The tradition seems to go back centuries but nobody is quite sure where it comes from. When I was little, my sister and I always cut out big fishes and we used to try and stick one on each other’s backs without the other one noticing. My sister being much older and bigger than me always succeeded first and would say: Poisson d’avril! We tried it on my mother sometimes, she would not notice the dangling fish on her back for ages and we would find it really funny.
Here are three stories, one is true and the other two are des poissons d’avril, try to guess which one is true:
1- Bears ( les ours )are going to be reintroduced in les Vosges.
2- Nicolas Sarkozy made up the word méprisance instead of mépris ( contempt) in a speech.
3- The French are going to be charged one euro when they vote.
At Alliance Française de Bristol et Bath we are very keen to pass on customs and traditions in our French lessons, with French events, on the blog, Facebook and Twitter as well as teaching the language.
This coming week is going to be special, all our French teachers have learnt a very old and traditional dance from Corsica ( la Corse ), the famous minuetta. Instead of a normal French class, every student is going to be taught this dance. Please go to our website for more info…