FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

I am delighted to share with you that I will be receiving a gold medal, La Médaille d’Or des Valeurs francophones, from the French government. This is a landmark in my near 20 years of blogging about the French language and culture. Sincere remerciements to Bernard Duhaime, president of La Renaissance Française, to the American Delegation, and to the French Committee for this nomination and award. And merci infiniment to you, Dear Reader, and to my family, for your support and ongoing encouragement over the years. This reward would not be possible without you!  (photo of French Ambassador's Residence by APK via Wikipedia)

Today's word: le remerciement 

    : thanks, acknowledgment

Sound file: Listen to my husband, Jean-Marc, read in French and in English:
Médaille d'or des Valeurs francophones--Cette médaille distingue les personnes qui se dévouent au développement ou au resserrement des liens linguistiques et culturels entre la France et les pays ayant la langue française en partage.

Gold Medal for Francophone Values -- This medal distinguishes people who devote themselves to the development or strengthening of linguistic and cultural links between France and countries sharing the French language. -La Renaissance Française

More than an honor, this award is a second-wind, uplifting, and a motivation to continue to peaufiner or refine, polish, and improve this weekly French journal--and it will keep me on my toes for an eternity (this last word reflects the accidental stars in the photo, above).

Our golden retriever, Smokey, and one of his many sticks. In today's story, Jean-Marc searches for the perfect bâton along the sentier to Fontenil, high up in the Southern Alps. Read along and learn a dozen useful French terms including a funny word for perfectionist...

Today's Word: le bâton

    : stick, cane, staff
    : le bâton de ski = ski pole

Sound file: Click here to listen to Jean-Marc read the following sentence in French and in English.Un alpenstock est un long poteau en bois avec une pointe en fer, utilisé par les bergers pour voyager sur les champs de neige et les glaciers des Alpes depuis le Moyen Âge. Les alpinistes francophones appelaient cet objet un "bâton". An alpenstock is a long wooden pole with an iron spike tip, used by shepherds for travel on snowfields and glaciers in the Alps since the Middle Ages. French-speaking climbers called this item a "baton".

A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristi Espinasse

Le Fignoleur (The Perfectionist)

On a hike with Jean-Marc in Le Parc National des Ecrins, I discovered my husband's rare perfectionist side. This quirky behavior began after he picked up a fallen branch and, snapping it in two, carefully fashioned a walking stick. Advancing along a trail of faded pine needles, my guide reached for another branche d'arbre, examined it thoughtfully, and tossed the one he had been using.

Tu veux que je t’en fasse un? Would you like me to make you one? Jean-Marc offered.

Non merci. I needed both hands to fall on as we advanced up the rocky ravine, even if I felt surefooted in my tightly-laced bottes de randonnée.

C'était dommage, Jean-Marc remarked, to have missed the changing colors of the beautiful mélèze trees. The leaves on these conifers were now a dull brown, but there were other vivid scenes to enjoy: the clear blue sky and the candy red berries on the trees in the fields we'd passed earlier, where the moist earth was upturned by wild sangliers in search of bulbs. 

"I didn't know there were wild pigs in the Alps...." I said, reaching to pick up one of the bulbs the boars had left behind.

Eh oui, my Montagnard replied, wrestling with yet another found branch. His foot pinning it down, he pulled one end of the branch until it snapped in two. Voilà! As he measured it against the previous stick, until the length was to his liking, I was about to tease him for such fastidiousness. Instead, curiosity won out. I wondered, was there a specific term for this stick Jean-Marc was so obsessed with? 

"C'est un bâton," Mr. Finicky answered. Such an ordinary word compared to these synonyms I would later look up, like alpenstock or trekking pole or shillelagh! 

"A good one should come up to your chin. Comme ça," Jean-Marc demonstrated, leaning against his latest find. "High enough to balance a pair of jumelles...." Too bad he had forgotten those binoculars. On second thought, Jean-Marc was so intent on finding the perfect bâton, he couldn't focus on much else—though he didn’t miss the chamois, when it clipped past, some 200 meters below us. Regarde!!

The fawn having disappeared from view, my husband began smoothing out the “handle” of his (6th? 7th? 8th?) bâton, using the rough bark of a larch tree to saw the tip. Running his fingers over the edges, Ça y est! It looked like this would be the one!

I watched my mountain man set off now, down the canyon, over a deep bed of crunchy autumn leaves. And it made me smile to see him stomp down with his feet, and tap the ground with his bâton, rien que pour le plaisir, just for the pleasure of hearing the sounds of fall. 

FRENCH VOCABULARY

le bâton = stick
le sentier = path, way
le fignoleur/la fignoleuse = perfectionist
la branche d'arbre = tree branch
bottes de randonnée = hiking boots
c'est dommage = it's too bad
le mélèze = larch tree
le sanglier = wild boar
le montagnard = mountain dweller
les jumelles = binoculars

le chamois = fawn

Regarde! = look!

ça y est = that’s it
rien que pour le plaisir = just for the pleasure

I regret not getting a picture of Jean-Marc with his beloved bâtons! For the moment, our roving perfectionist is busy finishing up his chapter, dotting every i and crossing every t, in hopes you will follow along with his (and our) vineyard story.

Jean-Marc in the early days at Mas des Brun near Bandol

Today's Word: une épreuve = a trial, a test
Synonyms for the French word épreuve include adversité, malheur (hardship), and even calamité. Now for the cheerful antonyms: bonheur (happiness), réussite (success), joie (joy). Every one of these nouns describes our 10-year stay at two French vineyards. For years Jean-Marc has wanted to tell the story of his rise and fall as a vigneron. Now, 18 chapters (36 published installments) later, we are making good progress. Mille mercis to our active mécenes or sponsors, terms synonymous with those who are purchasing our book. We greatly appreciate your support.

Soundfile: listen to Jean-Marc read the following:
Dans le livre que nous écrivons avec Kristi, je parle des différentes épreuves rencontrées dans nos deux vignobles. In the book we are writing with Kristi, I talk about the different trials encountered in our two vineyards.

Excerpt from our memoir, The Lost Gardens
St Cyr-sur-Mer, July 2017

Using the leftover wine cartons initially used to bottle my first and most probably last vintage of Mas des Brun, I am boxing the almost 2,000 bottles accumulated for the last 25 years.

Each of them relates to my wine path, bottles bought, exchanged, produced during our numerous life changes, some bottles have actually moved 8 times! But, like my family, they have faithfully followed me for my wine passion which, during all these years, has given me so much joy... and pain.

I really thought this place was the terminus of our many moves. In 2012, after almost 6 years of hard work, starting and orbiting Domaine Rouge-Bleu, we had found our promised land, the one where to eventually build my dream vineyard from scratch with an existing magnificent centenary olive grove, next to the Mediterranean, next to my family, friends, roots...

I was so sure about keeping this place forever that I remember boasting to those around me that this place was priceless, that I would never consider selling it, not even for 10 times more than it might be worth! This was when I had the feeling of being "King of the World," the conviction that nothing could prevent me from raising Mas des Brun to the same level of Romanée-Conti. My future wines would be the nec plus ultra of Bandol! In those early days were the times where I felt so "high"....

Packing up our wine bottles, I don't feel down. This very depressing period is already behind me. I just want to get ready for another move, which is still uncertain (and which will depend on the goodwill of the French administration...)...and finally "turn the page".

     *    *    * 

Below is a list of Chapter Titles to give you an idea of the book's contents, and the sub-themes in the story, including marriage, sobriety, and faith. To purchase our book, click here.

View from a 2nd-floor window at our vineyard. When we moved to Mas des Brun in 2012, this bougainvillea was a dying stub (frozen the previous winter). What a joy to watch it regenerate.