Summertime in the seaside town of Cassis. Don't these chairs look like fruity popsicle flavors (that is, if flavor could be visible to the eye)? Grape, blueberry, citron vert, melon, framboise...
juilletiste (jwee-ay-teest) m&f
: a July vacationer
Audio file: Listen to Jean-Marc read this definition: Download MP3 or listen to Wav file
Un juilletiste c'est quelqu'un qui prend ses vacances au mois de Juillet, et un aoutien c'est quelqu'un qui prend ses vacances au mois d'Août. A juilletiste is someone who goes on vacation in July, and an aoutien is someone who goes on vacation in August.
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
Today, instead of a story, here is a list for you. I hope you'll respond by answering some of the questions that follow each item. Merci beaucoup!
Currently reading: La Bête Humaine. I am cheating, reading Zola's story in English. So far I prefer his L'Assommoir—or even his Joy of Life—to his novel The Beast Within, but I'm sticking with the story, which is said to be one of his best (Germinal is also recommended… wondering if I should have ordered that one instead?) P.S. I'm no "classics expert". I just enjoy the way Zola writes about human nature.
=> Tell us what you've read lately or recommend a book. Click here.
A "compliment" I received the other day (by a friend of my daughter's): "C'était bon! Tu cuisines mieux qu'avant!" (It was good. You cook better than you used too!).
=> What is an accidental insult you once received? Share it here.
Eating more of this: salade de pommes de terre
=>I'd love to know your favorite ingredient in potato salad… I hope to improve my own! Pickles, celery, red pepper? Any tips for potato salad dressing?
During a recent conversation with Mom: "I'm your mother. You can tell me anything!"
=> Who can you tell anything to? Who do you go to to unburden your heart? Click here.
Summer staple: les shorts en jean. Last year it was khakis, the year before that I wore a white knee-length peasant skirt all summer long, changing tops according to the mood.
=> What is your summer staple?
New favorite pastime: watching documentaries on YouTube! I loved this Indian video on terrace vegetable gardening (could not understand a word, but was inspired all the same!). Update: I just discovered the subtitles and will be watching this one again.
=> Please recommend a documentary.
=> P.S. you might enjoy this inspiring story of an American urban homestead. One commenter wrote that the ability to grow one's own food might be more valuable, in the future, than an MBA! Do you agree or disagree with that statement? Comment here.
Recent day trip: to a beach in Saintes Maries de la Mer. Looking around the beach, where there were more topless women than usual, I commented to my friend, Suzanne, that we were the only ones wearing a one piece. Suzanne corrected me: she herself was wearing a tankini!
=> Every felt the odd one out? Where were you at the time? Click here.
Latest nag: (to husband): "Please cover up the plate when you put leftovers in the fridge! Less moisture loss! Fewer odors!"
=> Do your family members stick stuff in the fridge like this? Or is it a French thing? Share here.
Getting a kick out of: the tomato plant that is growing out of our compost bin! Will it produce tomatoes now that it has produced little yellow flowerettes?
=> Do you make compost, or black gold?
Yesterday's dog mischief: while out on a walk with the dogs through the vineyard, we surprised a family of quails. The mama and her chicks scampered off in every direction, effectively throwing Smokey and Braise off track! I can still hear Smokey, "Which way did he go? Which way did he go?"
Best Kept Secret: It's true, we've been keeping a very big secret from you (!). Enough said. Stay tuned…. (You may have to wait a few weeks or a few years…. but I will let you know as soon as I can! The gag order is torturing me! The waiting is even more torturous!)
Déja Vu — you too? Do you ever catch yourself existing in the same moment as yesterday and the day before and the day before that? I'll never forget lying in my bed each night, in a studio apartment in Aix-en-Provence, staring at the intricate shadows cast across the ceiling. Night after night, there I was again—my eyes tracing, or studying, the same designs from above. 22 years later, and it is the same phenomenon of "I know this moment, it's the same every day. Here I am again, in this exact position!"
=> Do you ever catch yourself in the "same place same position" twilight kind of zone? And do you ever feel a little creeped out about it? As if such moments were the mileposts in one's life span?
Really enjoying our weekly wine-tastings, which spice up a very regular routine here at the vineyard! Speaking of spice, it was hot-hot-hot the day this picture was taken. From left to right, the glowing cheeks belong to: Charlene, Judy, Karen, and me. P.S. the next wine-tastings are July 16th (4pm) and July 24th (5pm). Leave a message in the comments box if you would like to join us!
Grammar notes and more
Several readers wrote in about the musée mistake (musée, it turns out, is masculine.) Just goes to show that each time I think I've learned a grammar rule (i.e.: words ending with "e" are usually feminine) one of those famous French exceptions pops up!
Jim Herlan's email was especially helpful. Here it is along with a good tip:
I believe that "musée" is masculine. Thus, "le musée." A good general rule is: English words with Latin roots that end in -um are masculine in French, as in "museum" or "le musée,"
Yoga Harvest. See photos from our 2010 harvest:
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/2010/09/le-moi.html
Laundry Harvest — and don't miss the "corvée" or "chore" post, with funny pics from our 2010 harvest
Can you guess which one is Smokey (those ears are a giveaway). What is Mama Braise saying? "Son…"
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alas, or alor,
my french (worse, gascon) husband and i battle over covering leftovers in the fridge. when we are in lectour, his hometown, i cringe at his father’s ‘friggo’. they leave meat dishes uncovered..as well as patés, etc…) definitely invest in LARGE boxes of arm&hammer (or have ta maman bring them when she visits) that have the ‘meshed’ side made for the frig. alas, that has been one of our compromises. he will cover things, now,but will not put dishes in the pot into sealed containers the night of the making. he leaves them in their pots for me to clean the next day. (I’m the cook, he’s the cleaner-upper)
I have just finished reading L’élégance de l’herisson by Muriel Barbery. This wouldn’t be a difficult book for you to read in French Kristin. I would be interested to know what the book club folks in Marseille are reading (you mentioned them last week or the week before. I love your essays. They make me long for my return trip to France next year. Hilary
Mama is saying to her son: “darling, you can’t stop an think because you will lose momentum, but if you trust in your self you can fly like me
La Vie Devant Soi by Romain Gary – a must- read… so touching!
Hi, Kristin,
What a nice light smorgasbord of summer thoughts and questions! As for books (classics being so wonderful to contrast with some modern fare), I have lately downloaded some Balzac and Edith Wharton from iBooks’ free selections. You can get them alternatively from openlibrary.org. As much as I love holding a real book (like yours) in my hands, it is also wonderful to read these classics for free on iPad or kindle. Just read Pere Goriot. Starts slow, but then moves along at a refreshingly modern pace – and I was surprised at the honest look at period Parisian society when married women promoted their young lovers into the elite circles of connections and power. Balzac’s powers of description are amazing. You can really see the rich interiors, the shoes, dresses and fine carriages.
I would also recommend putting audio books onto an iPod and listening to some fabulous reads while you garden or do housework.
For a documentary, try Life Without People, which I believe you can see in whole or in part anyway on YouTube. Fascinating visuals that posit how much the world would change, and how long our cities and monuments would last iif humans disappeared from the earth tomorrow.
Have a lovely summer!
Ellen from Beverly Hills
Documentary – Man on a Wire.
I am reading a great book by Émile Zola for the second time called Thérèse Raquin . The themes are still relevant today.
Books by Tatiana de Rosnay in French as well as in English are fantastic. There is a mystery series that takes place in various arrondissements in Paris that are good. The author is Cara Black.
Loved reading “Heaven is For Real” by Todd Burpo this summer! I don’t have much time to read (ironic when you make books for a living), but this one’s wonderful and a quick read. A much longer read, but SO inspiring is “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn. Changed my life!
Accidental insult? I have an aunt known for her lack of social skills, if you know what I mean. When seeing me for the first time in several years (and less than a year after having my first child), she exclaimed, “Well, you’ve gained a few pounds! You needed that, though. You were always too thin.” Hmph.
Summer staple? I like to design t-shirts, so I wear them everywhere. Self-promotion. 😉
Kristin, I think putting leftovers in the fridge uncovered is a guy thing. I hate it, too! 😉
Is anyone familiar with the Brigitte series of novels by Berthe Bernage, from the early 1900s? I bought one of the books at a library book sale years ago (this one: http://www.amazon.com/Brigitte-bonheur-autres-Bernage-Berthe/dp/B0000DSHU6 ), and love it! I would love to read more of them, but they are obviously long out of print. For anyone interested in a snapshot of a bygone era, I highly recommend this one.
You write: “Please cover up the plate when you put leftovers in the fridge! Less moisture loss! Less odors!”
It should be either “Less odor” or “Fewer odors.”
Oops! Just found this: http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/author/bernage-berthe/
I guess they can still be found. Yay!
One of my favourites is “First Light” by Goeffry Wellum, a true account of The Battle of Britain by one of the few pilots sill alive. Just brilliant.
Yes, I make compost and love what it does to my garden. For potato salad, use a big spoon of Dijon mustard with the mayo and sweet Cerdenne onions, chopped fine along with lemon juice and a slosh of olive oil. I do not use red peppers ever. I do use celery or for a wild salad, fenouille, raw, chopped fine. By the way, things are NOT chopped “finely” or “coarsely”…incorrect English but no one seems to know it.
As for insults, my father in law, who loved to provoke people, once said to me, Suzanne, you cook, you sew, you garden, you paint, you play the stock market, the piano—how come you’ve never amounted to anything?
I loved this…my response was another story.
Salut Kristin!
Netflix is a great place to find tons of excellent documentaries (I really appreciate you suggesting YouTube though, as I hadn’t thought of that). Some documentaries that I highly recommend include:
Food, Inc
The Human Experience
Burzynski
Waiting for Superman
The Horse Boy
The Harvest
Food Matters
All of these are available through Netflix streaming. They are all wonderfully informative films.
Amicalement,
~ Dana
PS
Just a thought…I think your secret is Jean-Marc plans to buy a vineyard near or in Marseille.
My french cajun grammy would mix mustard with oil and vinegar and herbs to dress her potato salad, not mayonaisse, like most Louisianans. It had never occurred to me that this was truly french…now that I’ve lived in Provence for 6 months I see how mustard is used in most salad dressings. Yum! It’s my most favorite potato salad.
I can remember when we lived “up north” and had a garden, we couldn’t give zucchini away. Now it is $1.49 a pound. Tomatoes are sprayed, hard as rocks and tasteless and cost more than fifty cents apiece. Fresh(?) veggies are an investment. Potato salad. Just add a little pickle relish, a splash of red wine vinegar and a bit of mustard with your mayo’. The best thing to come out of our compost pile when we lived on the edge of woods in N.Carolina was our cat. Nearly wild, he tamed (it took a while) and became the most loving pet we ever had.
un bon livre: > David Foenkinos
c’etait coupe…..La delicatesse
David Foenkinos
Best novels:
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Dr,Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak. The movie is great also. Fantastic cast, and music score.
War And Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.
So many great classics. Where does one draw the line?
Casablanca. Originally a play, adapted into
the movie. Now that’s one movie no one has dared to remake so far!!
Twilight Zones, Etc.!!!
I think that the more spiritual one is, the more twilight zones, etc., one is sure to enter. A bit unsettling when you start out life experiencing strange events, etc; especially when your parents don’t understand.
More strange still when twilight zones, prophetic dreams, and other “unusual” experiences don’t leave you as you grow older!!!
It’s really surprising just how many children experience Twilight Zone,and other events, usually losing them over time as adulthood takes over, and the innocence of childhood fades away.
Any wonder why children are accused of having such strong imaginations!! Not to mention the unsettled adult commotion their imaginary experiences cause worried parents, to the delight of child psychologists whose eyes sparkle with revolving dollars signs!
Rod Serling must have had some insight since childhood, which thankfully, became his passion.
Life appears to me to be extremely complex, and what we really know about our existence is virtually nothing, and those who do try to fathom life out are branded “Nutters” and a multitude of other things.
I think it’s great that you are exploring this subject.
Everyone can identify with it to some degree. Every person I have met, has had a story to tell of some strange event in their lives. No one is immune.
My grandmother once said in a grand voice at an extended family/friend dinner “you wouldn’t believe how handsome your father used to be!” As for books, Wolf Hall and now Bring Up the Bodies, but Wolf Hall has elicited a love/hate response among my friends. Moi, j’adore ca!
My favorite potato salad is with bacon, green onion, dill salt and pepper and the dressing is half mayonnaise and half sour cream. The secret is to coat the potatoes with a bit of the bacon grease before you put the sour cream and mayo on. The dill is a nice flavor.
I a re-reading the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon! Great read….and wonderful history!
My book club is reading Dreaming in French by Alice Yeager Kaplan. It is about 3 women and the impact on them of living in Paris for a year. The 3 women are Jackie Kennedy, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis.
I have only read the part about Jackie Kennedy, but it is quite interesting to me since I lived in Aix en Provence for my junior year abroad in college.
Always put a vinaigrette on the warm potatoes before doing anything else. After that red onion, lots of parsley, salt and pepper.I usually add a little mayonnaise and sometimes chopped chives.
Edie in Brunswick, Maine
I have just finished The Glass Castle, thanks to your recommendation several weeks ago. I could NOT put it down and will be using it as my selection in August at my book club when we are to bring a biography or memoir.
Amy
Definitely potatoes, hard boiled eggs and onion for potato salad. Optional are celery, dill pickle, parsley.
I like to add a vinegar-oil-mustard vinaigrette to the hot potatoes and mix. Then some mayonaise when cooled and the other ingredients are added.
This is a fabulous post, Kristin. I have to come back to it and finish, before I contribute, as I don’t have the time right now to give it’s due diligence. Thank you so much for all your thoughts and ideas!
I love capers in potato salad and lots of parsley
My lovely young friend gazed at my garden and said, ‘Your garden looks lovely, all wild and overgrown’. When I laughingly replied that that’s not a compliment to a gardener, she dug deeper and said, ‘it’s like a wild flower meadow’!
It is Saturday morning and a bowl of potato salad is resting on the picnic table. I have incorporated as many of your tips as possible–with what ingredients I had on hand! I love the idea of capers (thanks Jeanne) and have poured apple cider vinegar (thanks Robin) over the hot potatoes (thanks Karen). This is the same tip my mother-in-law, Michele-France, gave me years ago–but I had forgotten it! I also added herbs de Provence (merci April and Geraldine!). I kept it simple, using cornichons, hard-boiled eggs, and onions. After pouring the vinegar over, I lifted out the potatoes then added the olive oil, mustard, mayo, and sp — along with the herbs, to the dressing. No one mentioned whether or not they leave the potato skins on (I do).
I will try the other suggestions soon. Bacon is a good idea, and what about the lardons they use so often here?
Hiliary, here is the book club list that Agnès posted (click on link then go to the end of the comments):
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour/2012/07/dame.html
Thanks for the documentary suggestions (wish we had Netflix in France–or do we?) and for your thoughtful responses to the questions. It is a pleasure reading everyones thoughts here. Happy weekend! (P.S. some of the punctuation in this comment may not show up, as I am responding via email and there is a glitch that occurs when the comment appears online!)
Louise, thanks for such kind words!
David, thanks for the helpful edit. I need to learn when to use the word *fewer* and when to use *less*.
Elizabeth and Paula, yes, there will be wine tastings during harvest season — we hope! Please email or leave a comment (in any of the posts, I will see it) in September and I will let you know the current tasting schedule. P.S., Paula–loved your addition of sour cream to the potato salad dressing. Will try that one!
Happy Birthday Patience!
Rebecca, I get confused and forgetful about whether or not to capitalize the months (in French). As I typed that example sentence, I used non caps… but Jean-Marc, seeing my mistake (?) told me to capitalize them. Can anyone help with this and with the rest of Rebeccas question; here it is again:
I do have a grammar question. I majored in French but sometimes doubt myself–in your above example (Un juilletiste cest quelquun qui prend ses vacances au mois de Juillet, et un aoutien cest quelquun qui prend ses vacances au mois dAoût.) I noted two things that seemed off to me. First, arent you supposed to leave months un-capitalized in French? Juillet and août are both capitalized in your example. Second, why cest? I would say Un juilletiste est… and not Un juilletiste cest…. unless I put a comma between the two or were speaking rapidly and colloquially, where grammar slips are charming and expected. The c for ça adds a second subject, but you already have one, so it becomes superfluous.
I absolutely agree that we need to know how to grow our own food! There are a lot of young people that do not know where their food comes from. This is an excellent topic and if you haven’t seen it, you should see the Disney movie Wall-E. It is exactly about this topic and where we are headed if we don’t learn to grow our own food and learn to recycle…at least a bit!
In our house, we started small with our kids….growing strawberries and herbs. This year we’ve expanded to corn, watermelons and pumpkins. It’s important that they understand where and how to grow food, not only for La nouriture, but also for the experience of nurturing something, the accomplishment of taking care of something,watching it grow and being able to share it with others.
Thanks for all of the topics today and for asking for our 2 cents!
On a different note, it is le 14 juillet and I always think of French Independance day just as I do of the 4th of July. I remember learning about La prise de la bastille and the events surrounding it. Do you celebrate there as we do here? With potatoe salad?Ha!
I don’t know what to do first: make a list of all of these marvelous suggestions or add my own!!?? You have really opened a door to many delights and insights, Kristin. Thanks!
My latest book/author discovery is unlike any other books that I usually read but the stories drew me in.
The author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A short little introduction:
Hi Kristin
I am interested in visiting you and your wine tasting on 16 July but not sure exactly where you are? I am staying in Avignon.
To whom can you tell anything? To whom do you go to unburden your heart?
I’m sure everybody is going to hate me for the above but I’m used to it. lol It’s just that mistakes like that send me screaming up the wall… And you do say to correct you…
Lili
WOW !!! I FEEL LIKE I WOKE UP IN MY FAVORITE CANDY STORE THIS MORNING….so many wonderful nuggets of wonderful minds gathered here sharing the sweetness of friendship.
It is amazing how God works in our little universe of ‘FRENCH-WORD-A-DAY. Yesterday Kristi called me in the early morning to find my motherly ear and shed her woe’s and pain. Apparently someone had reviewed her book on AMAZON and left her an insult along with one a STAR rating. Of course we all know that writers and artists are very sensetive when it comes to their passion because they (as my favorite commenter Bill in Hawaii says, “They cut a vein and let it bleed all over the page/canvas.) As Kristi continued on with her thoughts a familiar phrase repeated itself as it always does when Kristi is defending her place in time – ‘I just want to be able to pick up one of my books when I am 80 and see where I truly was at that time of my life.’
Here is the good news – I know Kristi probably sat at her keyboard yesterday morning with the weight of this unkind comment, but she continued on because she does really in the end feel she has a connection and a responsibility to communicate with her readers plus record her place in time…..
AND LOOK AT ALL OF THE LOVE and JOY all of her readers sent her in the comments box after she pulled herself together and put out this post.
Your sharing and connecting here in the comments box is the fuel that Kristi thrives on each post-day.
I JUST LOVE EVERYONE IN THE COMMENTS BOX !!!!
And I am sure Kristi is flying high on the number of comments she has received from all of you this morning.
Maybe we need to think about feeding AMAZON some more reviews – is there anyone out there that can help with this?
XOXO
JULES
I compost everything I possibly can. I don’t have one of those special compost bins, but inherited a ‘heap’ down the back of my back yard. I dig everything in and am occasionally surprised by a potato plant yielding some fresh, un-fertilized, home-grown potatoes, sprouting from the middle of the heap. Lawn clippings also go on it. By doing this and putting all glass, cans, paper and cardboard into the recycling bins which our council collects fortnightly, there’s not much that goes into the rubbish bins. I just wish I could somehow recycle all the plastic bags. As for books, my favourire author is Susan Howatch. Bought my first book of hers to read on the train on my way home in 1976, and have read every one since. Favourites: ‘The Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘A Question of Integrity’ (which I think was published under the title. ‘The Wonder Worker’ in America). She is no longer writing, sadly, and has been called ‘a modern Anthony Trollop’. I don’t know his works, but she’s a superb story teller. Most of the last 8 or 9 explore themes of the clergy and related aspects of the Church of England, in gripping stories. I have copied several of the potato salad recipes and look forward to making them next summer. It’s freezing cold winter here in Melbourne (Australia) now!
Lately my husband and I are on a Mary Doria Russell kick. She is a brilliant woman and does her research to perfection. We just read “Doc” (historical fiction about Doc Holiday in the wild West) and “Dreamers of the Day” (another historical fiction about a shy American woman in the 1920s who witnesses the making of the middle east when she travels to Egypt and meets Lawrence of Arabia and the young Churchill). Presently we are starting on “A Thread of Grace” (historical fiction about the Italians who saved many Jewish families during Hitler’s regime. Great dialogue and characters overlapping factual history.
Just finished reading “The Swan Thieves” by Kate Furnivall. It was riveting. If you like the Impressionists, you’ll like this book.
summer ” uniform” : white knee-length shorts, black top or tunic, black sandals. You can dress it up or down, super practical and time-saving.
favorite thing in potato salad: capers and a little caper ” juice” and lots of onions.
Favorite MOST WONDERFUL latest book read ” the language of flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh a great story, a great one for you, Kristen! ( NY times bestseller)
Smokey : ” Yee Ha!!!!”
And your wonderful Mom is right, we artists want everyone to love everything we do, but I learned a long time ago that as long as you make the majority of your readers or art “appreciators” happy, then you should consider yourself very fortunate! I know 99.9 % of your readers LOVE your work, so you have it made in the shade!!
Grosses bises to all of you, specially Braise and the Smoke
Kristen and Jules,
What I love about this blog is that I truly feel as if I have come to know you and your family. I look forward to reading each new post, not only to hear about life in France but also to see what your family is up to. And of course, you’re an excellent writer, so that alone makes the blog worth reading. The negative commenter is obviously not a part of this blog and was expecting something different. Had he/she been part of your little online community, I think the reaction to the book would have been completely different!
I so agree. I think the negative review is because she doesn’t know you and your family. Being part of this wonderful “family” brings us all closer to your words.
Everyone cannot love us as we would like, so don’t take it to heart.
You are a joyous, wonderful writer and I always look forward to reading what you write.
xoxo
Recent book: Becoming George Sand.
Amusing youtube video: Henri 2, Paw de deux. (Becoming a french existentialist cat.)
Kristen, it is such a joy to read your postings and I love the thoughtful questions you posed.
The latest book that made an impact on me was, Please Look After Mom, by Kyung-Sook Shin. She is a Korean author and this is her first book published in English. The story begins with an elderly couple who travels to Seoul to visit their son. While boarding the train they become separated and mom is left behind. Her husband then gets off at the next stop, returns to where they were separated, and begins to look for her. The book is written in four voices, daughter, son, husband, and mom. Beautifully written, thought provoking, the question is, how do we really know the person we call mom?
Kristen, you have such a special relationship with your own mother that I know you will enjoy reading this book.
Hedy Holmberg
Kristin:
Just read “The Arrogant Years: One Girl’s Search for Her Lost Youth, From Cairo to Brooklyn”. This is a bittersweet memoir written by a journalist who is now an investigative reporter for the “Wall Street Journal”. Along the way the author gives us a wonderful portrait of her lovely, bookish, French speaking mother and her attempt to adjust to living in America.
Edie from Savannah
Potato Salad Tip (also works for Cole Slaw): Always, when I make dressings with mayonnaise, I “cut” the mayo using plain Greek Yogurt. It lightens and freshens!
DARLING KRISTI –
ARE YOU ORDERING ALL OF THESE WONDERFUL BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS…I have been checking them out on Amazon…
XOXO
MOM