- JEDDAH: Crafts from a number of countries were on show and national dishes on offer at the French Consulate General in Jeddah on Thursday evening to mark the International Day of Francophonie — the association of French-speaking countries and those with cultural links to France.
The event, devised by the French consul general, Christian Nakhlé, and attended by diplomats and Jeddah residents from over a dozen countries as far a field as Tunisia, Switzerland, Lebanon, Guinea and the Ivory Coast as well as France, kicked off a weeklong series of events to celebrate the day that falls today, Saturday.
Events are also planned during the week at the Egyptian and Swiss Consulates General, the French Lycée and, today, at the Tunisian Consulate General. March 20 is also Tunisia’s National Day.
It is estimated that there are 118 million French speakers in the world, 15.8 million of them in the Middle East and North Africa, plus a further 63 million partial French speakers worldwide, 20.5 million of them also in the Middle East and North Africa. It is reckoned that there are 2.4 million people learning French in the Middle East alone plus a further 9 million in North Africa.