We spent Valentine's Day in Marseilles (not the easiest place for a wrinkling wife to keep her husband focused on the love of his life!). Posters, such as this one and the one below, were plastered all over the city. Dozens of demoiselles en dentelles. Oh no!
Jean-Marc will be in IOWA CITY next month and elsewhere in the States… meet him!
Kristin will be in Paris on March 1st at Shakespeare and Company (Talk begins at 7 p.m.)
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pimenter (pee-mohn-tay) verb
: to give spice to, to spice up
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A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
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The Gift of Listening
For the record, he did not forget a present on Valentines Day.
Though, je dois admettre, I have never received anything like it before, from mon amour. True, it is a useful gift!—and I certainly could not enjoy life without it, nor, perhaps, could you.
Without dallying any longer, I'll spill it—or, rather, sprinkle it: My husband gave me salt and pepper on Valentines Day.
No, I'm not using anymore mystical metaphors here—my better French half really did give his sweetheart seasoning! On second thought… looking at things that way—spice for Valentine's Day—I can't help but appreciate the accidental entendre.
"Accidental" or pas fait exprès, for my husband did not set out to buy spice for his bride on Cupid's Day. Although it did turn out to be the perfect topping to our overnight getaway, the one that brought us to Marseilles and, eventually, to that charming little place (where we had our cafés au lait…) on V-Day.
While Jean-Marc read the morning paper, my eyes scanned the boutique-bistro. The walls were lined with sweet and spicy temptations (chocolate and praline spread, honey, jam… as well as some specialty seasonings). As my husband read the sports pages, I commented on the sweet and savory products for sale, especially that attractive salt and pepper duo…. I admired the attractive baies roses inside the glass salt mill and commented about how nice and useful the salt and pepper set would be on our kitchen table!
But my Valentine didn't seem to be listening to me and, after 16 years of marriage, I have learned not to take it personally. Instead, I let Jean-Marc catch up on his favorite games while I practiced one of my favorite sports: people-watching. I studied the clients at the café, and the writer inside of me fell in love with each and every character. Oh, the stories they could tell!
When the handsome personnage facing me shook out the newspaper, folded it, and set it down beside the empty coffee cups and crumbs, I knew it was time to head home.
"Tu es prête, ma cherie?"
"Oui, allons-y!"
At the check-out counter Jean-Marc paid the waiter. Next, he paused, turning to me. "Chérie, would you like the salt and pepper?" And just like that, I got all giddy. Turns out he had been, after all this time, listening to me.
Possible topics of conversation.
- Would you like to comment on today's word or photos?
- What did YOU get (or give) for Valentine's Day?
- What is your favorite French term of endearment?
- Have you given "the gift of listening" lately and to whom?
- Are you the jealous type? Or is he (or she)?
Thank you for sharing your answer/s here, in the comments box.
French Vocabulary & Audio File:
Listen to these French words: Download Pimenter
Il n'y a rien de mieux qu'un weekend en amoureux, pour pimenter sa vie à deux.
There's nothing better than a romantic weekend to add spice to life as a couple.
la demoiselle = young lady
en (la) dentelle = in lace
je dois admettre = I must admit
mon amour = my love
entendre (double-entendre) = double meaning
pas fait exprès = not done on purpose
le café au lait = coffee with milk
une baie rose = pink peppercorn
le personnage = character
Tu es prête, ma chérie? = Are you ready, dear?
Oui. Allons-y! = Yes. Let's go!
French Alps Landscapes, Villages & Cuisine – Unique sightseeing tours: www.french-alps-tours.com
Votre Vu: luxury skin care. The finest French-made, natural products.
Hand-crafted in a family-owned lab, award-winning formulas for 80 years.
***
A Day in a Dog's Life… by Smokey "R" Dokey
Here, I look like something in between the flying nun and a cranky cat. By the way, no worries, it's just Ma and I playing.
We are full of Golden Lab love for each other.
And tenderness, too….
See how tall I am? That makes this an even higher love!
bises,
Smokey-Doo
Herbes de Provence (Special for Pizza) in Crock:
Herbes picked in Provence with a blend of oregano, thyme, basil & marjoram
Kindle Wireless Reading Device (my dad and belle-mère are addicted to theirs!).
France Magazine subscription
Easy French Reader: A fun and
easy new way to quickly acquire or enhance basic reading skills
In film: Paris Je T'aime Paris I love You.
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Hi Kristin,
I could use some “pimenter” after 28 years of marriage. I think my favorite phrase would be “Tu me rends fou”. Could be used either way! 🙂
Kristin,
My husband and I made a visit to a unique establishment in Maine called Soakology. http://www.soakology.com for V-Day. If anyone visits Portland Maine it is a must. It is a tea house and foot soak sanctuary and is pure bliss. One spends an hour here sipping tea while soaking one’s feet in a beautiful Italian ceramic bowl filled with an herbal concoction of choice from an extensive menu. The foot massage is an option worth its weight in gold. We left feeling light as a feather…..picked up sushi to bring home and watch the Olympics.
Kristin – I’m linking yours & Jean-Marc’s blog to mine at, http://www.theallwineagency.wordpress.com.
Suzan, I grew up in Maine, and although I do not get back there often, I love Portland. As a single woman and not seriously involved, I spent V-Day watching my favorite production of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth, and gazed at the dozen red roses sent to me from a “Secret Admirer.” Seriously…who does that anymore?!
What’s the expression I heard growing up all the time : “Variety is the spice of life”. I always took that as meaning it’s good to mix things up a bit, do things in different ways and keep open to different things – make life interesting rather than mundane. It strikes me as nearly every reader of this blog seems to embrace the positive in this adage, especially Suzan today!
Blistery, bright and beautiful in Bridgehampton today.
Bonjour Kristin from a very cold and rainy Baton Rouge. Husbands can be très surprenant, oui? My favorite French term of endearment has to be ‘Je t’adore’. During a moment of amour passionné my love uttered these words…all I could think was, “Now why does he want me to shut the door?” Son accent mauvais, mais son amour merveilleux. Il me manque tant. Bonne semaine.
Unlike Jean-Marc, I apparently was not listening. My wife and daughter-in-law often exchange books and both were waiting for (and talking about) a certain author’s second book. I gave my wife two cards for Valentine’s Day, my wife gave me a card and a CD of organ music by an organ improvisator (great music), my son gave my daughter-in-law the author’s second book…I have told my son and son-in-law that we have to stick together. If they have a brilliant idea for a gift that they think their mother/mother-in-law would like,too, let me know because I may have missed the clues.
Smokey, you’re looking great, but I think you need to find someone your own age to play with. It looks like you’re tiring your mother out.
I loved your Valentine’s story and read it to my husband, who commented, “Good thing he was listening.” 🙂 I always show him, as well as my grandkids, the photos of Smokey & Braise. Being the owner of a Yellow Lab, we all enjoy the pictures of your Golden Labs a lot!
I belong to a Paris discussion list, Paris_Oui, on yahoogroups, and have sent the information about your upcoming visit to Paris to the list, i.e., March 1st at Shakespeare and Company at 7 p.m.
Sandy
A delightful story, Kristin. Suzan, I may have to make a trip to Maine just to enjoy the tea/footbath. Who thinks of things like that?! To warm you inside and out. To (and I quote from John Denver) “fill up your senses.” C’est passionant! Merci pour les photos joyeux de Smokey et Blaise. They brought a smile to my face on this sunny but chilly day in SW KS.
Would love to see a photo of that wonderful salt and pepper you received!
Kristin,
My bags are being packed today for an all too short two weeks in Paris. I’m looking forwad to meeting you at Shakespeare and Co.! Thanks for your lovely Valentine’s Day story–it sounds like Jean-Marc is a real keeper! And Suzan–Portland, Maine is one of my favorite places in New England. I have a new spot to add to my list of things to do there!
What a wonderful story! An overnight getaway, gift or not, is the perfect celebration, and I love the image of the two of you sitting in that cafe in Marseille. Suzan, my husband and I had a foot massage together (not tea, however) when we were visiting our son in China. We still talk about how fabulous it was, but it never occurred to me to try to find some place here. You have inspired me. Merci!
Hi, Kristin
Realize and enjoy how very pretty you are and don’t spend a second wishing to looking like those airbrushed underwear models. No one actually looks like that!
Even though I told him not to buy me roses for Valentine’s Day because the prices are marked up… One dozen very white long stemmed roses. I like it when he doesn’t listen some times!
One of my favorite phrases in French is “Mon trésor”.
I learned this phrase when I was in the beautiful little village of Montresor in the Loire Valley of France. I was there with a dozen artists and we all had a lovely day painting!
Martina, what a sweetheart you have — so happy to read your note.
Leslie, thank you! I had not thought about air-brushing 🙂 Will remember that next time.
Cheryl, happy travels and see you soon!
Nancy, thank you for the suggestion. I’ve added a photo, here:
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/2010/02/pimenter.html
Sandy, I appreciate your help in promoting the Paris talk! Thank you! (I have been worried about whether the seats will be filled… meantime, I am working on my speech! And, does it ever need work–‘else even those (feared) empty seats will fall asleep! Two weeks to go…. )
Cindy, an extra hug for you today. Loved your “door/t’adore” story.
Every year my sister and I give eachother a valentine of sorts. For the past 3 days I have stayed at her house, not wanting to face the disaster of mine during the kitchen renovation….(kitchen is in the bedroom…one hotplate!) So, I brought her a nice bottle of wine and a Valentine angel. It is a little dirty stuffed snowmoman that I made a halo for, put on heart wings and painted a heart on the front of of her….she is about 3″ tall…and it was a nice evening!
Fun story today and beautiful salt and pepper grinders!
Air-brushed definitely. There is a powerful video by Dove called “Dove Digital Deception” which shows a very average looking woman coming into the Dove studios and after about 20 minutes of staff applying makeup, blow-drying and curling her hair, they take her picture and she really looks great. Then they show all the digital enhancements they make before they put her face on a billboard. Flash back to her “before” picture and the difference is stunning. Leslie is right. Noone looks like that.
The expression at our house about posters like that advertisement or cute waiters or waitresses is “Just because you’re on a diet, doesn’t mean you can’t read the menu!”
No jealousy here just a share appreciation of beauty in all it’s forms!
My second-favorite Valentine’s gift from my husband: I love roses, especially white ones, but he disapproves of buying cut flowers. So for our first Valentine’s Day together, he bought me two white climbing roses and planted them by a trellis where our front walk meets the street.
My favorite Valentine’s Day gift: our marriage. Three years after the rosebushes, we eloped and got married on a beach in New Zealand. Yesterday was our fourth anniversary.
(And a favorite non-Val Day gift: One time when he had to go to Toulouse and I couldn’t come with him, he brought back four jars of piment d’espelette for me. Trop pimente’!)
I’m so happy to see Jean-Marc is coming to Minneapolis again! I’ll hope to make his event this time.
Bonjour Kristin , My Valentine was a pot of herbs for my Paris garden … the small but growing collection of plants on our balcony here in Paris. I am a new bride of 59 who moved here from Oregon one year ago — bringing along my rescue dog pup — a lean, long-legged mix of Black Lab and (oh, gosh, I did not realize the other half when I adopted him in the US …) Great Dane! Also, I like, buy and wear Lise Charmel — so do not worry about wrinkles. What wrinkles? Cannot see them without my blasted glasses… Mon mari est un francais and our first year of marriage coincides with my first year in France. Learning French language and culture is my anti-aging remedy… All the best to you !
While all the gifts are lovely, I think the best Valentine’s gift of all is that smile across the breakfast table, the hand that always reaches for mine, the one who understands me best and can make me laugh, the one who says, “No worries, babe, at least we’re in this together.” I’ve had one of those for 32 years now (we met as babies!) and think I am the luckiest person breathing.:-)
Thanks for the tips about Portland, the viacarious thrill of a Sunday in Marseilles, and my regular French lesson! Your blog and fans are SUCH a gift!
Susan from Oregon – I want to be you!! 🙂
Hi “Susan from Oregon (and now in Paris!)” I hope you will stop into Shakespeare and Co… if you are free Monday evening (March 1st, 7 p.m.) There will be wine (Domaine Rouge-Bleu, bien sûr)!
Linda D., so true about the best gift being the attentive eyes and reaching hands and the “no worries, Babe, we’re in this together”. Enjoy your blessings!
I’d like to see a picture of the salt and pepper set too! Thanks.
Hi there Kristin,
I got excited when I read that you were in Paris – my how I would like to hear more about the city – how the women looked etc. I was hoping you would discribe the people you were watching in the cafe. Sounds like a wonderful life you’re leading with your handsome French husband, the winery and your sweet French children.
Love your blog!
Terry-Ann Torre Carlsbad CA
In the USA, as I recently read, St. Valentine’s Day is a true industry. I got candy and cards for the in-laws, flowers for my mother-in-law, and the same on a smaller scale for my widowed next-door neighbor. She told me her husband had proposed on Valentine’s Day, so I hope I brightened her day a bit.
Apparently Valentine’s Day is observed in France, as well? I hadn’t known that.
Will you post the Paris speech on the blog at some point after it has been given?
Dear Kristin, I didn’t get it for Valentine’s day, but I did get your book, Words in a French Life. I’m only up to “D” so far, and it is thoroughly enjoyable. One comment. This past October when we were in Menton, they called Haloween “le nuit de bon-bon”. Is this common? I have picked up so many new phrases from your book. I really hope to get over to your area this October. As for Valentine’s, we had a great dinner to equal one we had 30 years ago that started our romance. A bientot, Matt
Coincidentally, my husband and I also went out for coffee at a little place called “Anjou Bakery” near where we live in North Central Washington State on Valentines Day. It is roughly reminiscent of a cafe in France, and they make good bread, sell wonderful cheeses, oil and vinegars along with other treats. After we finished our mochas and quiche, my sweetheart went to the counter and bought me a container of mixed red, black and white peppercorns! (also some pickled figs ). I most like the phrase, “Je t’adore, mon cherie.” But maybe the most romantic cartoon character, Pepe LePew’s quote is even more captivating – “Come to me, my melon baby collie.”
Hi Kristin!
I’ve set your page as my internet default page to help practice my french. I’m attending Alliance Francais in Toronto, Canada right now and find it is difficult to retain what I’ve learned so far.
I love your writing style so much that after only 2 days of reading your page I bought your book! I just received it on friday!
Do you have any other suggestions book-wise? I was looking also at your suggestion of the Easy French Reader, but are there any others? I’m at level A2.3 at Alliance, which is basically halfway through the intermediate level of a basic user (if that even makes sense!)
My dream of being bilingual can feel unobtainable at times since I don’t have as much opportunity to speak french to others… 🙁
Certainly your page has helped so far though. Wish me luck that I’ll be making complete french sentences soon enough! 🙂
Loved your story about Valentine’s Day and how he was listening after all. Would you post a photo for all of us, please, of this famous salt and pepper set? I would love to see it. I read your page every day and enjoy it so much, plus it helps me to keep my French up just a little.
Again your gift of writing has painted a beautiful picture. One I often see in my own life, as well as reminding me that the every day gift’s we so often give each other can be as simple and beautiful as listening, thanking and smiling.
Hope to see pictures from Paris.
Missy
We went salsa dancing for the first time the night before V-day…so much FUN! This time I “listened” to my husband as it was his suggestion….
Gretel, ooh là là — salsa dancing! Will be putting this on our list of “100 things to do one day”
Missy, I’ll get some pic’s of Paris for you. Count on me! Perhaps a video, too–if the talk goes well (last night I had a nightmare that I showed up–completely unprepared! No books, no memorized speech… I was quickly scribbling speech notes, just behind the counter, as the attendees waited (and waited…) Needless to say, the rest of the “toss and turn” night I went over my talk. Now to sort out the main points and write a solid outline!
Frances and Monica, I have posted a picture, here http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/2010/02/pimenter.html
Debi, thanks for setting your default page to French Word-A-Day — I hope others will too! As for language learning book resources, good question. Does anyone have any suggestions to help Debi? (Debi, you might also check out my “French Word-A-Day book”: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1032545
Esther, re “”Come to me, my melon baby collie” — will have to try this one on Jean-Marc… 🙂
Matt, wishing you a happy read (and thanks go to the person who bought you my book!) Glad to learn “le nuit de bon-bon”.
Marianne, what a lovely gesture, your given the neighbor flowers.
Terry-Ann, before reading your comment, I thought the same thing (this morning, on waking: “should have described the cafe clientèle”. I’ll put this on my to-do list. Thanks!
Kristin, the first thing you suggested us to do, in our Coin commentaires, was commenting on today’s word if we felt like it. This could be interesting but I don’t have very much to say on the verb “pimenter”. So, I’ll stop for 2 seconds on the noun “un piment” .., and then, I’ll gather more ‘pepper’ words from the colourful word gallery:
– un piment = ‘hot’ pepper
– un piment rouge = ‘red hot’ pepper / chilli
Other French words for “pepper”?
– un poivron (veg) = ‘sweet’ pepper (red, green, orange, even yellow)
– le poivre = pepper (as in salt and pepper)
– un grain de poivre = a peppercorn
– le poivre noir / blanc / vert = black / white / green pepper
– le poivre rose / baie rose = pink pepper (berries here, no pepper’corns’)… is the wonderful “poivre” that attracted your eyes so much and thanks to which we got your wonderful story…
I give it the place of honour!
‘double-entendre’ is not the word of the day, but it belongs to the French Vocab list and it did attract my attention. The word looks so French, yet, it’s no longer a French word.
-> “double” = double
-> “entendre” = to hear, to mean, to understand.
“double-entendre” is a term that originated in France in the 17th century. It is a figure of speech based on words that have a double meaning, leading to some ambiguity (oh oh!) The expression passed into the English language, but is no longer used in France. So, nowadays, “double-entendre” may look very French but it can only to be found in an English dictionary.
The French modern version is either:
–> un mot “à double sens”, une expression “à double sens” or,
–> “un sous-entendu”, (“sous” = under and “entendu” = heard, meant, understood) -> = word/expression having a meaning hidden under the primary meaning.