(This is the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of "Explaining Thanksgiving Day to the French." It was presented as a gift from the United States to Gen. Charles de Gaulle on the day he liberated Paris. In exchange, De Gaulle gave America his recipe for Salade Nicoise.)
One of the most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as "le Jour de Merci Donnant.""Le Jour de Merci Donnant" was first started by a group of pilgrims ("Pel-erins") who fled from "l'Angle-terre" before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World ("le Nouveau Monde") where they could shoot Indians ("les Peaux-Rouges") and eat turkey ("dinde") to their hearts' content.
Every year on "le Jour de Merci Donnant," parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.
It concerns a brave "capitaine" named Miles Standish (known in France as "Kilometres Deboutish") and a shy young lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth called Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The "vieux capitaine" said to the "jeune lieutenant":
"Go to the damsel Priscilla (`Allez tres vite chez Priscilla'), the loveliest maiden of Plymouth (`la plus jolie demoiselle de Plymouth'). Say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of action (`un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe'), offers his hand and his heart - the hand and heart of a soldier. Not in these words, you understand, but this, in short, is my meaning.
At length she exclaimed, breaking the ominous silence, "If the great captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me, why does he not come himself and take the trouble to woo me?" ("Ou est-il, le vieux Kilometres? Pourquoi ne vient-il pas aupres de moi pour tenter sa chance?")
Jean said that "Kilometres Deboutish" was very busy and didn't have time for such things. He staggered on, telling her what a wonderful husband "Kilometres" would make. Finally, Priscilla arched her eyebrows and said in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, Jean?" ("Chacun a son gout.")