No. 74: Père Noël’s Reindeer

…and what about Père Noël and his renne (reindeer)?

source: rukakuusamo.com

Well naturally some of them have different names in French, but to make things even easier for Santa on his big night,  the French have assigned each reindeer an unique attribute, just to make sure things run smoothly…

… et alors, you know…

TORNADE, le plus rapide, the quickest – DASHER

DANSEUR, la plus gracieuse, the most graceful—DANCER

FURIE, le plus puissant, the most powerful—PRANCER

FRINGANT, belle et puissante, the beautiful and powerful—VIXEN

COMÉTE, qui apporte le bonheur aux enfants, who brings children happiness—COMET

CUPIDON: qui améme l’amour aux enfant, who brings children love—CUPID

TONNERRE, le plus fort, the strongest (thunder)—DONNER

ÉCLAIR, qui apporte la lumière, who brings light, (lightning)—BLITZEN

…but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all…RODOLPHE LE RENNE AU NEZ ROUGE…

And even though in English, the carol starts by introducing the reindeer one-by-one, in French, it starts this way, while sung to the same familiar tune:

Quand la neige recouvre la verte Finlande,

Et que les rennes traversent la lande,

Le vent dans la nuit

Au troupeau parle encore de lui…

When snow covers green Finland

         And reindeer cross the moor

         The night wind

         Still talks to the herd about him…

Take a look here to see the whole song in action. Amusez-vous!

Vocabulaire

Amusez-vous! Have fun!

Père Noël: Father Christmas, Santa Claus

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