French reading practice with side-by-side translation
Reading comprehension: See the links at the bottom for lessons related to the phrases in italics.
Belles Villes | Beautiful Towns |
La beauté est quelque chose de subjectif … sauf en France. Quand on commence à explorer l’Hexagone, on découvre qu’il a son mot à dire sur ses propres charmes. Il y a au moins trois labels de qualité que peuvent recevoir les communes françaises. |
Translation
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder … except in France. When you start exploring this country, you discover that it has something to say about its own attractiveness. There are at least three official quality labels that French towns can receive. [collapse]
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Translation
Since 1959, the Cities and Towns in Bloom competition has awarded one to four flowers to towns that have not only a good amount of landscaping and vegetation, but which also try to improve the living environment, work for more sustainable development, and develop tourism. Among the 10,000 or so towns [collapse]
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Translation
With only 157 villages listed, The Most Beautiful Villages in France is a much more demanding association. Some 32,000 French villages (only those with fewer than two thousand inhabitants) are judged on 30 criteria which measure the architectural, town-planning, and environmental quality of the village; the importance given to and development of the local heritage; and the efficiency of the village’s activities in terms of managing and highlighting its territory. [collapse]
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Translation
For towns with between 2,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, The Most Beautiful Detours of France association is even stricter. Only 100 towns can hold this "guarantee"’; this is, a town must lose the lebel before another can receive it. Considerations: importance of heritage, liveliness of the town, artisanal and gastronomic identity, welcoming capacity [to tourists], and development and planning dynamic. [collapse]
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Reading comprehension
Vocabulary
Grammar
- en, à – prepositions
- dire, recevoir – infinitives
- ses, son – possessive adjectives
- un label … qui offrent, dont 223 – relative pronouns
- s’efforcent – reflexive verbs
- inscrites, labélisée – past participles
- comptant – present participle
- cette – demonstrative adjectives
- puisse – subjunctive