{"id":26803,"date":"2017-05-02T05:40:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T03:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=26803"},"modified":"2017-05-02T20:18:18","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T18:18:18","slug":"its-spring-and-inspiration-is-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/its-spring-and-inspiration-is-in-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s spring and inspiration is in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

May has returned and with it the beautiful weather of le printemps<\/strong> (spring)<\/em> at least here in my little corner of the world. In France that means – even with the stress of les \u00e9lections pr\u00e9sidentielles <\/strong><\/a>(the presidential elections<\/em>), which are particularly heated this year*, and a recent spate of cold weather in the north and west where just this past week some spots experienced snow<\/a>! – it’s time to enjoy a series of long weekends<\/a> and escape for a few days.<\/p>\n

For a little escape of our own, I thought I’d share some inspirational quotes that ma tante Rose<\/strong> (my aunt Rose)<\/em><\/a> recently shared with me in one of her frequent e-mail missives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Un<\/td>\nAbb\u00e9 Pierre (yes, with an accent aigu\u00eb<\/em> on the ‘e’ even though it does not appear in the image!) was a French priest, member of the Resistance, and tireless defender of the poor, homeless people, and refugees. he was also an author with several books and articles to his name. (1912 – 2007) This quote says: A smile costs less than electricity, but it gives as much light.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Joseph Folliet – also known as Fr\u00e8re Geni\u00e8vre<\/strong> (Brother Genever)<\/em> – was also a French priest and writer, and he was also a sociologist.\u00a0 Also a member of the Resistance after being freed from a POW camp, he spent his post-war years working for peace as part of an international Catholic anti-war organization. (1903 – 1972) This quote says: Happy is he who has learned to laugh at himself: He hasn’t stopped having fun! (He’ll always have something to laugh about!)<\/em><\/td>\n\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nAntoine de Saint-Exupery is best know for his wonderful story of le Petit Prince<\/strong> (The Little Prince)<\/em>. He was a writer, but also a pilot, a poet, and a journalist. This quote is from his novel Vol de Nuit<\/strong> (Night flight) <\/em>about the early days of aviation and an attempt to establish overnight mail delivery from South America to Europe. (1900 – 1944) This quote says: To love is not to look at each other, it is to look together in the same direction.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Le second^ tour <\/em>(the second round of voting) will be le<\/em> dimanche 7 mai<\/em> (Sunday May 7th). Next time I post, France will know who her next president is going to be!<\/p>\n

^ Second ou deuxi\u00e8me? <\/em>As a rule, use second<\/em> to indicate the second of two things (when there are only two). You use deuxieme <\/em>to indicate the second thing in a list of more than two things. Since there are only two rounds of voting, the second round is le second tour<\/em>. Note that there is debate about the correct way to refer to the second World War (1939 – 1945) in French. While I grew up learning about la Deuxi\u00e8me Guerre Mondiale<\/em>, it seems that for some that appellation led too logically to the idea that there would be a third world war and that WWII should more properly be\u00a0la Seconde Guerre Mondiale.<\/em> I certainly hope we won’t have a troisieme guerre mondiale<\/em> (third world war)<\/em> any time soon, but when it comes to talking about WWII, I’m sticking with deuxi\u00e8me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

May has returned and with it the beautiful weather of le printemps (spring) at least here in my little corner of the world. In France that means – even with the stress of les \u00e9lections pr\u00e9sidentielles (the presidential elections), which are particularly heated this year*, and a recent spate of cold weather in the north…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":26807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[2149,11656,357,432],"class_list":["post-26803","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-france","tag-french-blog","tag-french-language","tag-french-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t