaign there, but was almost immediately widowed. She then joined the army and for the next seven years vigorously fought the Corsican rebels and their English allies. Wounded in combat three times, in 1798 Brulon became the only female resident of the Invalides. She lived there for 61 years, until her death, and was regularly presented to visitors. On her door was the sign "Mme veuve Brulon, officier," and she wore the uniform of a second lieutenant. Her signal bravery was honored in 1851 by Napoleon III, known as the "prince president" after his 1848 election. In December of that year, he would overthrow the second republic and declare himself emperor. His decision to change the rules and award Brulon the Légion d'honneur was another way of emphasizing his link to his illustrious uncle. |
| Cent Jours | The brief period of resurgence of Napoleon that followed his escape from the island of Elba in 1815 and ended with his defeat at Waterloo. |
| cérémonie fastueuse | The site of the first awards ceremony was the 18th-century chapel of the Invalides military hospice, where Napoleon himself would be interred in 1842. (The second, one month after the first, in August 1804, was held in the military camp outside Boulogne-sur-mer, in northern France, where Napoleon's armies were waiting in vain to invade England. The spot is commemorated by a large column above the town, which can be seen by motorists heading south from Calais on the A16.) Explaining his decision to institute the new merit system, Napoleon said: "Les Français (…) n'ont qu'un sentiment, l'honneur. Il leur faut donc donner un aliment à ce sentiment-là ; il leur faut des distinctions." |
| le consul | One of three magistrates to whom the Constitution de l'an VIII entrusted the governing of the French Republic. Napoleon Bonaparte was the Premier consul. He ruled as emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. |
| Directoire | The Directoire—normally translated as Directory rather than Directorate—held
executive power in France from October 1795 to November 1799, in other words,
the second half of the revolutionary period. It took over from the Convention,
which saw the establishment of the bloody Reign of Terror. The dominant personality
among the Directoire's five members was Paul de Barras, who had
engineered the downfall of Robespierre and the other radicals. The Directoire
was itself undermined by the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (9 November), 1799, which brought the Consulat to power. Initially this was a triumvirate composed of Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean-Jacques de Cambacérès, and Charles François Lebrun. But Napoleon gradually assumed supreme power and in November 1804 marked the end of the era by crowning himself emperor. |
| Hôtel de Salm | Located opposite the Musée d'Orsay on the left bank of the Seine, the Hôtel de Salm was built in 1787 for a German prince who was later guillotined during the Terror. It burned in the Paris Commune in 1871 but was renovated by the Légion d'honneur. The building now houses the Légion's administrative offices, the residence of its grand chancellor, and a museum. Its address is 2, rue de la Légion d'honneur (the rue de Bellechasse was renamed for the Légion's bicentenary, in 2002). |
|
Légion d'honneur |
As the Legion d'honneur is not a medal but the organization that bestows various medals, saying that someone has received the Légion d'honneur is technically meaningless, unless one specifies the rank. In France one says that so-and-so has been created a chevalier/officer/commander of the Légion. There are just 60 or so members of the top rank, bearer of the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur. Below that are grand officers, commanders, officers, and chevaliers—the latter by far the most numerous, with around 110,000. It is possible to progress, slowly, through the ranks. Strict rules govern the wearing of the medal. The wartime collaborator Maurice Papon, who was made a commander of the Légion in 1961, was stripped of his title after being convicted of war crimes in 1998. In 2004, he was fined for illegally wearing his insignia. The Order of Merit was created in 1963 to provide lesser honors and ease the pressure on those of the Légion d'honneur, whose prestige was at risk. The official Web site says that the Order of Merit "accueille les mérites distingués alors que la Légion d'honneur récompense les mérites eminents," though it does not spell out the difference between "distinguished" and "eminent." The Order of Merit is also administered from the Hôtel de Salm by the grand chancellor, currently the former army chief-of-staff Jean-Pierre Kelche. |
| La Légion d'honneur French Listening Comprehension Exercise |
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| Listen | Study | Test | ||
| Transcript Translation | ||||
| Sound files and transcript
were
originally published in Champs-Élysées audiomagazine (read my review) and are used with the permission of Champs-Élysées, Inc. |
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| Listening Index French Dictionaries | ||||
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