Au mois de juillet, la ville organise un feu d’artifice au bord de la mer.

Yes. Au mois de juillet and En juillet both mean in July.

• En juillet is the more common, natural everyday way.
• Au mois de juillet is a little more explicit and slightly more formal or emphatic, like in the month of July.

So this sentence could also be:

En juillet, la ville organise un feu d’artifice au bord de la mer.

Both are correct.

Here, au is the contraction of à + le.

• à le mois de juillet becomes au mois de juillet

This is a very common French contraction:

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux

So au mois de juillet literally works like in/to the month of July, but in natural English we simply say in July or in the month of July.

Because after mois, French normally uses de directly before the name of the month:

• le mois de juillet
• le mois d’août
• le mois de mai

You do not use du before month names in this structure.

So:

• le mois de juillet = correct
• le mois du juillet = incorrect

In French, names of months are normally not capitalized unless they begin a sentence.

So French writes:

• juillet
• août
• décembre

not:

• Juillet
• Août
• Décembre

This is different from English, where month names are capitalized.

Yes, literally la ville means the city or the town, depending on context.

In a sentence like this, la ville organise..., it often means the city authorities, the town council, or the municipality rather than the physical city itself.

So the idea is:

• the city puts on / organizes a fireworks display

French often uses a place name or institution this way, just as English does:

• The school decided...
• The government announced...
• The city organizes...

Because the subject is la ville, which is singular.

• la ville = singular
• therefore the verb is organise = third person singular

Compare:

• La ville organise un feu d’artifice. = The city organizes a fireworks display.
• Les villes organisent un feu d’artifice. = The cities organize a fireworks display.

Organise is in the present tense.

More specifically, it is:

• the verb organiser
• third person singular
• present indicative

So:

• j’organise
• tu organises
• il/elle/on organise
• nous organisons
• vous organisez
• ils/elles organisent

In this sentence, the present tense can describe a habitual or scheduled event:

• In July, the city organizes a fireworks display...

Because French treats un feu d’artifice as a single event/display.

So:

• un feu d’artifice = a fireworks display

Even though English often uses the plural word fireworks, French usually uses this singular expression for the whole show.

You may also hear:

• des feux d’artifice = fireworks displays / several fireworks shows

But here, it is one event:

• un feu d’artifice

Literally, feu d’artifice is something like fire of artifice or artificial fire, but you should learn it as a fixed expression meaning:

• fireworks
• a fireworks display

The d’ is just de shortened before a vowel:

• de + artifice → d’artifice

This apostrophe happens very often in French:

• de + artifice → d’artifice
• de + eau → d’eau
• de + habitude → d’habitude

Au bord de la mer means by the sea or at the seaside.

Literally:

• au bord de = at the edge of / along / by
• la mer = the sea

So the whole phrase suggests the fireworks are organized near the shoreline.

It is a very common expression:

• au bord de la rivière = by the river
• au bord du lac = by the lake
• au bord de l’eau = by the water

Because mer is a feminine noun:

• la mer = the sea

After au bord de, you keep the correct article for the noun:

• au bord de la mer = by the sea
• au bord du lac = by the lake

Why du lac? Because:

• lac is masculine: le lac
• de + le = du

But:

• mer is feminine: la mer
• de + la = de la

So du mer is impossible.

Not exactly.

Au bord de la mer means by the sea, seaside, or at the water’s edge. It does not specifically mean on the beach.

If you want to say on the beach, you would usually say:

• sur la plage

So:

• au bord de la mer = by the sea
• sur la plage = on the beach

They can overlap in some situations, but they are not the same expression.

Because Au mois de juillet is a time expression placed at the beginning of the sentence.

In French, as in English, a comma is often used after an introductory phrase, especially a time phrase:

• Au mois de juillet, la ville organise...
• Le soir, nous sortons.
• Après le repas, ils partent.

The comma helps readability. In some shorter sentences, French punctuation can be a bit flexible, but here the comma is very natural.

No, the core sentence uses normal French word order:

• la ville = subject
• organise = verb
• un feu d’artifice = object
• au bord de la mer = place expression

So the basic structure is:

La ville organise un feu d’artifice au bord de la mer.

Then the time phrase is added at the beginning:

Au mois de juillet, la ville organise un feu d’artifice au bord de la mer.

This is very common in French:

• time expression + comma + normal sentence

Yes, sometimes, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• la ville = the city/town, often meaning the municipal authorities in a broad sense
• la mairie = the town hall / city hall / the mayor’s office

So:

• La ville organise un feu d’artifice. = The city organizes a fireworks display.
• La mairie organise un feu d’artifice. = The town hall / municipal administration organizes a fireworks display.

Both can work, but la ville sounds a bit broader and more public-facing in this sentence.

No, the final -s in organise is not pronounced.

A rough pronunciation is:

• or-ga-neez

More accurately in French, the last sound is like a z sound:

• organise /ɔʁ.ɡa.niz/

So the written -s is there for spelling and grammar, but you do not pronounce it separately.

Yes. The head noun is feu, which is masculine:

• un feu
• therefore un feu d’artifice

That is why the sentence says:

• un feu d’artifice

not:

• une feu d’artifice

When deciding gender in a phrase like this, the main noun usually determines it. Here, the main noun is feu.