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Posts tagged ‘France’

Feb 5

9 Comments

No. 134: Chocolate Celebration

Paris Chocoloate

“He showed the words ‘chocolate cake’ to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. ‘Guilt’ was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: ‘celebration’.”

― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Scottish Chocolate

I know that most of us carry around emotional baggage tied to food and that there are plenty of French women (and men) who see food as the enemy, but I do find this cultural difference between the above word associations thought-provoking.

It does my body good to luxuriate in an exquisite piece of chocolate or share an artisanal pastry in a special moment, in the right atmosphere, rather than guiltily guzzling down a dozen of quelque chose in front of my computer.

gâteau au chocolat Paris

After 2 ½ years in France, I’m getting better and better at thinking of chocolate (and other foods) as a celebration and choosing smaller portions and higher quality foods over huge and highly processed junk.

….a massive 7-lb American chocolate cake from COSTCO...

….a massive 7-lb American chocolate cake from COSTCO…

Look at all those unnatural ingredients!
I could feed a small village with this massive cake!

Old habits die hard, but I find that this particular bad habit is easier to break en France.

…a much smaller, and far more expensive and delicious gâteau au chocolat (55€-$75), one could only afford for a true celebration...

…a much smaller, and far more expensive and delicious gâteau au chocolat (55€-$75), one could only afford for a true celebration…

Vocabulaire

en France: in France

quelque chose: something, anything

Feb 4

No. 133: Sunglasses Required

There aren’t many days in Paris when sunglasses are essential, but we just hit a few of those days this past weekend. Coming from a state that boasts 300 days of sunshine, I was used to always having a pair of sunglasses with me, but since moving to the City of Light, I can go months without showing off my bug eyes.

Sunday and Monday were exceptionnelles. When Paris skies are blue, the whole city takes note and rushes out to soak up a bit of sunshine.

Vocabulaire

exceptionnelles: exceptional

Feb 3

10 Comments

No. 132: Franglais

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!

hollande helmet

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!

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.

_72263022_hollande_getty

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!

Francois Hollande at his press conference.
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….

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...

…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.

Feb 3

7 Comments

No. 131: Le Jour des Crêpes

While Americans waited (and saw) Punxsutawney Phil’s furry shadow today, the French were busy getting ready for le jour des crêpes, or la Chandeleur.

In Catholic France, Chandeleur marks the purification of Mary and the presentation of the baby Jesus to the Roman temple 40 days after his birth. It is known as the day of hope and light, and in the church is celebrated with heaps of candles and a procession.

So, where do the crêpes come in?

crêpes

Savoury crêpes are actually called galettes (and are made with buckwheat) this is a galette de blé noir au saumon fumé that we enjoyed today to celebrate the day.

Well apparently this candle lighting and procession marching has been going on for a very, very long time in the Christian world. At some point early on, the ruling Pope wanted to reward and fortify the pilgrims who came all the way to Rome to celebrate the festa candelarum, so he offered up crêpes to his flock.

Crêpes Suzette

This tradition stuck, and now each year, the French eat crêpes on February 2, forty days after Christmas. Games are played with flipping crêpes with one hand while holding a coin in the other, to predict your family’s prosperity…expert one-hand flippers with strong wrists required, please…

…and it is also the day to predict whether or not winter is ending, or if 40 more days of chilly weather are in the future.

Here are a couple of French proverbs that sum things up:

Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte.

Candlemas covered (in snow), forty days are lost (to winter).

Rosée à la Chandeleur, hiver à sa dernière heure.

Dew on Candlemas, winter is in its final hour.

Now, I couldn’t find any proverbs about brilliant sunshine and blue, blue skies, but this is what it looked like in Paris today:

Chinese New Year Celebration, Hôtel de Ville, Paris 2014

Chinese New Year Celebration, Hôtel de Ville, Paris 2014

So, I’m thinking that winter is in its final hours à Paris.

Sorry Punxsutawney, but I’ll take the crêpes and the sunshine, while you retreat back into your burrow and wait for the freeze to end.

Crêpes Suzette à la Hélène

Crêpes Suzette à la Hélène

Feb 1

9 Comments

No. 129-130: Becoming a Fabophile and One Last Kings’ Cake

I told you if I had grown up in France, I would probably be one of those crazy cat ladies, who instead of collecting cats, would be an extreme collector of fèves. Alas, just look at me now with my first real Galette des Rois season officially winding down, not only did I manage to share seven cakes this month, approximately one every 4 days, I also found the fève four times, and got to be queen for the day, or at least the evening, once a week.

féves

I consider this my first real Galette des Rois season, because prior to this January, I had no idea there was such a thing as a fabophile, or that there were entire websites and conventions devoted to this hobby. I come by this predilection honestly. My father, aka, the Grand Poobah, was a rabid collector of toys, and lived by the slogan, “The One with the Most Toys, Wins”. I think my maman would have been much happier if he only collected fèves. They take up a lot less room.

The Grand Poobah (and collector) with Kitcat, 1995

The Grand Poobah (and collector) with Kitcat, 1995

On top of the four fèves I won fair and square, I may also have purchased just a few (and been given some super tacky ones as a gift).

tacky féves

Okay. I’ll come clean. I spent 3 hours on a lovely, albeit, slightly fanatical, woman’s website exchanging franglaise messages about her collection. Obsessed with French pastries and pâtisseries, I finally decided on this delectable assortment of teeny tiny pastries. I paid a bit more than I should have, but my new friend, I reasoned, needed the money for a better set of fèves for herself.

féves pastries

They arrived tout de suite with a nice hand written note, and an extra surprise collection.

So, with one official fève season under my belt, I already have 20 little beans to use for my homemade Galette des Rois next year, as, bien sûr, I took another Galette des Rois cooking course last week.

féves

This time we learned to make it with frangipane cream: almond cream plus pastry cream. It was the best galette I’ve had to date, better than the bakers, and a heck of a lot cheaper.

…the last Galette des Rois of the season...

…the last Galette des Rois of the season…

The only snag with this fine homespun galette was that we forgot to put a fève in it. Drat! It’s decidedly likely I would have come away with one last treasure to add to my burgeoning collection.

(Please check back in a couple of days for one last recipe for one last Kings’ Cake.)

Vocabulaire:

fabophile: collector of fèves

fève: fève bean, broad bean; the prize inside the Galette des Rois

franglaise: French and English mixed

Galette des Rois: Kings’ Cake, eaten on Epiphany and throughout January.

pâtisseries: pastry shops

tout de suite: immediately

Jan 31

11 Comments

No. 128: maman gâteau

maman gâteau:

femme très attentionnée, qui fait des cadeaux; a very caring/attentive woman who gives presents…

soft, indulgent mother/woman...

I’m not feeling too confident about my French today after yesterday’s post, but I came across this phrase yesterday when I was reading. Not quite sure exactly what it meant,  I went in search of a definition. The second definition: soft, indulgent mother/woman…made more sense in the context of what I was reading. If I’m on target, the phrase makes me smile, because the literal translation is “cake mom” or “mom of cake”…

Who wouldn’t want a cake mom?

source: lejournaldemllem.canalblog.com

source: lejournaldemllem.canalblog.com

Vocabulaire

maman gâteau: soft, indulgent mother; but literally, cake mother

maman: mom; mother

Jan 30

10 Comments

No. 127: French Body Language

Lately I have been spending more time with a couple of French women. We try to speak French, but invariably we end up in English as they are far more fluent in my native tongue than I am in theirs. But it is still wonderful, and I feel like I am finally getting a small insiders view to what makes the French woman tick.

I have been secretly studying them, and trying to learn how to be a little more French, at least in my gestures, sounds and facial expressions. I find it very interesting because sometimes their gestures have completely different meanings from the same gesture in America, and sometimes they are gestures I’d never seen before moving to France.

Here are a few of my favorites that I am practicing en ce moment. I’m pretty sure most of these should only be used among friends.

*Ce n’est pas ma faute / Je n’en sais rien.

The French Shrug

These phrases usually accompanies the good old Gallic shrug—raised shoulders, raised eyebrows, lower lip thrust out, hands held up like you are being robbed. Meaning: It’s not my fault / I don’t know (how that happened).

 

 

C’est Nul!

thumbs downThis saying accompanies the American thumbs down gesture to indicate something is worthless, foolish or just plain bad.

Rien!*

Nul! This one might confuse Americans because for us it’s the A-OK gesture—as in making a circle with your index finger and thumb while your other three fingers stay up. In French body language this actually means zero, zip, nothing, and, I’m guessing, irrelevant.

 

 

J’ai du nez.*

Nose_TapThis is a saying I don’t hear very often, but I see this gesture a lot when French women are talking together. They tap their nose with their index finger and look mischievously in your eyes. This, I believe, means they are cunning and quick and have seen the truth faster than anyone else in the conversation. I adore this gesture. It always makes me smile.

 

Il a un verre dans le nez.

alcoholThis saying and gesture is for when someone you’re hanging out with has had a bit too much to drink. For comedic relief (or behind the drinkers back), you make a fist and hold it up in front of your nose, tilt your head and twist your hand. Try it out at your next party.

 

 

Chut! / Silence!

Silence!When you want some one to shut up or fermez-la, you can hold up your index finger in the air (not in front of your lips), and give a severe look to the people disturbing you. French teachers use this gesture frequently.

Du fric!

too expensive!If you are out shopping with your French girlfriends or even talking about shopping or buying something, you will hear this expression. It accompanies the holding out of your hand and rubbing your thumb across you fingertips. This specifies that something is too expensive for you, or you need the money to buy it.

Et enfin…

 

Victoire!

Victoire!I never actually hear women say, “Victoire!”, but I see this symbol all the time. This, of course, in America is the “peace sign” or is used to signifies the number 2, when ordering something, but in France it means victory or success in accomplishing something.

* Please see the comment section for a reader’s different interpretation of some of these gestures. I am very grateful for all your feedback and corrections. French, it isn’t easy for me!

Vocabulaire:

en ce moment: at the moment

Et enfin…And finally…

fermez-la: shut it, or shut up

Victoire! Victory!

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