How many, like this little gal, dream of riding a scooter through France? Photo of "Ephie" (effy) taken last week in Colmar. Never miss a word or photo, receive word-a-day via email or by RSS updates (for Yahoo, AOL, Google and more).
un rêve (rev)
: a dream
One way I learned French was by listening to the classics (check out songs by Charles Trenet). Share with us, here, your Best tips on learning French!
.
Example Sentence & Sound File:
J'ai fait un rêve. I had a dream. –Martin Luther King
*note: Jean-Marc tells me that "had", and not "have" is the popular French translation (at least it is the one that he is most familiar with), though MLK's exact words were I have a dream. How would you translate the famous quote? Your thoughts are welcome, here, in the comments box!
un mauvais rêve = a bad dream, nightmare
fais de beaux rêves! = sweet dreams!
Reverse Dictionary (notice how rêve is missing from these translations…)
Life is but a dream = la vie n'est qu'un songe
to be in a dream = être dans les nuages, dans la lune
everything went like a dream = tout est allé comme sur des roulettes
"La Douce France" by Michael Wrenn
For those of us dyed-in-the-wool francophiles, it is a difficult question. Why do we like France so much? The answer is more likely to come, not in sentence answers, but rather in paragraphs. Many will start by telling about a French teacher long ago in high school who either inspired or tortured them, then there was a photo in a textbook or magazine, or a film that awakened something inside that beckoned us, not unlike the sirens of antiquity, to come to France.
But why France?, so many ask. The French can be so difficult, so finicky, so hard to understand. And yet, that becomes part of the challenge: not only to conquer this beautiful but beguiling language, but to understand and know the country and its people. In the end, France dominates our hearts, our dreams, even our very souls.
Some of us came to France and immediately fell in love. After hearing more of Kristin Espinasse’s story, I find that we both share in that we came to France to study and were at first charmed, but had to go home and return again before we realized that la Douce France is where our hearts longed to be.
Kristin and many others like her have built their lives here. They pursue their dreams, and have beautiful families. Others, like me, have to be content with frequent trips, but I consider myself lucky to have a career where everyday I can teach young people about a land and a language that I love so much that I have devoted my entire career to its study. It is my vocation and my avocation. There is a special pleasure that comes when I am able to bring my students to France and share my love with them, and when I see that they, too, begin to love this special place, then I am a happy man….
Even with frequent trips to France, when I am back home in California I long and ache with all my heart to be in l’Hexagone. Especially in those darkening days of autumn and winter, when a trip to France seems like a lifetime away in far-off June, I find myself missing France. It is in those times when Kristin Espinasse has become for me a tresor d’or. Through her blog, she sends me a beautiful gift, three times a week, which allows me, for just a few minutes, to come back to my beloved France. And as a petit bonus, she helps this old professeur as she manages nearly every time to find some word or expression that is either new to me or long-forgotten, despite all my education and work.
Not only does Kristin share her world with us, a world where languages and cultures intersect, but she opens her life to us and brings us in, sharing with her devoted readers her joys, fears, hopes, and dreams. And by extension we share in the dreams of her beloved husband Jean-Marc, mother Jules, the children, the extended family and her friends. Through her writing, we are drawn in, and we become part of this special world that she and Jean-Marc have created. In viewing the comments from readers, it is immediately apparent that I am not alone in feeling this sense of a virtual family, all thanks to the efforts of this amazing writer.
As a reader for many years, I had longed to meet in person someone with whom I felt I shared so much. When the offer came to come to Ste. Cecile, and to bring along my dear students, well there was no question, we were going.
That is how we found ourselves on a warm 4th of July afternoon, sitting under a mulberry tree, just feet from the vineyard as a few sprinkles fell and offered a little relief from the muggy temperature. Jean-Marc showed us his old vines, and spoke to us about his winemaking; the students got to taste the fruit of his labor. Kristin shared about the writing process while the youngsters intently listened to her anecdotes and observations of life in France. Smokey and Braise vied for attention and calins from the students while the cigales sang and reminded us that we were surely in the South of France, not the Napa Valley.
Here, two people were not only opening up their lovely home with its view of the graceful vineyard, le Mont Ventoux and les Dentelles de Montmirail, but sharing their very lives with those who just happened to be there on that particular day.
As our autocar pulled away and we headed down the driveway that was lined with the rosemary and lavender that Kristin had pruned, I had a few words to share with my students to sum up our visit. I said to them, “You have just met two people who followed their dreams. If you like what you saw, perhaps it is time for you to start to think big, to dream, and begin doing the work that will make that dream come true. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams…”
As you can tell from Kristin’s and my words, this was indeed a very special visit. Even with both of us writing our hearts out, we can’t quite seem to capture the magic that was felt on that warm afternoon under the mulberry tree. Perhaps the answer is in something that was said many years ago by one of my former students when I asked him why he enjoyed his trip. I don’t really know, he responded, but there is just something special about France.
***
Michael Wrenn, Professeur de lettres
Saint Helena, California
Kristin, Michael, and California students–the ones our teenagers (away at horse and basketball camp!) were so upset to have missed!
Le Coin Commentaires
Did you enjoy Michael Wrenn's account of his visit? Can you help to answer Michael's question: Why do we like France so much? Just what is it about "la Douce France" that has us longing to return to l'Héxagon? Thank you for sharing your thoughts here, in the comments box.
French Vocabulary
la Douce France = sweet (beloved) France; a common moniker made even more popular by a Charles Trenet song
l’Hexagone = a euphamism for France, based on the shape of its borders
un petit bonus = a little extra, an added bonus
un tresor d’or = a golden treasure
un professeur = a teacher, professor
les calins (m) = caresses, displays of affection or pets (of affection), in the case of animals
les cigales (f) = cicadas, a locust-like insect found in the South of France, known for its chirping sounds
un autocar = a tour bus
Thank you for visiting our sponsor!
HOTELS IN FRANCE. Visit EasyToBook.com to find the cheapest hotels in almost all France cities.
Reach a France-friendly audience with your product or service. For ad rates contact kristin.espinasse AT gmail.com
Thank you, Nicholas Howell, for these pictures!
MY HABIT is Amazon's new private fashion sale site offering up to 60% off hand-picked styles from designer & boutique brands, featuring apparel, shoes, jewelry and accessories. New sale events start every day and typically run for 72 hours. Click here to discover MY HABIT.
"King of Spain": please don't miss the Gallic love story of how I met my husband… and mistook him for un roi. Read the introductory chapter to my book "Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language", click here. (The photo, above, was taken (by Jules) on Mother's Day, several weeks before our 17 year anniversary).
…and…
Has anyone read this book? I am wondering whether or not to order it!: The Summer of Katya: A Novel
In the golden summer of 1914, Jean-Marc Montjean, recently graduated from medical school, comes to the small French village of Salies to assist the village physician. His first assignment is to treat the brother of a beautiful woman named Katya Treville. As he and her family become friendly, he realizes they are haunted by an old, dark secret . . . but he can’t help falling deeply in love with Katya. Read customer reviews, here.
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Hi Kim,
I found the Youtube of “Frere Jacques” 🙂
I too remember singing this in day camp as a child…what fun that was!! Enjoy!
What a joy it was today to read what everybody wrote! I agree with all the lovely things that were said about France and the reasons to turn again and again.
The first time I went to France I was 21. I’ve been in love with France and it’s people ever since. Hopefully, I will be going again next year…I miss the relaxed pace of Provence and the beauty of Paris.
Also, I totally agree with the statements made about the public bathrooms…hahaha that always puzzled me.
I feel in love with France on my first visit when I was thirty and I try to go back once or twice a year, but sometimes I miss a year. France is a contrast of old and new (Notre Dame and the Pompidou Center), small quaint villages and large vibrant cities, cities surrounded by farms, yellow sunflowers and lavender and so much more. I love the lazy small hillside villages of Provence and the effervescence of the seaside villages. I love Paris any time of the year.
How can you not love a country that has 100+ cheeses and so much good wine and of course all of the great food.
Herm, I have always dreamed in color.
Suzanne, you brought back memories by mentioning the Hospice in Beaune, which everyone should see.
Janine, I was also born in the Hopital Americain in Neuilly.
It occurred to me that a possible translation for King’s “I have a dream” might be “Je garde un reve.”
When I briefly taught high-school French, I found that one doesn’t teach just the language. Some history, culture, and attitudes are inevitably included – and Mr. Wrenn has done an outstanding job conveyeing them to his students.
Beautiful post, eloquently stated! I, myself, have had the pleasure of meeting Kristin and Jean-Marc and it is easy to be smitten with them because they are genuine and not afraid to let people into their lives. You touched on the love affair that we all have with this country and it’s people. Professor, I love that you tied this all back to a lesson with your students. Bravo!(By the way, 18 years later, I am still stay in touch with my High School French teacher and although I did not get to go to France with her on a high school trip, I DID get to go with her after I graduated college. Thanks for inspiring these young people!)
Interestingly enough, I am reading the book
“Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, Why we love France, but not the French” by Jean Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow. Good, bad, right or wrong, it’s an interesting analysis. Has anyone else read it?
Bonne Journee a tous!
The feel of the history in the pavement and the cobblestones, and buildings have a quality that seems to get inside your bones and forever keeps calling you back “home.”
What a beautiful story, merci M.Wrenn et Mme Espinasse. I am so grateful (and a bit jealous) to hear about such a lovely afternoon under the mulberry tree.
M.Wrenn, I would love to know how you arranged your trip with your students. Did you use a company? Did you go on your own? I would like to arrange a trip for me own students but I am unsure how to create one that will be meaningful for them.
– Jessica
More on French bathrooms:
Some years back, my wife and I took a bus tour all over France stopping at a different small hotel each night. The hilarious conversation at dinner each evening was always the bathrooms. We all know blue means cold and red means hot, that is everyone except the French plumbers. How do you turn on the water? Both taps anticockwise or both clockwise? Or the left one clockwise and the right anticlockwise, or the reverse? Do you really have to step into the bidet to access the shower? How do you flush the toilet? There has to be a lever or something. Know I know why the French sometimes call it “le water”. They still believe it to be England,s revenge on the Frech.
Where is the shower head? Up above you, in front of your nose or at your navel level? What is that button in the floor? Try it if you want a cold sqirt up your you-know what. We know why there is always a drain in the bathroom floor, no shower curtain. It sure was lucky most of us showered BEFORE we had all that wine with dinner otherwise many of our international companions would have been either still wet or awfully smelly on the bus the next day.
Ah for French perfume.
Andre Ruellan
What an extraordinary experience you so generously provided to our kids! This is the kind of mind broadening that all of us parents hoped for when we accepted Mr. Wrenn’s offer and challenge to send our students to France. Thank you for hosting our travelers and providing a vehicle for Mr. Wrenn to share another example of his delightful writing with us. Bon chance to you all and perhaps I will be so lucky as to visit some day as well 🙂
I love France because it IS France and is like nowhere else, there is a different scent in the air, the people are friendly and helpful, it is sooooo different from California! I live in the Sonoma wine country and although the climate and terrain are very similar to Provence that is all. I have visited 9 times since 2004 and would love to figure a way to move there.
Hello Kristi and Jean-Marc! ope to see you for harvest 2012…I think my knee is ok with it, lol!
Have difficult time with subjonctif tense but I like——j’aie un reve.