By the end of next year, the area immediately under and around the legendary Tour Eiffel will have changed a little…. It won’t be quite as we currently know it anymore. The reason for that is the ever present terrorist threat / la menace terroriste in the capital, especially around very populous sites, and this […]
Histoire de légumes! There was a fun question in a game / un jeu, yesterday on the French radio ; the contestants/ les participants had to recall three idiomatic expressions/ idiomes with the name of a vegetable or a fruit/ un légume ou un fruit. They easily won of course, the French language has so […]
The 41st Marathon de Paris is happening tomorrow, Sunday 9th of April. This year, more than 60 000 runners /coureurs are expected to take up the challenge / relever le défi on a course that will take them through the centre of the capital / la capitale, starting from Les Champs Elysées and finishing in […]
http://www.lejdc.fr/nevers/loisirs/internet-multimedia/2017/02/17/le-premier-etree-de-france-plante-a-nevers_12287980.html Nevers, in Burgundy, is my home town/ ma ville natale ; this is also where all my family still lives, and so I still visit a few times a year and of course never miss an opportunity to take its pulse…. when something is published in the press! Today an article from Le Journal […]
La chandeleur is the festival of chandelles / candles ; it falls on the 2nd of February each year (40 days after Christmas) and that is when we, French people, eat pancakes. The tradition is a little strange and tirée par les cheveux / far fetched -as we say- as it apparently dates from the […]
Oui! Il gèle! It is freezing outside. Every morning! And every morning I scrape off mon pare-brise/windscreen with un grattoir/scraper! That’s because I read this article (below) a while back on the dangers of pouring excessively hot water on it, with une fissure/crack as a possible consequence. According to the article, boosting le chauffage/heating and […]
Here is a little text for you to practise your French. This is about our end-of-year celebrations and customs. From exchanging calendars for money, in early December, to the buche for Christmas and the yummy Galette des rois in January. Fin décembre, le facteur et les pompiers passent pour apporter, l’un le nouveau calendrier des […]
http://museedelaboissellerie.com/ One of the most fascinating and quaint little museums I have visited this year is Le Musée de la Boissellerie (traditional wooden box industry) in Bois d’Amont, in the Haut-Jura. Housed in an old disused sawmill / une scierie, with walls charged with history, this large museum is situated in a small village, surrounded […]
. There are those among you –lovers and users of the French language- who are very happy when you can finally reach conversational level and be understood and understand enough in France to have a good time with friends, neighbours, etc… or even to deal with the plumber. For you, spelling is not really an […]
Impossible to tour Burgundy and miss out on its jewel : Dijon. Like a good tourist I walked the cobbled streets ; admired the imposing old medieval houses ; crossed the clean squares lined with gastro-restaurants, the handsome Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne and the Musée des Beaux-Arts ; bought my lunch in Les […]