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Provence, terre insolite Posted by Jennie on Apr 22, 2010
Quand j’ai vécu (When I lived) en Provence, j’avais 15 ans. At age fifteen, I was already fascinée par la culture française, and especially by le sud de la France: the fabled South of France. When I decided to go to Provence (on a summer programme d’échange), I thought I would be Brigitte Bardot, passant…
Travel and volcanoes! Posted by Jennie on Apr 20, 2010
Le volcan Eygalskjfksdfjncadufhaushdfsksjfaskjdfsjdsaa has really changed the game for le transport aérien (aerial transportation). It has directed traffic to other forms of travel, as well as to the pleasures of being cloué à Paris or wherever you are stranded (if you keep your bonne humeur!). For us, it’s a chance to brush up on some…
American-style coffee, en français Posted by Jennie on Apr 16, 2010
Merci, BfromWR, de votre question: thank you for your question! Le commentateur BfromWR asked a very useful question about the post on ordering coffee from le 5 avril (April 5): “…How would one go about ordering the equivalent of your standard “North American style” coffee with cream and sugar? Commonly referred to as a “double double”…
Sarrasine! Posted by Jennie on Apr 14, 2010
Félicitations, Bill Penn! Congratulations to our commentateur for guessing that l’écrivain I hinted at last week was Honoré de Balzac. Ce soir (this evening), we’ll discuss une petite nouvelle (a novella) by Balzac, qui s’appelle (which is called) Sarrasine. Links to the texte intégrale (full text ) in French and English can be found at…
Le cinéma français: Entre les Murs Posted by Jennie on Apr 9, 2010
Hier soir (last night), I stayed up till 2h du matin (2:00 in the morning!) to finish watching “Entre les murs,” a film released in the US as “The Class.” Normalement, je ne suis pas très fan du cinéma—normally, I’m not a big fan of cinema. I get scared easily (« Le Roi Lion » m’a fait…
Confusing French Pair: La Langue vs. Le Langage Posted by Jennie on Apr 7, 2010
It’s hard to grasp as a débutant (beginner), but great French writing is elegantly structured without losing its clarté. More than croissants or fashion, I think la culture française se défine (French culture defines itself) by its language—both la langue and le langage. These two words fascinated me when I first learned them. They have…
Un petit déjeuner parisien Posted by Jennie on Apr 5, 2010
One of the things I miss most about Paris is the breakfasts—les petits déjeuners. (Before we go any further, did you know that « jeuner » means to fast, so « déjeuner » is literally to break the fast ?) Un petit déjeuner parisien, for me, c’est tout simple. It depends if you’re eating chez…