French language Q&A Forum

I have a student who wants to know how to say the color "maroon". The hex color code #800000 gives "Maroon" as the answer on the encycolorpedia.fr site, but that's the only place I see it listed. Most "first choices" on translators give "marron" as the translation -- but how do you tell the difference between marron/maroon and marron/brown? Some give bordeaux or grenat as options -- and those are "related" colors on the encycolorpedia.fr site as well. Thank you for your help with this vexing dilemma. I hope the next student chooses something "easy" like navy blue!! :)

 I am reading "Le Petit Prince" and noticed that sometimes, passé composé is used in the description (NOT the dialogue)  instead of passé simple. In simple sentences like "J'ai ainsi vécu seul" and "J'ai vu un petit bonhomme tout à fait extraordinaire". 

There are instances where you can (or *have to*???) use passé composé in literature? I can't find any pattern so can someone explain this to me?  

Hello, I can’t find any lessons about “ce dont” on kwiziq though I’ve seen it being used by french people many times. So I look it up on lawless french and find a comparison between “ce dont” and “dont” (https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indefinite-relative-pronouns-ce-dont-quoi/) and I still can’t tell the difference between the two. Please help. Thank you so much!