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Meantime, Kristi says: I know I'm becoming French because….
I'm writing for two French magazines! France Today and, now, French Provincial–Australia's #1 magazine for French style and culture!
Thrilled to be joining the editorial team at French Provincial. This magazine, once only found in stores in Australie, is now available to all of us via digital subscription! You can buy any issue. (To see my back page column, select the issue pictured here :-)
TODAY'S WORD
éternuer (ay-tehr-noo-ay)
: to sneeze, or expirer bruyamment (breathe out loudly)
AUDIO FILE
One way you know you're becoming French is when you answer "à vos souhaits" after somebody sneezes. (Listen to Jean-Marc read the example sentence): Download MP3 or Wav file
Eternuer. Atchoum! Quand on éternue en France, on dit: "A vos souhaits" ou "à tes souhaits."
To sneeze. Achoo! When someone sneezes in France, we say: "Bless you."
A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE… by Kristin Espinasse
After telling you to complete the sentence, "You know you are becoming French when (fill in blank)," I began to worry that some of you might not know how to answer.
"But I've never been to France," you might say. "How can I be sure I'm becoming French when I've not been exposed to all the French culture that I'm dying to be exposed to!!
Never Fear! Pas de souci! I've been digging through my photo archives to come up with pictures to jog your mind. Do any of today's photos sing to you?
Here are those pictures, along with possible ways you may be becoming French and not even know it!
1) (Observe photo at opening of this edition: You know you're becoming French when you buy baguettes (even frozen ones) at every chance.
You know you are becoming French when…
2) The sight of French penmanship makes your heart do backflips: flip, flip, flip, flippity-dip!
3) You're an olive eater. Sure, the Greeks are olive eaters too, but you are a French olive eater! (Think little niçoise olives…)
4) You love bleu things, bis things, and boot things (or sabots like that yellow one, with the flowers in it).
To sidetrack a bit, and because you are hungry to learn all things French–I just know you are wondering about significance of "bis" when you see the little word written beside a house number. Well, let me tell you, after 21 years in France I learned this most significant detail last week…. when trying to find Beth and Guillermo's house.
"By the way," Beth had said in a second email, "I live at 9 rue (bla bla bla)."
But when Jean-Marc and I turned up at number 9, and a grand-mère opened the door in her little apron or tablier–a whoosh of pot-au-feu vapors streaming out beside her, I knew we were not chez Beth and Guillermo (who'd promised to make TAGINE!).
"Are you sure your friends aren't at 9 bis?" Grand-mère said….
Turns out they were! And the first thing I said to Beth after kissing her on both cheeks is: YOU ARE at 9 A! Not "9". NINE A!
So, dear readers, let's remember this one together, once and for all:
Bis = "A" when referring to a house number. The photo above, therefore, reads "65 A"
5) You know you are becoming French when you are territorial….
The sign at the bus stop reads: "Chaise à laisser sur place. SVP. Merci" (Don't touch this chair, please. It belongs here. Thanks!")
2007. Cooking for our first harvesters, back at Domaine Rouge-Bleu….
6) You know you are becoming French when your kitchen has little French touches here and there and everywhere
COMMENTS HERE
YOUR TURN! Tell us one way in which you know you're becoming French. Click here and enter to win the book just below.
Thanks go out to these sponsors:
Provence Dreamin'? Maison des Pelerins, Sablet. A Vacation Rental Dream in the heart of the Côte du Rhone.
Provence & French Alps Tours – Two regions of France in one affordable tour. Majestic mountains, Provence colors. Wine tastings, Michelin Star cuisine.
One more way you are becoming French: you love ferronnerie d'art or ironwork of art. Here, in our shopping section, is a cozy kissing bench for the garden. It is also a wonderful conversation piece. I'm looking for one of these in France, meantime, for US readers, you can get one at Amazon!
WINNER UPDATE
Félicitations to Cynthia Lewis who has won the copy of this charming book.
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When my teenaged daughter’s friend – a guy no less – walked in my house and noticed enough decor, photos, etc to say “Guess your mom likes France?”. And I think I’m more excited about her upcoming sejour in France than she is!
I knew I was becoming a little French when the waiter at La Dôme in Paris made a little joke in French. I tried to keep our conversation in French. At the end of the evening he said,”vous venez d’oú?”
— “Les États-unis. et vous?”
— “France”
— “Oui mais oú en France?”
— “la Bretagne. la petite Bretagne.”
I looked at him quizically.
— “au lieu de la Grande Bretagne.”
Oh now I get it.
Each time I make my yearly trip to Paris I buy a vintage silver serving spoon, my collection now allows me to use one different spoon/utensil every evening.
I also collect kitchen towels to use.
I know I’m becoming French when I follow the weather reports for Carcassonne even though I live in Maine, USA. I also keep a close eye on the dollar/euro exchange rates!
I know I’m becoming more French because I tend to buy items with a French theme. Love, love, love!
I notice myself making the French reaction more in the states by constantly using my mouth to go “pffffffff” after the slightest things or even the smallest amount of frustration.
I must have two. The screen savers on both our computers are images from our 2011 trip to France, including some from Ste. Cecile when we visited for a petite degustation. And the second, the car of my dream is an old beat up Citroen 2CV. C’est la.
because I can’t give up the dream of actually speaking the language. Sigh. Some day. peut-être.
I wake up from dreams of trying to communicate in French.
When I began to leave my eggs out on the counter, my butter out in a dish so it would be room temp, and not minding paying $3.00 a lb for shallots to add to your oil and vinager salad dressing! I will forever miss France. 🙁
I know I’m becoming French because I don’t mind slow service at a restaurant, and actually prefer it because there’s more time to talk.
I live in southern Minnesota where it is always windy. I have become more French because I wear a scarf every time I go out!
Kristin: Half English, half French with those ancestors coming from the Toulouse area. In college I majored in French and taught one year of high school French, bla, bla. Now old and living in a retirement/assisted living facility, I can become more French because of all your blogs which love. A la prochaine.
1. Les automobilistes se arretent souvent pour me demander les directions lorsque je marche ou a velo le long des routes dans le departement Lot et Garonne. Dans le passe, je ai simplement repondu que je ne etais pas d’ici. Je savais que je devenais francais quand j’ai commence’ de donner des directions a l’endroit ou ils voulaient aller.
et, plus importante:
2. Je savais que je devenais francais lorsque j’ai demande’ ma carte de sejour.
During a period of 7 months I lived in Paris, and kept a blog of the experience. During one of my blogs I was complaining about almost getting my eyes poked out by people standing on the street outside cafes smoking and waving their hands, the poop on the street, etc, One of my French friends who lives in the US now commented that I was sounding very French “complaining about erverything”! 😉
When getting my family to leave the house, I say “En y va”!
Ooops! I meant “On y va!”
And in English:
1. Cars often stop to ask me directions when I walk or bike ride along the roads in the departement Lot et Garonne. In the past, I simply replied that I was not from ‘here’. I knew I was becoming French when I started to give directions to where people said they wanted to go.
and, most importantly,
1. I knew I was becoming French when I applied for my ‘Carte de Sejour’ (French ‘Green Card’)
The Le Creuset in my kitchen, the assortment of French items throughout my house, occasionally speaking French instead of English, being able to understand some of the conversations in French movies without looking at the sub-titles, and listening to French music.
yearsago when I lived in Paris I met an American lady..who was then about my age now. She spent 6 monts in France and 6 months in Scotland. I asked her if she never wanted to go “home”. She replied, once you live in France (live not visit) you are never truly American any more..but always remember that you also will never really be French either..I believe she is correct. One day again in Paris in one of the big stores I was walking through the store..and I turned back to see if the sign was in English (as they often would use some English words) or in French..I understood the sign just as I would have in America.The sign was in French..That was a major event for me Congratulations on the new editorial position Kristin.
What a delightful post and delightful comments! I thought it was only the Italians who drank wine out of a water glass, but I first realized that New Yorkers had something in common with the French when I saw a Great Dane in a NYC bookstore.
I know I’m becoming French when someone tells me a sad or distressing story and I respond with quel dommage.
But, such joie de vivre expressed here today! To Marjorie and everyone, Live Well! Bien Vivre! (Do they use that expression in France?)
I know I’m becoming French when a favorite pastime is to sit on the terrasse with a glass of Bordeaux, peruse the french real estate postings, and dream…
I know I am becoming French because, let me count the ways:
I cook mostly Frecnh food and drink mostly French wine,
My window teatments are all from France,
Many of my clothes are from France,
Most of my nappes and serviettes are from Provence,
I love sunflowers and they were my flowers when I married and on our anniversaries,
When in France, people are always asking for directions,
I watch TV Monde 5,
I try to travel to France 1-2 times a year.
And all of my friends know I love France.
…plus many other reasons.
Kathleen
I “put it on the line” designing and building a white stucco, grey mansard roof chateau-front home in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque in ’87, christening it “Bon Façade”. After that, the country club area began building that style of home here, too! My dream home!
I know I’m becoming French when I crave and will drive miles to have a French macaron, NOT our American knock-off, macaroons.
I know I’m becoming more French when it feels natural to greet friends and family with a kiss on both cheeks rather than a hug.
I know I’m becoming french when I drive mikes searching bakeries for the best made baguettes et croissants, the closest I can come to those i find/ eat in France.
I know I’m becoming French when I tell my friends to say “Oustiti!” instead of “Cheese!” when I take their picture.
Dear Kristin,
I answer all people who speak Spanish to me, out here in California, in French!I don’t shop and buy a lot of clothes like in the old days; I wear my same “favorites” all the time. I’m becoming more comfortable in my own skin:)
Thank you for asking! I’ve enjoyed reading the responses so much.
I know I am becoming French because French words keep popping into my head before the English ones. Very funny looks I get too sometimes because I then have to think of the English word!
I know I’m becoming French because my attention immediately detects French provencale fabrics whenever they appear in magazines, TV, or real life in home decor or shops.
I know I’m becoming French when I leave my French class and want to speak to my colleagues in French, but must remember to use English! Ha- sometimes I do it anyway!
One way I’m still slowly becoming French is when my wife or best friend, both very smart, asks me what a French word or phrase means and I can answer correctly! There are, of course, too many times when it does not happen. Affectueusement!
I don’t know that it’s a sign I’m becoming French, but it drives me crazy when I can remember the French word for something and not the English one that I need to use!
I know that my French side is always showing. Mes amis toujours ask me about Paris, they want me to put a tour together and take them parce-que I am there so much. Je parle in “Franglais”, I wear quelque chose que J’ai acheter in France, everyday….it keeps ma belle France close to me!
I know I am becoming French when I see salad on the menu and
get annoyed because it has too many ingredients and cheese is
in everything instead of being served at the end of the meal. I
love the idea of small, separate courses as the way to eat a meal more
leisurely rather than packing everything into one dish. Also, I
love the whimsical which I equate with the essence of the French
culture, i.e., to make light of something, or to lighten up, or to be
gentille in very imaginative ways. Joanne, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA.
I know I’m becoming French because–
I can’t look at the photo of a French menu board without deciding which of the items I’d like to eat!
When I kiss my American friends on both cheeks. Mwah, mwah!
……when I prefer French movies: Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain, OSS 117, Le closet, Potiche, Asterix, Petit Nicholas…. I proudly say that the original French 3 hommes et un couffin is much better than the American version made two years later (Three Men and a Baby) . French movies are referred to according to the director; and Francis Veber is one of my favorites. I am familiar with many French actors; Danny Boon, Jean Renoir, Pierre Richard, Daniel Auteuil, Fabrice Luchini and more. ( I admit that I’ve immersed myself in these films watching four each week over the past four months to help with my French language lessons.)
I am drinking French wine with lunch and dinner and buying the wines according to the region! I tasted a Mentou Salon at a restaurant, and shops did not know what it is. I have been educating others about this wonderful wine from a small region in the Loire Valley. I’ve become a ‘French Wine-y’ and have a wine searching app on my phone.
I shop almost everyday at a small market for fresh food.
I speak to the cats and dog only in French. My favorite snack is roquefort and fig jam and my ‘go to’ hat is a beret
… when you’re offended when offered a choice of cheese OR dessert. They’re both valid courses to be served sequentially after all! 🙂
I became French when I spoke to a woman behind me at the airport in Bayonne….She had spoken in English to me . ” I don’t speak French, she told me”. I had heard her English and answered in French!
I know I’m becoming more french when I put on my beret and tie my scarf like the french do (at least in Annecy) and people ask me how to tie theirs that way.
I know I am becoming French when I return to the U.S., accidentally bump someone at the grocery store, and quickly (and instinctively) say “pardon!”
When I dream in French and greet my husband in French (even though we are currently back in AZ)! When I search for something close to a real French baquette here and ask the darling French couple who just opened a little cafe in the area with pastries, where they find the best baquette in the area. Missing la belle France. Merci et bises.
I speak French to my cats to calm them and an endearment.
Congratulations on your joining French Today and French Provincial. Very excited for you. Wish you all the best in those new writing adventures.
xoxo
When I am in France, I know that I FEEL I’m becoming French when a French person asks me which part of France I’m from (based on hearing me speak French)… disclaimer: this only happens when I’ve acclimated again AND if they only hear me speak in very short sentences!