FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Boxy letters on a building in Marseilles.

Bonne Année 2007! A new story for you today to bring in the New Year. Enjoy.

French With Michel Thomas: "The Fastest Way to Learn a Language". More French language software here.

une boîte (bwat) noun, feminine
  1. box, tin (can) 2. office, agency  3. club (nightclub)

La vie est comme une boîte de sardines ; nous cherchons tous la clé.
Life is like a can of sardines and we are all looking for the key. --Alan Bennett

                                                                           
At a restaurant at the Hôtel du Parc in Lorgues, I joined my English friend Alicia, her Russian beau Misha, and their eight guests who'd arrived from as far west as Mexico to bring in the Nouvelle Année.* Something one of the women at the table said underlined a New Year's goal that's been forming in my mind: to think outside the box.

The Mexican woman sat facing me. Upon hearing that my husband was looking for cement tanks for his future wine cellar, she said: "I know someone who sells cement!" To this, the woman's husband gently corrected her: "Honey, they're looking for cement TANKS, not cement.

I rushed right home to Jean-Marc and said, "Have you ever thought of having the tanks MADE?" This thought alone shed a completely different light on my husband's cement cuve* conundrum. Over the past few months Jean-Marc has been pricing tanks, traveling as far as Italy to find the best deal. In between calculating tank width and transport costs, Jean-Marc has tried to imagine how the many-tonned tanks would be moved from the delivery truck to the cellar without collapsing part of the cellar's foundation in the process. This "make your own tank" or tanks "sur mesure"* (and "sur place"*) idea might just be the solution Jean-Marc has been searching for.

"Not a bad idea. Pas mal du tout!"* Jean-Marc decided after warming to the idea.

"Ask ten people how to obtain a cement tank," I said to my husband, "and nine will give you the address to a tank distributor. But one senora will tell you where to buy the cement!" I want to think like that señora in the New Year, to think outside the boîte (or, in our case, outside the cement tank).

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One hundred more French words and stories in the book "Words in a French Life".

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References: la nouvelle année (f) = New Year; la cuve (f) = vat, tank; sur mesure = made to measure, custom made; sur place = on the spot, on site; pas mal du tout = not bad at all; la boîte (f) = box

Listen to French: hear Jean-Marc pronounce today's quote: Download boite.wav
La vie est comme une boîte de sardines ; nous cherchons tous la clé.

Selected Terms & Expressions:
une boîte d'allumettes = box of matches
une boîte à bijoux = jewellery box
la boîte à malice = bag of tricks
la boîte à musique = musical box
la boîte à ordures = garbage / trash can
la boîte à gants = glove compartment
mettre quelqu'un en boîte = to pull someone's leg
aller/sortir en boîte = to go to a nightclub
quelle boîte! = what a dump!
se faire renvoyer de la boîte = to get fired from a company
la boîte à/aux lettres = post box or mailbox

In Gifts:
French salt box dispenser.

Printed in French, Cuisine Et Vins De France features dozens of recipes in each issue along with articles on wine, cheese, appetizers, table decorations, and more. (More French magazineshere).

Moleskine 2007 Desk Diary - The Legendary Notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin.

And those famous French Limoges boîtes.