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FRENCH WORD OF THE DAY

French Expression of the Day: Colis des aînés

This expression describes a charming festive tradition practised in France every December.

Published: 24 December 2021 09:36 CET

French Expression of the Day: Colis des aînés

Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

Why do I need to know colis des aînés?

Because French solidarity is alive and well.

What does it mean?

Colis des aînés, pronounced “cohl-ee dez-ai-nay”, are Christmas packages gifted to older people by local authorities in France.

The term literally translates as “parcels of the elders”.

Typically, they are distributed in hampers and contain culinary delights like sausage, foie gras, chocolate and booze.

READ MORE Why French mayors give out food hampers at Christmas

In some small villages, colis des aînés are delivered personally to the elderly by local mayors.

This gifting is not enshrined in law but many areas across France are proud of the tradition, which goes back as far as the 1940s. The whole operation is generally paid for by local neighbourhood committees or residents’ associations.

Eligibility to receive a colis des aînés varies by area, with different age and earnings requirements in place.

Use it like this

Les colis des aînés du village ont été distribués – The village’s Christmas hampers for the elderly have been distributed

Cent colis des aînés seront distribués – 100 Christmas hampers for the elderly will be given out

As-tu reçu ton colis aux ainés? – Have you received your Christmas hamper?

Synonyms

Colis des vieux

Colis de Noël

Colis cadeaux

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French word of the Day: Jours ouvrés

Why do I need to know jours ouvrés?

Because you need an accurate time estimate.

What does it mean?

As most French learners will know, jours means days, while in this context ouvrés means ‘working’. Therefore jours ouvrés – roughly pronounced jzoor-ouv-ray – means ‘working days’. You may also see jours ouvrables, which means the same thing.

You’re most likely to come across this in the context of estimates on how long things will take – for example a delivery or the processing of an official task or perhaps the results for a test or exam.

And this is where the calendar comes in – ‘working days’ doesn’t include the weekends, but also excluded are public holidays, of which France has quite a lot. So an estimate for livraison dans les cinq jours ouvrés – might actually take almost two weeks to reach you, if there are weekend days and public holidays in between.

Days on either side of public holidays (known as ‘pont‘ days) are technically working days, but don’t be too surprised if things don’t happen on these days either.

Although ouvrés looks similar to ouvrir (to open) the root of the work is actually ouvrer – an archaic verb meaning to work or to labour.

This word was gradually supplanted by travailler in around the 16th century, but some derivatives of it are still used – most commonly ouvrier (or ouvrière for women) which means a worker – it can be used for all types of salaried workers, but is more commonly used for people who do manual labour or work with their hands.

It’s often used in a political sense too – one of France’s leftist political parties is Lutte ouvrière, which translates as Worker’s struggle.

Use it like this

La livraison est estimée à trois jours ouvrés – Delivery is estimated within three working days

Les résultats seront communiqués sous 48 hours (jours ouvrés) – the results will be sent within 48 hours (on working days)

Not to be confused with

If you want to talk about ‘open days’ – days when institutions including schools, the military or artists workshops open up to the public – in France these are known as portes ouvertes (literally ‘open doors’).

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