Foreign News: La Fête de Saint Germain

Jeanne d'Arc, on horseback, accompanied by an army of archers, halberd-bearers and trumpeters, made her annual triumphant entry into La Place Saint Suplice, Paris. This revived pageant of the middle ages is now an intrinsic part of La Fête de Saint Germain.

Every year a new Maid of Orleans is elected from les damoiselles de la rive gauche, and she is the figurehead of the Saint Germain Fair. About her gather the multitudes of Paris, and in the Quartier latin hoary professors vie with cherub-faced students to do the " lily-white damsel" honor. Then the procession begins and Jeanne d'Arc is followed by her army, garbed in the costumes of their ancestors, who march with firm intent " to boot the English out of France."

The Saint Germain Fair is one of the oldest in the country and was a regular event in the days of Jeanne d'Arc. It was within recent years revived by the Committee of old Paris and the municipal authorities of the Latin Quarter. Ever since the canonization of Jeanne d'Arc, in 1918, the Fair has been more warmly welcomed than ever by the Parisians.

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
CHRISTINE LINDBERG of Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, on why unfriend was chosen as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary; it refers to removing someone on a social-networking site like Facebook
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
CHRISTINE LINDBERG of Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, on why unfriend was chosen as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary; it refers to removing someone on a social-networking site like Facebook

Stay Connected with TIME.com