Having lunch with friends yesterday (yes..lunching again) one of our company was born in Algeria. Naturally conversation turned to "pieds noir" and who was and who was not entitled to be called that. Apparently the original French settlers were called "pieds noirs" because unlike the Arabs they wore shoes. We thought it applied to almost any of the French who returned here in the 60's, but no you had to be born in Algeria and have a parent born there (and other north African countries such as Morocco don't count). So the sub said to the pied noir "so you are actually Algerian". The indignant reply was "Non, je suis de l'Algerie, non Algerienne". The lady is, of course, French, though in common with us other foreigners her social security number included the number"99" to show she was not born here (a position which has since been rectified).
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