Our daughter, Jackie (center, at her father's wine shop) reunited with her closest friends during her recent visit.
Bienvenue to those who have just signed on to this French word journal. And a warm welcome back to longtime readers. Heureuse de vous retrouver! To get the most out of this language blog, be sure to read beyond the featured word–to the personal column about our life in France. Most of the useful vocabulary happens there!
A link to a delicious tomato tart recipe follows when you read to the end of this post. Speaking of French food, check out The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux Samantha Vérant's delicious novel! Order it here.
Today's word: sourire
: to smile
Click here to listen to the French Example Sentence
Sourire mobilise 15 muscles, mais faire la gueule en sollicite 40. Reposez-vous : souriez !
Smiling mobilizes 15 muscles, but frowning requires 40. Rest: smile!
A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristi Espinasse
Coucou! It's so good to be back after un petit congé sabbatique. I'm not quite sure it is over yet, this personal break, but I am cracking the whip this morning, trying to get back in the saddle of reporting to you weekly from France. Stick with me in the coming months and we are going to collect hundreds more words and phrases and so challenge our brains. Couldn't we all use a new challenge ces temps-ci ?
Tomorrow is my daughter's 23rd anniversaire and she will celebrate in Miami, Florida–having flown home yesterday, landing safely after flying near l'ouragan. Ouf! I am grateful for the 4 weeks we spent together, and I thank you, dear reader, for having patienté, having waited patiently for this blog to resume.
Jackie and I made the most of our time together and I'll soon share one of our memorable périples with you (hint: c'est un truc de ouf!). For now, I am easing back into a work schedule: writing once per week for this blog, twice a month for our wine life memoir, The Lost Gardens (the next chapter goes out tomorrow), and brainstorming most of the time. It is this last bit that wears me down–this think-think-thinking all the time. I now understand that an overactive mind is not a bad thing: not if you regularly do a vidange, an emptying. (Like emptying some of it on paper!)
Almost two decades ago I said adieu to a non-valorisant job at a vineyard and began working independently as a writer. To all who follow this journal, actively or passively, whether to learn French or to learn about life in France, thank you for reading and for le boulot you have given me these past 18 years. I appreciate it more than ever.
Amicalement,
Kristi
FRENCH VOCABULARY
bienvenue = welcome
heureuse de vous retrouver = welcome back (happy to see you again)
coucou = hello
un congé sabbatique = a sabbatical
ces temps-ci = these days
un anniversaire = birthday
un ouragan = hurricane
ouf! = whew!
patienter = to wait patiently
un périple = journey, excursion
un truc de ouf = a crazy thing
le carnet = notebook
une vidange = an emptying, draining, an oil change
le boulot = job
amicalement = yours (see other ways to sign-off a letter or email)
Strange to see tomatoes for sale at a Paris wine shop! Photo taken in 2015, when visiting Jackie in Paris, where she was an intern for an haute couture designer.
La tarte tomate. One request my daughter had while home in France was to enjoy my homemade tomato tart. I made several for her! She ate the last one at the airport in Amsterdam, packed with love for her long journey home to Miami. For the recipe, click here and scroll down the page.
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Nice to have you back again!
Just yesterday I was going to send you a note on Instagram letting you know I miss you and your life musings, but then wanted to honor your break! What a treat to see your name back in my inbox!
Glad to know all is well. ❤️
It’s nice to read you again and I look forward to escapades with Jackie!
It’s nice to read you again and I look forward to escapades with Jackie!
Welcome back! Missed your blog.
What a treat to find you and your enthusiastic style in my inbox today!!thank you for returning 🥰.
Welcome back! We missed you!
Yeah! Glad to see you’re back. Can’t wait to see more posts. Still ‘learning’ French! Be well:)
So glad you are back!!!
Diane
West Palm Beach, Florida
I was just thinking about you yesterday! I’m so happy to see you in my inbox today. Thank you for sharing your little corner of the world with us!
Keep think, think, thinking! Life is better with you in it.
Aycee
Bozeman, Montana
Fabulous to see you back again. Love your page🎈
Nous saluons le retour
I am glad that you were able to spend some time with Jackie, especially since she lives so far away.
I have made the tomato tart with puff pastry, Dijon mustard, caramelized onions, tomatoes, gruyère cheese and some basil added once out of the oven. Delicious. It has become my “Oh no, ,what should we have for dinner?” meal.
It looks like JM’s Le Vin Sobre is doing well.
Kathleen
Salut, Kristi, so glad you were able to have Jackie for so long, though I’m sure time flew by much faster than you would have liked!
I’m wondering why no one is wearing masks in the picture at the cafe’? We are still supposed to wear them here, even at outdoor restaurants, unless we’re actively eating or drinking, and 6 feet distancing at all times. How are things, pandemic-wise, on the Cote d’Azur? Seems like a lifetime since our last visit…
And a little footnote to your pie recipe, that I grew up with my French maman making. In the winter, when no beautiful fresh tomatoes are available, use whole canned tomatoes, after squeezing out most of their juice. Delicieuse aussi! Looking forward to reading about your adventures with Jackie!
Bonne Rentrée!
Kristi,
So glad you were able to spend time with Jackie. Were you a bit worried about her flying during the pandemic? I am flying to Atlanta tomorrow to see my Mom and it will be interesting to see how many people are actually flying!
Have a nice weekend and nice to see you back!
Eileen
Kristie, how could a year have flown by so quickly with the drag of COVID ! It seems like just yesterday that we finally got to connect ! Happy that Jackie could return home for a long visit !
I just gathered the last of my tomatoes and made your delicious tarts tomate ! 😋
Bisous. Nina
Our dear Kristi,
First of all,bon anniversaire to dear Jackie,and!!also!!to you,dear Kristi,and to dear Jules!!Wishing this trio of beautiful,gifted women every blessing of health and happiness always!
Having your wonderful post back again just made my day!!
You were missed,and we now again have something to look forward to!Your words always wrap us in hugs!
Bon journee!!!
Love
Natalia. Xo
Almost two decades since I discovered your blog. I feel like I have a second adopted family and it has been so much fun watching Max and Jackie grow up. Love the recipes as well. Have been making this tomato tart since you first posted it. A classic.
Glad you’re back! Everyone needs a break, especially now. Question: Is your area virus free as photos I have seen people are not distancing or wearing masks?
So glad you are back! Really missed your blog❣️
So happy you are back. Can’t wait to hear about all your adventures with Jackie.
sending hugs
Jackie went “Home” to Miami??? Does that mean she is living there “permanently” now? I don’t recall reading anything about that. I thought it was just a short adventure. Hopefully there’s a story in the works about that.
Dear Kristi, I am glad to know about your break and it is wonderful to know that you are doing well and most important BACK AGAIN! I had started to worry, missing writings about your life.
How integral a part of my life you have become. Love to you!
Our dear Kristi,
I was thinking HAPPY ANNIVERSARY(!!) and fingers wrote Happy Birthday instead!!
Wishing you and Jean Marc the most joyful of days and all blessings always.
Love
Natalia. Xo
Suzanne,
I was wondering the same exact thing when I saw people in the photo not wearing masks. Have things changed in France so much that it’s safe to not wear a mask?
So glad you’re back, Kristin. But more importantly, I’m glad you took a “conge sabbatique”! You sometimes try too hard. Your mom, family in France and the U.S., supporting your husband, writing this blog, plus a book–and keeping house, cooking, etc. I appreciate you!
Missed you but so happy you had fun with Jackie!
Salut, Kristin ,
Bon anniversaire à Jackie! There must be a special petit
ami in Miami. Otherwise, who would choose it over France 🇫🇷?
Thank you for reprinting La Tarte Tomate recipe just when the organic heirloom tomatoes 🍅 are in season.
Looking forward to more of your l’histoires du littoral français.
Hello Kristi, I am back too (not that I’ve been away – just lurking without commenting). Welcome. I know what it is like to have a daughter overseas and how wonderful those short visits are! Mind you she is locked-down in Melbourne at the moment. And Australia has closed its international borders so we can no longer visit our little home in Les Arcs-sur-Argens. As you know, it was your early blogs from there that sparked our house purchase in France all those years ago. I have followed you since your children were small and it has been such a pleasure to ‘watch’ them grow and live through your moves and your own (and Chief Grape’s) developments into who you both are now. Love to you and your mum, Jules, and all your family.
So lovely to have you back, bringing a smile to my day filled with sorting, discarding, packing….as we prepare to move our lives to Francc. Of course, we can’t enter yet! So Croatia it will be the day we close the sale on our US home…come visit!
A shock to see those lovely young people without masks! Is that safe where you live?
So so happy to see you’re back!!! I’ve missed you!
I am wondering the same thing. Why are people not wearing masks and social distancing?
Good to see you back. Long ago I thought I should invent a French word “souventrire” because I always smile as I read your posts.
I often laugh too!!
Ben venu Christine et je dois rire quand je pense que j’ai lu vidange est à place de vidange dans ma tête c’était vendanges!
So glad that you’re back and emptying your very active and creative brain on beautiful blogs and your memoire for French Word A Day💙💜❤️
We eat this tomato tart all the time but using puff pastry not a cooked shell and it works just fine and it’s a wonderful dish thank you for the inspiration🍅🍅🍅
Dear Kristi,
We missed you! Your return brings hope that everything will eventually return to normal. So glad you were able to have Jackie home for a while and hope she stays safe in Miami.
So happy you are back!
I wrote the same thing! Just don’t understand it…
So happy to see you back and hear that you had a great visit with Jackie – I missed your writings and hearing about your family. Missed all of you and Smokey too.
It is a warm and happy feeling to find your writing in my email today. We just had the ‘ouragan” here in Alabama the day before yesterday and there are still many many small branches with green leaves attached to be cleared from our yard.
My heart is happy that you were able to have time to visit with Jackie (and to take a rest from this writing as you shared the time together).
Kristi:
I am going to try your ‘tarte tomate’ – I have a glut and have made so much sauce my freezer is bulging! Wish I had a crowd to feed but with Covid here in the Uk we are now restricted. Hope you are all well and healthy. So great you could have Jackie there.
Family is everything.
Sandy (UK)
Hi in the vocab. Un truc de ouf. Do you mean un truc de fou??
Hi Kristi, A big huge welcome back. Bonne anniversaire to my fellow Virgoan. She’s beautiful. You are such a wonderful blessing to each other. Yes, I follow to learn new vocab and French life. But equally, i enjoy your beautiful photos. I love photography and look forward to your gorgeous creations. I wish I could collect them all in a book. Classis, Caroline du Nord, USA
Hi Paige, stay tuned for the next post…. where this will be the featured word.
Welcome back-We missed you and love you always–my late summer tomatoes keep coming, so I will make the tart today for my Mom, wife and son as we are doing a little COVID Pod to help my Mom get out of her isolation. Keep writing, and my best to jean Marc and great to see my brother back in the saddle again Cheers from Westhampton Beach NY Stephen
Missed your writings… however I absolutely love that you simply stopped and gave yourself this beautiful gift of time to enjoy your own life with your daughter and family.
Wonderful!