English translation: community meal/meal open to the public
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French to English translations [PRO] Tourism & Travel / activities
French term or phrase:repas populaire
un repas populaire - I've been away from England too long and I can't think what this could be. Mass meal etc is surely wrong and village dinner goes more with fête de village ... I also thought maybe free dinner (along the lines of the soupe populaire!) but they're not always free.
You will see many ghits for "repas associatifs", which are just "community-style dinners".
I don't like "meal" for "repas" here in English. I prefer "dinner", unless it's specified as a breakfast or lunch-type thing.
In one instance I saw online, "repas populaire" at a primary school would be be translated as "school community luncheon" or something. So this more "all-purpose" term in French will need adapting in English, depending on the context.
I think the history of this is in the idea of a "soupe populaire", which are charity dinners for the poor, or very cheap meals for working-class (Montréal 1930's perhaps?)
Thank you for your answer Matthew. I really hesitated for communal village meal but in the end I chose organised meal open to all - I had to put meal as whether it was lunch or dinner was not specified. It's a bit long but I think it does rule out most ambiguity. Thank you all for your answers as it is thanks to your work that I found the answer that I was most comfortable with - and to think I nearly put this question as non-pro! 3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
As you will have read below, those of us who live over here in France have a grasp culturally of exactly what it actually is — in all its many incarnations — but the real problem is finding a suitable term for something that doesn't really exist in quite the same form in the UK or, I suppose, the US.
But that's exactly the point of asking for the context!
This is indeed a singularly FR phenomenon, and I don't think any of us here would suggest for one moment that there is any one 'standard' expression that can be used to translate this term in all situations, irrespective of context — as you seem to be expecting?
Hence the best we can do is to see what term might be appropriate in your specific context...
Regarding the 'paella' issue, I was simply using it as an illustration as to why 'traditional' might be over-interpretation; even though 'paella' is indeed a popular choice for this kind of eating, it would hardly be regarded as 'traditional' in most regions of France.
Given that we now know the season and place, maybe some other options are going to pop up...
as Douglas Carnall points out it is something very French and it is a term used all the time - I don't think the more precise context will change the meaning - it's just finding how to say it in English. I hesitated with free but they are not always free "the bataille de castillon" offers a repas populaire before their show and they are not always picnics (where you bring your own food but sit with lots of strangersà). For those who consider that I have not given enough context - we are talking about the navarre region of France (so could be paella - and incidently I live in the Médoc which is nowhere near Spain and often the repas populaire serve Paella) and it is during easter and during May. It is a traditional feast day which is open to tourists.
Could you explain a bit more about exactly what this event is that is ebing described here, and what part of France it is in? Is it a one-day thing, or some kind of festival? I initially thought with all those plurals that this might in fact have been several 'repas' over some period of time, except that oddly, the 'repas' is the only thing that doesn't appear to be plural...?
Also, what time of year is this taking place: can one assume this may be summer dining, outdoors, for example, or in the village hall.
I think, without knowing quite a bit more about the kind of event this is, we're all floundering around a bit in the dark.
Cf. also the use of 'populaire' in 'bal populaire', which if I'm not mistaken came up here not all that long ago — 'village hop'?
la danse est " régionale " marché " mediéval " , actes " folkloriques" , logiquement cela est suivi d'un " traditional meal " , j'imagine mal de la paella ( sauf si cela se passe dans une région espagnole ), ou des suschi , LOL .
I really didn't think that more context was necessary for this term - I thought in any circumstance it would have the same meaning .... please find the sentence below.
une série d'actes culturels, musicaux ou folkloriques qui complètent la journée festive (concerts, pièces de théâtre, danses régionales, marché médiéval, ateliers pour les enfants, repas populaire, expositions, exhibitions, etc.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): -2