la mairie is where le maire works
You met le maire at L185. la mairie is his building — the town hall, and in France the place you go for a birth certificate, a marriage, or a passport form. In a large city it may also be called l'hôtel de ville, which has nothing to do with hotels.
| The mayor works at the town hall. | Le maire travaille à la mairie. |
Three words for where people live
| le centre-ville | the town centre | carded at L36 |
| la banlieue | the suburbs | the ring around a city |
| la capitale | the capital | the country's main city |
la banlieue is singular in French where English says the suburbs: Ils habitent en banlieue. Note the preposition — en banlieue, with no article, exactly like en ville.
gratuit
gratuit means free of charge, never free as in unconstrained — that is libre, which you have from L9. The two are not interchangeable:
| Le musée est gratuit. | The museum costs nothing. |
| La place est libre. | The seat is unoccupied. |
Its feminine adds a -e and changes the sound: gratuit / gratuite, where the final t is pronounced.
| The capital's museum is free. | Le musée de la capitale est gratuit. |
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