On Sunday, nearly 1,400 people participated in a record-breaking spelling exercise, transforming the most famous avenue in Paris into an outdoor classroom.
For the "largest dictation in the world," approximately 1,700 desks were set up on the Champs-Élysées.
Three rounds made up the contest. In each, a text was read out loud, and competitors had to accurately type it in.
A portion of a short story by 19th-century author Alphonse Daudet was debated by 1,397 participants in the first.
According to French media, Guinness World Records recognized that competition as the largest one to ever take place.
The notoriously difficult French spelling system has caused generations of students from Dunkerque to Perpignan to fear their dictations.
However, only 5,000 people—many of them schoolchildren—participated in Sunday's "Grande Dictée des Champs," despite the fact that 50,000 people had applied.
A contemporary short story and a rugby text, respectively, served as the inspiration for the second and third rounds.
After the first, a 10-year-old "star pupil" exclaimed to the AFP news agency, "It was impossible!".
Adrien Blind, his father, who took the same test and is 42 years old, said it left him "in a state of stress and worry.".
Touria Zerhouni, 65, however, was more at ease. I only made two errors. I thought it would be a lot harder," she told AFP.
