May 21
Since I am crazy for the ET or TE (tour Eiffel) as the French say, I thought I’d try my hand at making some at home with the help of a few little hands. They may not be as pretty as the ones you find in the shops, but they do taste pretty darn good, and were made with love.
This fabulous weather has made it difficult for me to stay chez moi and blog the sunny days away. There are so many things to admire in France when the sky is blue, the temperature is warm and the natives are smiling. But it’s time to start catching up on the remaining 200-things-I-love-about-France, so here is a quick list of five springtime things I’m crazy for:
source: hikingartist.com
5. It’s now “legal” to eat ice cream in public. Need I say more?
giverny
source: profdefrances.blogspot.com
Je crois que c’est mieux to play the game of love, effeuiller la marguerite, in France than in America.
The odds are forever in your favor. You have at least a 4 out of 5 chance of finding some degree of love when pulling petals from a daisy en France.
source: satinandlace.blogspot.frl
Vocabulaire
effeuiller la marguerite: to play “he loves me, he loves me not”; literally, “to pick the petals off the daisy”
en français: in French
je crois que c’est mieux…I believe it is better to…
Feb 14
This one goes out to mon chéri, mon cœur, mon trognon.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Superman.
What’s your favorite term of endearment?
mon amour: my love, mon ange: my angel, mon bébé: my baby
ma belle my beautiful
ma biche: my doe, fawn, ma bichette: my little doe, mon bijou: my jewel
ma caille: my quail, mon canard: my duck
mon chaton; my kitten, ma chatte: my cat, mon cher / ma chère: my dear
mon chéri / ma chérie: my dearie
mon chou: my cream puff (my cabbage), mon petit cochon: my little pig
mon coco: my coco(nut) / rooster, ma cocotte: my hen
mon cœur: my heart, ma douce: my sweet / sweetie
mon doudou: blankie, soft one
mon grand / ma grande: my big guy / girl
mon lapin: my rabbit, ma loutre: my otter, mon loup: my wolf
ma mie: my dear/love (from mon amie, also the soft part of bread)
ma miel: my honey
mon mignon: my cutie, mon minet / mimi / ma minette: my pussycat
ma moitié: my half
mon nounours: my teddybear
mon petit / ma petite: my little guy / girl, ma poule: my hen
mon poulet / ma poulette: my chicken
ma poupée: my doll, mon poussin: my chick
mon précieux, ma précieuse: my precious, ma puce: my flea
mon sucre d’orge: my barley sugar / candy cane
mon trésor: my treasure, mon trognon: my (apple) core
source: Huffington Post
…and some equally amusing terms of endearment en anglais:
Angel, Angel Face, Boo, Baby, Baby Cakes, Babe, Bean, Bug, Bunny, Button
Chicken, Cookie Ears, Crab Cake, Cupcake, Cutie Pie, Dumpling, Darling, Goose
Hookie Poo, Honey, Honey Pie, Honey Bunny, Little Bucket
Little One, Love, Lovey, Love Bug
Mate, Muffin, Noodle, Pumpkin, Pookie, Pumpkin Pie, Peanut, Potato, Pine nut
Sassafras, Sass, Spicy Pepper, Soul Mate, Sweetheart, Sweetness
Sweet Thing, Sweet Pea
Sweetie-pie, Sweets, Sweet Cheeks, Sugar, Sugar Bug, Sugar Plum
Tootsie Pants, Toots, Widget
…and my all-time favorite: Cheese Weasel
Feb 3
My swell friend Julie brought this hillarious Franglais story about the sexual scandal involving France’s President François Hollande, his (now former) First Girlfriend and the (now) First Girlfriend in Waiting. It is old news, but I came across it in my email box again tonight, and laughed so hard (encore), that I thought it was worth sharing. It first appeared in the Daily Telegraph on January 16, 2014.
Even for those of my readers who don’t speak a lick of French, you should be able to figure this out, and it will give you all a pretty good idea of the level of French that I (sadly) deal in on a daily basis. Amusez-vous!
François Hollande est dans un spot de bother. Il est dans un pickle. Franchement, il est dans l’eau chaud. Selon un magazine français, le président a been having une affaire très steamy avec une femme improbably belle. Et hier, slap bang dans le middle de cette scandale, il devait give un grand press conference.
Quel luck rotten!
Mais il y avait un peu de bon news pour le pauvre homme: il est français. Et les français, apparently, ne care pas about les affaires steamy. En fait, un nouveau poll shows que depuis la scandale broke, le président a become plus populaire! En France, vous voyez, c’est seulement une scandale si un homme n’a pas une affaire.
En Paris, le press conference était complètement packed. En angleterre, les journalistes anglais ont regardé l’action à la télévision. Ils n’ont pas pu wait to écouter le gossip juicy about l’homme important et son bit sur le side.
En fin, le président – un petit fellow qui apparently a seulement un pair des chaussures – est arrivé. Pour once, il n’a pas porter son motorcycle helmet.
Sans further ado, il a commencé parler about l’économie. Il a parlé about it pour un très long temps. Cinq minutes, dix minutes, vingt minutes, trente minutes – tout sour l’économie!
C’était tout terribly intéressant, mais je n’ai pas pu help but feel qu’il y avait un éléphant dans la salle.
un éléphant dans la salle….
Mais still il a continué de parler about l’économie, et le banking, et le social security, et so on et so on. Zut alors! Monsieur le Président certainement avait beaucoup à dire about sujets that a rien to do avec le steamy hot shagging.
“Je suis desolé pour going into such detail,” a dit le président. Il est such un tease.
Finalement il a fini parler about son dratted économie. Donc! C’était temps pour some questions about les sujets plus importants, such as le hanky-panky! Naughty Monsieur le Président a been jouer au Cachez le Saucisse! Les journalistes français would avoir beaucoup de choses à dire about ça!
…les sujets plus importants, such as le hanky-panky…
“Excusez-moi, Monsieur le Président,” a dit un petit journaliste, très politely, “mais pouvez-vous possiblement tell nous, si ce n’est pas trop much trouble, qui at le moment est la ‘Première Femme’?”
“Non, je ne jolly well could pas,” a dit le président.
Et ça, apparently, était ça. Pas de further questions sur le rumpy-pumpy. Les journalistes français just voulaient to ask about le silly économie. Quel waste de temps ça was.
I’ve fallen a little bit behind on my postings post-holiday.
This is not the way I envisioned starting off this New Year, but sometimes “life happens” and the universe throws you a curve ball when you are least expecting it, forcing you to change course a little bit and refocus your energy.
But I am back now and reenergized by my resolutions to TRY not to beat myself up when things don’t go exactly as scheduled.
I hope to be more accepting of life just happening, rather than being planned, and be more kind to myself when I fail. I’d like to ease up on the reins and be more willing to go with the flow, be more gracious and giving, and smile more easily and often. But most of all, I want to spend more time in the present and less time dwelling on the past or preparing for the future.
That’s what I love about the challenge of this blog and my pledge to find one thing a day that brings me joy in this complex country. To me, this January represents not only the opportunity to reflect on the past, but a promise of a fresh start. And who doesn’t love a fresh start?
Reflecting on “fresh starts” over the last few days has reinforced in me the transformative power of our move to France.
Artist: Bianca @ http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk
Along with the excitement and steep learning curve that comes with an international move, I have also had the opportunity not only to begin to reinvent myself, but also to discover new things about myself and learn to be less risk adverse. While new beginnings and personal transformations certainly aren’t emblematic of life in France exclusively, they are of MY life in France.
Moving to Paris has given me the opportunity to see the world from a whole new perspective and to be part of an expat and French community that supports and nourishes me. It has certainly been humbling and challenging to be out of my comfort zone when it comes to learning a new language and trying to understand a different culture. But living here has pushed me to grow intellectually, gain confidence and remember who I am and what makes me happy.
In Paris I have been very lucky indeed to walk out my front door and be inspired by the physical beauty of this city I love. The architecture, the food, the culture, the attention to detail, the language, the people—they all still take my breath away. For all the good, bad and annoying things this country has to offer, I am grateful.
Alors, to my new readers in cyberland, and my dear friends and family, I wish you all the desire
Thanks for reading and supporting me, here is to your 365 days of something you love…bonne année!
Source: James Molgaard
I’m not sure if it’s true, but I have the impression that the French have been groomed to think about love from a very early age. After all, French is the language of love, and romance and France are often mentioned in the same breath.
And now la poste is getting in on the act. And why not? They are, after all, French postmen (and women).
Yep. Yesterday la poste was offering love advice at the Fête des Vendanges in Montmartre. As it was not only a celebration of wine and wine making, but also a celebration of l’amour, it seemed only natural (in a French way) for the uncharacteristically jolly postpeople to be counselling the crowd about love.
love advice from la poste
The advice for lovers is the kick-off for “Écrivez l’Amour”, a contest sponsored by la poste, to see who can write the most beautiful love letter (in 25 lines or less, handwritten, please).
Stay tuned for the winning letters announced in December.
Vocabulaire
écrire: to write
fête des vendanges: grape harvest festival
l’amour: love
la poste: the post office
365+ Things I Love About France 