The French language may not be the global lingua franca it once aspired to be, but I’ve found myself using it in some unexpected places far beyond the Hexagon. Near the busy port of Keelung (pronounced Ji-long), beneath the steep hills surrounding a natural harbour less than twenty miles from Taiwan’s capital Taipei, is a curious burial site. It has the natural placidity of a churchyard, despite its proximity to a main road; trees shade the headstones, whose first line reads “ Ici repose… ”. This is a French military cemetery. So what is it doing in Taiwan?

Few remember this history in Europe, but in Keelung it is commemorated in a special annual ceremony

In 1884, war broke out between the Qing Empire and the French Empire as they wrestled for control of northern Vietnam. The French na

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