Tag Archives: french blog
French Grammar – Putting an addition on the “the house of être” Posted by Tim Hildreth on Dec 5, 2017
êFrench uses helping verbs to form the past tense form known as the passé compose (the composed past)*. Most verbs use avoir as their helping verb while a select group though use être. While this rule is generally true, there is a special case when even verbs that usually take avoir use être to form…
Chartres Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 31, 2017
Located just over an hour to the southwest of Paris, the city of Chartres makes a perfect stop on the drive from Paris to points west (like la Bretagne). It is home to, among other things, the beautiful Notre-Dame de Chartres cathedral. That, along with a nice lunch, is just about a perfect detour in…
French singer – Anais Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 3, 2017
It’s octobre (October) and that means l’automne (fall), but it also means all the kids are (for the most part) settled back in school. School is where we learn some of life’s most important lessons comme le français (like French) and, for some, it’s where they first learn about l’amour (love). This week’s song pour les filles…
The monarchy is dead Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 26, 2017
Long live the nobility! One thing I’ve always found funny about France is that a country that so dramatically tried to eliminate all traces of the monarchy* (and ultimately did) would still have a fascination for – and many examples of – a noble class of landed aristocracy lying around. I came across two more…
Typical and charming Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 19, 2017
In one of my early posts on Paris, I referred to the opening scene of the movie Julie and Julia in which Meryl Streep playing Julia Child asks about finding somewhere eat, somewhere typique et charmant. At the time I was talking about one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. During my recent travels around…
A perfect marriage Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 5, 2017
Last Tuesday I got home from a wonderful 12-day trip to France for a family wedding. It was my first trip back in 4 years, and the first trip I’ve made to France with many of my family members. It was also the first trip I’ve ever made to France that I didn’t get to…
And now vacation is over Posted by Tim Hildreth on Aug 29, 2017
Back at the begining of August, we welcomed les grandes vacances (the period of French summer vacations) with a fun chanson (song) from Dorothée. Now as we get ready to return to l’école ou le travail (school or work), here’s another one to welcome la rentrée! Finies les vacances, Vacation time is over On s’est…