French language Q&A Forum

In French, what is the distinction between le mariage vs la noce.

I understand that le mariage is the commitment you make to another person.

But, what I find it a little confusing is that I've seen the two words used interchangably to describe the ceremony on the wedding day. Please explain this difference.

I'm a French teacher of 30+ years.  There isn't a  huge difference between j'aime bien and j'aime beaucoup, but the textbooks teach that aimer bien = to really like and aimer beaucoup = to like a lot.  

The lesson says that when talking about specifics, you use être, but the kwiz said this should be aller:

Martine était malade, mais elle ________ mieux à présent.

She is feeling better at present sounds like it is specific, so why is 'est' not right here?