To win the mysterious French antique, on offer in today's story, simply say hello, here in the comments box + let us know where you are writing in from. After randomly choosing a number, I will announce a winner on Friday. More about the giveaway, in today's story column.
Photo by Alison Johnston Lohry (Note to self: next time you post a photo of your person, choose any other post title… besides "Scatterbrained"! P.S. do you see a scar on my forehead? Ta da! This photo was taken four months after the first operation and a week before the second operation, the one mentioned in the previous post.)
étourdi(e) ay-toor-dee
: scatty, scatterbrained; flighty
Audio File: listen to our daughter, Jackie, pronouce today's word and example sentence: Download MP3 or Wav file
Il est bien étourdi; mais, entre nous, son coeur est bon.
He is quite featherbrained; but, between you and me, he has a good heart. —Voltaire, Complete Works of Voltaire
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
Scatterbrained
I am having a fickle of a time deciding what to write about today. It isn't a matter of writer's block, or la page blanche, the difficulty here is l'embarras du choix! So many possibilities! Which path to choose when it is just too tempting to amble down each windy road and lose oneself in that whimsical place affectionately known as "Just Around The Corner"?
Enough dreaming, it's time to choose a topic! Let's see…
I might tell you about our daughter's renewed passion for jumping (BMX bikes, this time—and not horses!). Jackie's hobby has me aching to line our concrete terrasse with mattresses! I watch, from the kitchen window, as our 14-year-old builds a new jump, adding yet another vineyard stone beneath the wobbly ramp (a repurposed wooden shutter) after each adrenaline-rich stunt….
Then again, I might write about some of the readers who come to visit. But then there have been so many…. To write about one would be to leave out the others. Quel dilemme! Perhaps I could backtrack… beginning with a photo from the most recent visit? (See the end of this post.)
Encore une fois, I had thought to write a story about a thank-you gift, the one I am trying to think up for the surgeon's assistante that I see this afternoon (stitches come out today!). What to give someone whom I know nothing about, but whose gentle confidence has touched me? Du vin? Des fleurs?
I should also update you with the good news: Max, 16, passed part of his driver's exam!: oui, il a réussi le code! This brings him to the "hands-on" part of the exam: the actual driving with an instructor! (such a relief to turn over the co-pilot seat—still wet from my sweaty, gripping hands—to a trained teacher!)
As for writing topics, I also thought this might be a good time to bring up the subject of email… please forgive me if you have sent in a note and if I haven't gotten back to you! I am trying, but no matter how many activities I cut out, in order to devote time to answering email, I still can't manage to keep up with incoming messages. I feel terrible about this… please know that I read and appreciate every single word you send, whether via email or via the comments box. Thank you so much!
There were about four or five or fifteen other lovely things, in addition to your treasured notes, that I wanted to talk to you about today, but time is up! So I will get to the fun part of this scatterbrained offering, this anti-essay that ran away to that curious "Just around the corner" place…
The G I V E A W A Y !
In thanks for reading this French word journal, I want to offer you the chance to win a little treasure! The trésor is currently a secret, but here's a hint: anyone would love it: young or "wizened", man or woman. If you like French antiques, you'll love this historic memento, one from my collection… one I adore and would love to offer you!
You might frame the antique… or wear it (making an eccentric necklace or an avant-garde pin?); you could put it in a glass box or make a whimsical collage…. You could carry it around in your pocket as a lucky charm or use it to mark a page in a book (never mind the bulk!). It could make a cool paper weight… though you might have to tie an extra something to it.
To win this antique simply leave a greeting here, in the comments box, along with your city. Example: "Hola from Jules in Puerto Vallarta!"
I will post the winner's name on Friday. No matter where you live in the world, you may enter the giveaway, by leaving a comment here. (Sorry, but no comments via email).
French Vocabulary
(section under construction… please check back!)
la page blanche = "the white page" or "le blocage de l'écrivain" (writer's block)
l'embarras du choix = a great variety of choices, an embarrassing number of choices
la terrasse = a paved area (sidewalk) or patio
quel dilemme = what a dilemma
encore une fois = then again
assistant(e) = assistant
du vin = some wine
des fleurs = some flowers
oui, il a réussi le code = yes, he passed the driver's exam
le trésor = treasure
I had a good tchatche, or chat, with artist, fiddler, and writer, Alison, who lives part of the year in the postcard pretty village of Sauve. Photo taken by Jackie Espinasse.
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Salut from Fort Mill, South Carolina!
Bonjour from Birmingham Alabama.
it’s Judy wishing she was back in Old Town Nice again!
Bonjour! Salut! from Mill Valley, CA
Hello from Bozeman, Montana, USA. I, too, am an oil painter and love painting the people and scenes from France! Love your French Word-A-Day!
Bonsoir de Gillian d’Albuquerque en Nouvel-Mexique
Greetings from Denver, Colorado, USA
Bonjour from Hamilton, Ohio
Bonjour Kristin! It’s Mary in Mount Vernon, Washington, where it has been unusually sunny and warm lately! (But not as warm and sunny as beautiful Provence!) Glad to hear the stitches are coming out today! Yea!
Bonjour from Beth and Tom in Washington, DC, soon to be in Cairanne. You look great, Kristin.
Greetings from Groveland, IL USA!
Bonjour from Cornelia in Vancouver Canada. Currently enjoying Blossoming and of course your blog.
Bonjour de Tucson, Arizona! Je m’appelle Jan Acorn, jan@gateway-destinations.com
Salut from Marcus in San Francisco, California
Thanks for sharing your life with us Kristin. I have purchased your new book! Bruce from Mission Viejo, Orange County, SoCal
Hello from sunny Cape Town, South Africa, Kristen – with much gratitude for your lovely correspondences (blog is just too inelegent to describe your writing)
Bonjour Kristin from Sharon in Vancouver BC Canada
Bonjour from Californie, USA. This is Melody. It finally rained here in the Los Angeles area today! A pleasant treat since it’s only rained maybe 3-5 days since Oct 2011.
Hello from Cherie in Billings, Montana!! Big Sky country!
I enjoy a petit dose of French life and words from your blog. Thank you for bringing light to each day. Merci!
Hello from Bateau Alouette in the Port du Roanne, FRANCE.!
Bonjour from one of your fans in El Cerrito, CA, near San Francisco!
Greetings from Tucson, Arizona, where we may get some snow on the mountains by morning.
The stitches are not visible in your beautiful
photo and even if they were they would not detract from your lovely smile.
Ginny
G’day mate! It’s a bonza summer day here, kangaroos hopping and kookaburras laughing.
From Jan in Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia.
Salut de LuAnn – Richmond, VA – Merci bien pour votre “slice of French life!”
Bonjour, from Petaluma, CA where I live for the moment.
Sending you smiles from San Diego
Bonjour from Jana McBride in Portland OR USA!
Hello from Maryke in Canberra, Australia – I really enjoy reading French-Word-A-Day. My husband and I are true francophiles. Spent 3 months in France from Dec 2011 to Feb 2012… and had the best white Christmas in Paris. au revoir
Hello from Maple Ridge, British Columbia.
Bonjour from Sillicon Valley in California, USA
Good-day from Cleeve in Melbourne, Australia. My daughter, Sophie is an exchange student for 12 months in Lyon.We plan to visit her in your summer and might even head down to Provence! Really love your emails and have alerted my French class here to your site. Merci!
Hello from Palo Alto, CA
Intrigued greetings to you and yours from a damp Alsace
Güten Morgan! Signing in from Deutschland and packing for my birthday in Paris. This is the WCF, Week of Celebrating Fifty!
Couscous de Leslie a Paris ET Sun Valley Idaho
Coucou from Leslie in Paris…
Coucou de Susan, from sunny Silicon Valley, California, where I delight in reading your blog. Your humor & humanness, so ever present in your stories & pictures, add joy to my week. Thank you. 🙂
Bonjour from San Francisco!
O Happy Day! From Torrance, California!
Good luck with your next procedure. I’m sure it will be as successful as the former one. How are les chiens? Seems like we haven’t seen hide nor hair of them in a while. They always make me smile. Sue Wallace, Frederick MD
Bonjour from Charleston, SC where it’s warm and sunny today!
Bonjour!
I enjoy your columns!I have read these for a few years now!
I live in Alliance, Ohio.I feel like I am touing along with you on these excursions! I hope that your health improves!
Merci Beaucoup!
Thanks. I knew the word from context from the song “Champs Elyssees”, “… tout etourdie par la longue nuit.” I took it to mean “giddy” with love; glad to know it’s true sense.
Love your column. Thanks again.
By the way, what a fun advendure to read Blossoming in Provence.
Hello from a cold and winterly Tromsø, Norway. I really enjoy your writing. Elise
Hi Kristin,
I enjoy reading your blog from France! I’m taking my first trip in May to Paris. I hope I can travel to other parts of France as well. Good Health and Heart to you!
Hello from Blaine, Washington. I love your stories of life in France.
Hope all is well with the Head Grape and the kiddos. Bonne Fete Amour!
Bonjour! Hello! From Debra in Seattle
Salut, Kristin! de l’etat de Illinois…Merci, toujours, pour les tresors que tu ecris et partages (sp?).
Hello from Christina in Wilmington, NC, USA