Archive for 'Culture'
French Culture – Responding to a Crisis Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 24, 2020
Last week it still felt like we could ignore what is happening outside, at least here in the US. As France, following la Chine (China), l’Italie (Italy), l’Espagne (Spain), et bien d’autres pays (and many other countries) started to ask people to stay home and to keep physical distance, I know I for one wanted to focus…
French Language – Hope Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 17, 2020
This week’s song may be a few years old, but with the current evolving health situation in the world right now and the accompanying sense of angoisse (anxiety) gripping many nations, it seemed like a perfect time for a healthy dose of l’espoir. Hope While the song – signé (from, lit. signed) Gaëtan Roussel, the…
French Culture – Les Barbapapas Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 10, 2020
When I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of television. Even with a much smaller number of channels to choose from, I enjoyed discovering new and interesting programs. One that I enjoyed had a very French beginning, though I didn’t know it at the time. Les Barbapapas Perhaps I already had une âme…
French Culture – Architectural Oddities Posted by Tim Hildreth on Mar 3, 2020
The news from France doesn’t stop (apparently some people think that Emmanuel Macron is more than just a bad president) and I do want to touch on the spread of Covid-19 in France, but in times like these, we can all use a little bit of divertissement (distraction). L’architecture … hmmm … de Paris? Everyone…
French Language – Demonstrative Pronouns bis Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 25, 2020
A few weeks ago we reviewed demonstrative pronouns in French. As we discussed, les pronoms démonstratifs generally agree in gender and number with the nouns they replace … with one exception that we’ll look at this week. Le cas exceptionnel de ce Ce (or c’ when it comes before a vowel) is a demonstrative pronoun…
French News – A la une Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 18, 2020
Bienvenue (welcome) to another round up of the latest news from France! In areas as diverse as la politique (politics), la météo (the weather), la musique (music), and l’urbanisme (urban planning), a lot has been going in France. Le temps s’améliore Last week’s song by Saint André featured a weather term that was also very…
French Music – Saint André Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 11, 2020
We had Groundhog Day here in the US recently. The Groundhog Day tradition veut (is supposed to mean) that the arrival of spring will – or will not be – early depending on whether la marmotte (the groundhog) sees its ombre (shadow) or not. En attendant le printemps Regardless of what the groundhog said, we…