You'll excuse this old jug of wine for not washing its face before our photo session… tsk tsk!
Today's bilingual poem is for Mariem, Meissa, and Farès in Avignon… and the English version is for The Dirt Divas: Malou and Doreen: do you have any idea how much joy your flowers bring?
le point du jour (leuh pwahn doo joor)
: daybreak, dawn
French synonymes: aube (f) (daybreak), aurore (dawn), le matin (morning), la première lueur du jour (first light of day)
C'était le point du jour mais les fleurs dormaient toujours….
It was daybreak but the flowers were still sleeping….
………………………………………………………………….
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
…………………………………………………………………
I don't know much about history…
… geography …
(or even plants and trees)
and so I'm starting with morning glories…
(France)
seeds and the dawn of happenstance
I have many accidental gardener stories to tell you… once I settle down along with the fallen seeds. Hard to believe it is harvest time for some of the flowers in my garden. As the flower heads ripen in succession, I run around throttling the Lily of Spain, shaking off seeds and sometimes catching them.
Careful not to miss any overnight activity, I dash out to the flower beds each morning for a look-see. Wouldn't you know that some daisies are lackadaisical, whilst others (not to mention names, such as 'morning glories'…) are downright lazy?
Read on…
"Le Point du Jour"
Ce matin je me suis levée avant les ipomées.
Coucou, levez-vous!
Je me suis penchée vers ces fleurs matinales
Qui dormaient comme de futures cigales
Coucou! levez-vous!
Plus loin, les grillons ont fait leur cricri pareil,
Mais les jolies fleurs bleues
Elles ont continué leur grasse matinée.
Daybreak
This morning I woke up before the morning glorys
Cooee! (Hey oh!) wake up!
I leaned over towards the flowery auroras
who slept like future cicadas
Cooee! (Hey oh!) wake up!
Yonder the crickets called out the same ol' song
but the pretty blue flowers
continued their sleep along
Earlier, I asked you to excuse the dirty wine jug. This time, je vous prie to excuse me. This edition is choppy due to some technical problems brought on by the Mistral wind (how's that for a change from "the dog ate it?")
:: Le Coin Commentaire ::
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Bucolic butter dish–delightful! Wonderful mix and match rooster motif in the colors of Provence with coordinating floral accessories. Hand Painted Ceramic Dinnerware. Dishwasher & Microware Safe.
A Year in Provence… "I really loved this book." —Julia Child
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Hi Honey, I loved today’s post, to know that you are truly bonding with your garden is a wish come true for me. I know I have told you a million times, but here goes once again, BUY MULCH…and a little plant food never hurts. Also, strangely, I woke up last night thinking about that little rooster butter dish, thinking I could probably hide three pieces of candy in it beside my bed instead of butter…he really is adorable.
I remember Monsieur Mistral. One morning as I was walking down your driveway thinking I could not stand one more moment of his windy force, I passed from the barrier of your trees into his full rage as he roared down the Rhone Valley. I was stunned by the icy energy that nearly flatened me on the spot. Until one has experienced Monsieur Mistral – life in France is incomplete.
Could you please send me some of your great pasta summer salad receipes…John’s cooking is starting to get on my nerves…please no more mashed potato’s.
XOXO
MOM
Dear Mom, so many frustrations trying to get todays word out. (I hope it is not riddled with errors…). Your note brightens the room (the windows of which are shaking from Mr Mistral!). Lots of love.
I love this garden poem. It is true, gardening requires one each day to rush out and see what has pushed its tip a little further away from the earth. Here is to terra and flora!
awww…even sweeter than the lovely poem/song and story, is the comment exchange 🙂
Chere Kristin, today’s photo is perfection.
Merci pour la photo et la poésie. Take care.
Kristin,
I love the poem and the butter dish is adorable! I have read A Year in Provence and enjoyed it very much! I remember visiting Avignon and a shopkeeper told me about Le Mistral and how it has made people go crazy!
Je me suis penchée vers ses fleurs matinales
Qui dormez comme les futurs cigales
Désolé, mais vous avez fait une faute. Le verbe “dormez” ne s’accorde pas avec les sujet “ses fleurs”. Ça doit être “dormaient”.
Oops! Une autre.
Mais les jolies fleurs bleues
Elles ont continuées leur grasse matinée.
The past participle “continuées” does not agree with the subject “elles” but with a preceding direct object IF there is one. It should read: “Elles ont continué leur grasse matinée”.
A nice poem but after teaching French for many years, I can’t stop correcting errors. Je vous demande pardon.
Hi Kristin,
I would not be able to tell that it was choppy but I like your creativity in coming up with excuses…so I am going to use the excuse of Santa Ana winds! : ) I love it that you harvest flower seeds, do you replant from seeds always? Have a great one and it is ok that the jug of wine is unwashed!
xx
Moi, aussi. J’ai fait une faute. I wrote “LES sujet” when it should be “LE sujet”. C’est ma faute, c’est ma faute, c’est ma plus grande faute d’orthographe! (Jacques Prévert)
Thank you for the very kind comments and thanks, Bill, for the needed corrections. If youll all keep correcting… then well try for some more stories in French. … 🙂
Lovely photo! And I enjoyed your garden poems. Gardening and the fruits of the work just speak to my soul.
The poem was sweet, and since my french is limited I loved being able to read and understand it. Loved the photo too. Think I will send your mother a summer pasta salad recipe.
Daybreak…le pont de jour. I like that. Here we name our houses as we have no street addresses….mine has unofficially been sundowner, or sundown….does anyone have a nice french phrase that I could use?
Sleeping sun? any help?
Merci.
Photo, poetry and prose all in one post and all of it lovely! Too bad blaming the wind doesn’t work around here–we have to pin it all on the humidity!
Salut tout le monde,
Kristin blames the wind. Leslie blames the humidity. Here in Phoenix, AZ it’s the heat….105 degrees F. today. Many of us will be heading up to the northern Arizona mountains to cool off!
À bientôt,
Herm
I’ve never had the “joy” of experiencing the Mistral, but those who have say it’s truely awful.
So what do people in Provence think of Peter Mayle’s books on Provence? My wife made the mistake of telling a hotel clerk from Provence (we were in London) that he must love Peter Mayle’s books. His response was that Peter Mayle was despised in Provence because now there were all sorts of foreigners wandering around Provence, clogging up the roads, overrunning the towns, etc. So he still not liked in Provence, Kristin?
Love it all, Kristi…beautiful photo, poem & post! I look forward to touring my yard each morning to see what is new. Here, my rose buds are beginning to open (those the deer didn’t eat). I wonder, is your hollyhock soon to bloom?
Thank you, Jules, mulching and fertilizing are on my weekend to-do list.
Keep on writing in French. It really helps and the corrections do also.
Jules – you wrote very poetically today. I too enjoyed this exchange between you and Kristin as much as the post.
Life seems so much simpler when we talk of flowers, doesn’t it?
Gorgeous photo of the old jug! Do I see you in the reflection?
And I’ve really enjoyed Peter Mayle’s writing!
In response to Jules…. I’ve experienced Monsieur Mistral, and had the misfortune of having to replace a broken window because of it. There’s a spot in Marseille on the Corniche Kennedy where the wind is so powerful that the locals tell of a time it ripped the door off a car.
Chere Kristen, the post is lovely…the poem the very idea of our connection to our gardens is, as you know, near and dear to my heart. Tonight, as I fed the fish in the little water garden, I wnadered about and WA!la! (does anyone else remember WHO said “wala….instead of “voila”? in a certain book???) I saw the first firefly of the summer. Maxine was out w/me and I could see her reaction as they lit up. All eyes and ears and interest…another thing to chase and be glad about. I am glad about FWAD, and Jules, loved your comment about too much mashed taters! Ha! Just mix pasta with about ANYTHING…using a nice vinaigrette salad dressing, too…it’s your call!
Just be patient…. The Morning Glories in France don’t grow nor bloom lots until late August or early September. Then they go crazy!!! So, keep watering and keeping them alive and you will LOVE them in September! They are fabulous! XXX Allison
Bonjour Kristin
Such a joy to read you, comme d’habitude.
I am Not a poet or a grammarian, je ne suis pas une intello! But I read you avec le Cœur et les oreilles.
Please consider:
1/ using the présent tense: “les fleurs matinales qui dorment”, rather than “qui dormaient”
2/ cigale is féminin, so: “les futures cigales”.
3/ cricri is usually spelt (or spelled) cri cri or cri-cri
4/ Insert a comma after fleurs bleues, or maybe delete “Elles” on the last line.
It’s winter in Brisbane, sunny, blue skies and it’s now cool enough to sow my coriander, chervil and parley… 🙂
Hi Kristin – have just discovered your blog and have added ‘Words in a French Life’ to our France page at Packabook. If you are looking for it, you need to click on ‘France – True Stories’ in the right hand navigation on the France page.
Thank you – it is exactly the kind of book we love to share with our readers….and now, I am going to go for a good, long meander around the south of France via your blog!
Suzi