Renewing My Carte De Séjour In France Posted by John Bauer on Nov 2, 2016
While I’ve been looking for a job and finishing mon mémoire, there has been another big source of stress in my life here in France: dealing with l’administration française (the French administration/government) and le paperasse (the paperwork) that comes with it. Ma carte de séjour (my residence permit) recently expired, and I had to go…
Recette: Boeuf Bourguignon Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Nov 1, 2016
It’s getting much colder here in New York– a sure sign that winter is fast approaching. Today, the grass was covered in a thin coat of frost (le givre) when I woke up–a not-so-pleasant reminder of the supposedly especially cold winter we are facing in the northeast! When it gets very cold, I tend to…
Vérités Éternelles* Posted by Tim Hildreth on Nov 1, 2016
C’est La Toussaint aujourd’hui. And since the holiday falls on a mardi (Tuesday) this year, it’s a safe bet that a lot of folks in France took yesterday off too to faire le pont from le week-end. And nice long weekends like this are great for catching up on your reading. Since I live and…
How I Prepared For My Thesis Defense In France Posted by John Bauer on Oct 26, 2016
Part of mon mémoire (my thesis) involved not just studying, but practicing my French and making sure I knew how to present my ideas clearly. I needed beaucoup de préparation (a lot of preparation) if I wanted to get un vingt. A few weeks ago Taghreed left a comment asking for some tips on la…
Mea culpa Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 25, 2016
Did you catch it? My mistake last week? Non? Well, I’m glad! But I’m also sorry if I misled anyone. Halloween of course is le 31 octobre (October 31) which is still a week away! I was either so excited for les déguisements et les bonbons (costumes and candy) or I was simply not paying attention…
La Toussaint (All Saints’ Day) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Oct 24, 2016
As Tim mentioned in a recent post, Halloween traditionally wasn’t celebrated in France and has only been exported to France is recent years from American traditions. Even when I was living in France around eight years ago, you wouldn’t see children trick-or-treat in the streets of Paris. Rather, some friends would hold small Halloween parties and…
L’on vs. On – What’s the Difference? Posted by Josh Dougherty on Oct 20, 2016
Bon or bien? An or année? C’est or il est? Tu or vous? As a student of French, you often encounter tricky pairs that don’t have an exact equivalent in your language. They require additional studying with plenty of examples for them to finally click, but eventually they become second nature. We’ve discussed many of…