Hmm....I looked up the Macron-slapping incident and found it on the UK’s “Mirror”. The article contains this sentence:
While slapping the president, he could be heard shouting “Montjoie Saint Denis,” which was the battle cry of the French armies when the country was still a monarchy.
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Anybody have a clue?
Montjoie Saint Denis! was the battle-cry and motto of the Kingdom of France. It allegedly referred to Charlemagne’s legendary banner the Oriflamme, which was also known as the “Montjoie” and was kept at the Abbey of Saint Denis, though alternative explanations exist. The battle-cry was first used during the reign of Louis VI of France, the first royal bearer of the Oriflamme.
Sounds like someone that is proud of their past history to me.
I only know it as a general French expression equivalent to saying “Enough!”, “No more!”, “I draw the line here!”, “I’m making my stand here!”, “I’ve had enough of you!”. You get the idea. I used to hear it on rare occasions from French-speaking people in moments of extreme frustration and their expression was limited to “montjoie” without the Saint Denis.