French Language Blog
Menu
Search

Archive for December, 2008

French Regions – Oh, ce conducteur du dimanche conduit trop lentement! Posted by on Dec 28, 2008

Today I came across this expression ‘conducteur du dimanche‘ which is the same in French as English…the ‘Sunday driver’ and I began thinking back to my time living in the outskirts of Paris and how I loved to take the car on Sunday or go with a friend on a Sunday on a drive to Versailles…

Continue Reading

French Holidays – Still Looking for Ideas for Your Christmas Menu? Posted by on Dec 24, 2008

Why not add some French flair to your holiday dinner?  Some very traditional French Christmas choices include dinde de Noël (Christmas turkey) which is prepared in a variety of interesting ways, chapon (capon) and any dish with foie gras including tatin pommes foie gras.   Here is a recipe for Tatin Pommes Foie Gras from the Marmiton website. Preparation Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes Ingredients: 3…

Continue Reading

French Christmas Carols and their English Equivalents Posted by on Dec 15, 2008

As promised, here are the French Christmas carols again and their English equivalents or translations… Vive le vent    Jingle Bells Douce nuit    Silent Night Le divin enfant    He is Born, the Holy Child Noël blanc    White Christmas Rodolphe    Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer Venez divin Messie   O Come, Devine…

Continue Reading

French Christmas Carols Posted by on Dec 12, 2008

Well, the holiday season is here in many parts of the world.  Although France is home to many different world religions, it is predominantly Roman Catholic (85% according to WikiAnswers).  So, everything to do with the Christmas season can be found in France as well as Québec.  Thus, this month I will write a few…

Continue Reading

French Language – Animate Nouns and Gender Posted by on Dec 11, 2008

We could say that there are six different types of nouns: animate nouns (people, animals), inanimate nouns (things, ideas), proper nouns (such as cities and names), common nouns (such as avenue, liberté), simple nouns (such as fourchette, papier, ami) and compound nouns (such as croque-monsieur, boîte aux lettres).  Today, we’re going to talk about animate…

Continue Reading

French Music – The Biggest Rock Star You’ve Never Heard Of Posted by on Dec 10, 2008

Quite possibly the highest-paid French singer (8.75 million euros in 2006 according to Figaro), Johnny Hallyday was born Jean Philippe Léo Smet in Paris on June 15, 1943, to Hugette and Léon Smet.  As a small child, he lived for four years in Great Britain with his paternal aunt, a dancer and silent film actress. …

Continue Reading

Quebec Elections Posted by on Dec 9, 2008

Yesterday, the people of Quebec headed to the voting booths for their provincial elections.  Due to the extremely cold weather, voter turnout was not great, but a majority liberal government was elected.  Besidesthe independent candidates, candidates from 9 different political parties could be found on the ballot.  These parties are Action démocratique du Québec, Parti…

Continue Reading

Older posts