The Hexagon is a symbol the French use to denote their country. We have incorporated this shape in the L’Ile de France logo. Why the (6 sided) hexagon? It is the shape of the map of France!

• Un – from Biarritz to Brest
• Deux – Brest to Dunkerque
• Trois – Dunkerque to Strasbourg
• Quatre – Strasbourg to Nice
• Cinq – Nice to Perpignan
• Six- Perpignan back to Biarritz!

Cinderalla's Glass Slipper was not of glass at all! In the original story, the slipper was made of vair, a kind of squirrel skin widely used in the middle ages as lining. The word vair is the same in French and English, but in French it homophones with verre – glass in English. Because a French “idiot” was confused and miswrote it, it became common to speak about a shoe made of glass – which is certainly not very comfortable, and certainly very dangerous!

The French Flag (blue/white/red) was created during the French Revolution.At this time the white was the symbol of the Royalty and the blue and red were the colors of the city of Paris. When a crowd of Parisian people came to Versailles and forced King Louis XVI to return and to stay in Paris, a flag with the white “guarded” by the red and the blue was designed as the symbol of the Monarchy under Paris control. Voilà!

Any Paris visitor knows “les quais de la Seine” (the Seine river banks) – with used book dealers and the flower market near Notre Dame called “le quai aux fleurs”. Some other banks are less known but have a special connotation for French people. When one says “le quai d’Orsay”, everyone knows you are referring to the Foreign Affairs Department. “Le Quai des Orfévres” is synonymous with the Criminal Police Headquarters and “La Vieille Dame du quai Conti” (The Old Lady of the Conti bank) is an image to depict the French Academy.