French language Q&A Forum

Why is indefiinite article omitted from Quelle excellente ideée?

I don’t understand why this translates in the present as well as in the historic past?

D'accord:

"You will NOT use le when talking about weekdays in a specific context (on Monday):

Mercredi, tu iras à l'école.On Wednesday, you will go to school."

 UNLESS "when giving a whole date (day/number/month/[year]), such as

Le mardi 5 mars, j'ai rencontré Lola.On Tuesday the 5th of March, I met Lola.

Par example on the test : Le mardi 6 janvier, j'étais malade.On Tuesday the 6th of January, I was sick.

HOWEVER< If the question was "On Tuesday I was sick" (without the whole date), it would be "Mardi, j'étais malade." 

Is that correct?? Thanks

The phrase I saw: 

Je suis tout à fait satisfait du cadeau que j’ai trouvé pour Sarah. Je l’ai emballé dans DU JOLI PAPIER et je lui donnerai ce soir.

Here the "du joli papier" I thought it is not preceded by any "de" preposition. "emballer dans" is the preceding phrase. So why is DU used here? A mistake?

I'm inferring from the context that "clou" here means something like "highlight" or perhaps "grand finale", but I was unable to anything like this sense in the reference materials that I have on hand. "The nail of this stay" doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so I figure it has to mean something else.

Help in sorting this out will be appreciated.