Our little girl is growing up and writing her own anecdotes! Read Jackie's story "Ma Routine" in French and in English, below. Mille mercis to our Francophone friend Newforest for helping with corrections. (The picture was taken when Jackie was 7… and lagging behind on a field trip… in time to cueillir quelques fleurs.) se maquiller (seuh ma kee ay) verb : to put … Continue reading se maquiller + a teenager’s right to wear makeup?
Buckling up those wine barrels in Châteauneuf-du-Pape Ceinture de sécurité(sen-tewr) noun, feminine seat belt Go back in time with me now, if you will, to the historic town of St. Maximin, where visitors from all over the world come to see the purported relics of Mary Magdalene (behind a thick glass encasement in the town's basilica). The year is 1998 and the tree-lined parking … Continue reading Seatbelt in French
Something useful to do during the dry season… Sécheresse (sesh-ress) noun, feminine drought If you were to sneak over to our backyard fence, part its curtain of faded jasmine, and look past a ditch full of wild fennel grown as tall as our older child, you'd spy our next-door voisin showering beneath the fiery heavens at daybreak, scrub-a-dub-dubbing right in the middle of his potager! … Continue reading Secheresse: Why My Neighbor Showers in The Backyard With The Tomatoes
Be warned: "chiens bavards," or chatty dogs, at this neighbor's address. "The Boss Dog" by M. F. K. Fisher, where the adventures of a proud if scruffy mongrel, the Boss Dog, serve as a pretext for an informal, fictionalized portrait of the southern French city and its denizens. Order it here. TODAY'S WORD: braise (brez) noun, feminine 1. ember 2. cash, dough, bread Ce … Continue reading Braise and The Initial-based French Rule for Dog Names
Max, back when he was nine, at a friend's house in St. Tropez. Note: the following post was written in 2005.My son Max seems to be over "le syndrome de la page blanche" or "writer's block." Today he muses about the brain. Find his column below, in French and English. le cerveau (sair-voh) noun, masculine 1. brain; mind; mastermind . Letter From a Young … Continue reading Le cerveau: the word for brain in French
