Previous month:
January 2007
Next month:
March 2007

Entries from February 2007

debout

Debout
The colors of Spain in a Madrilène cafe.

debout (duh-boo) adverb
  upright; standing; out of bed

L'instinct, c'est l'âme à quatre pattes ; la pensée, c'est l'esprit debout.
Instinct is the soul on all fours; thought is the upright spirit.
--Victor Hugo
.

                                                     Column_44
While the Spanish have a reputation for not lolling about in bed, you won't find them sitting much either. Standing is a national sport in Spain--at least in Madrid which is also known as the tapas capital of the world.

In Madrid, the citizens are debout partout or standing everywhere, hip-hugging the bar, elbows at the comptoir.* They crowd around tall outdoor tables along the cozy couloirs* or "travesías,"* and sometimes stand in transit; but mostly the Madrilènes* stand up for their cuisine, literally so.

If standing is the order of the day, on the menu you'll find tapas, those little bite-size appetizers that locals are fond of eating.  In Spain dinner is  eaten late, ten, eleven p.m. late, so tapas are the solution. You can eat your way across the city, going from tapas bar to tapas bar where the little savory snacks are from a few, to several, euros a pop and arrive to your late-night restaurant reservation with your blood sugar intact.

"Madrid is cozier than Barcelona," I tell Jean-Marc, in the immense Plaza Mayor. We were seated (I admit) beyond the portico, in front of yet another packed eatery. Beneath our table a small fan club had gathered at Jean-Marc's feet; the half-dozen chubby sparrows were all legs, I might add, evidence that Spanish birds don't sit either.
"Je ne sais pas," I don't know, my husband reflected, feeding his feathered admirers, before reasoning: "You mean that Barcelona is like Paris and Madrid is like Marseilles."
"Exactly!" I agreed, satisfied with the comparison.

Three tapas bars into our visit and we had sampled an array of specialties including "bocadillo de calamares" or fried squid, jamón ibérico,* cod croquettes, marinated anchovies or "boquerones," the creamy and piquant* manchego cheese, spicy hot champiñones,* and onions baked so slowly they melt down sweetly on the tongue.

The word tapas comes from the Spanish verb "tapar" (to cover) and some say tapas came about by utility: to keep flies from falling into the fruity wine. Once upon a time a small plate was placed over the drink "for cover" and, as the empty assiette* looked a little sad, an olive was added to brighten things up.

Others cite history. The story goes that someone, while serving King Alfonso XII, took care to cover the king's cup of sherry with a slice of ham so as to keep the dust out. When the king, his appetite now whetted, ordered another sherry, he added, coyly, "with the same cover".

I sort of like the barbaric quality of the second explanation--with the grub directly over the glass--eliminating the need for a middleman plate, and so I'll do as those upright Madrilènes would do, hips to the counter, elbows above. I'll stand by that theory.

............................................................................................................
References: le comptoir (m) = counter, bar; le couloir (m) = corridor; travesías = (Spanish for) passage; Madrilènes = citizens of Madrid; jamón ibérico = (Spanish for) dry cured ham; piquant(e) = sharp; champiñones = (Spanish for) mushrooms; une assiette (f) = plate, dish

::Audio Clip::
Listen to my nine-year-old, Jackie, recite today's quote in French: Download debout.wav
L'instinct, c'est l'âme à quatre pattes ; la pensée, c'est l'esprit debout.

Terms & Expressions:
être debout = to stand
se mettre debout / se tenir debout = to stand up
à dormir debout = farfetched
histoire à dormir debout = cock-and-bull story, unbelievable story
places debout seulement = standing room only
allons, debout! = come on, get up!
debout = get up!
un vent debout = head wind
mettre debout une affaire, un projet = to organize a business, project

Books & More:
Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors d'Oeuvres, Meze...

Rosetta Stone French (CD-ROM) -- "an award-winning method used by NASA and the Peace Corps"

Moleskin City Notebook : Madrid & In music: Madrid by Marc Antoine

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


bruyant

Madrid
Haunting Madrid: traffic  (photo of the "Casa de Correos" / Communications Palace)

bruyant(e) [brwee-yahn(t)] adjective
  noisy; resounding; loud; boisterous

Les petites peines sont bruyantes et les grandes, muettes.
Little sorrows are loud, great ones silent.
--Danish Proverb
.

                                                           Column_45
It didn't take a Spanish weekend to figure out the significance of 48.* By the time Jean-Marc pushed open the door to the madriliène* "suite" he had reserved, I quickly understood the riddle: forty-eight rhymes with cheap date. So there you go, and there I went, and haltingly so, into the room, jaws dropped and eyes wide open, my arm bent and hand wagging as I let my husband know that this one took the cake.

For forty-eight euros the room had everything but bed bugs. The double bed (so short that Jean-Marc's pieds* hung two feet over the edge) had one long pillow-for-two. Blue satiny curtains concealed rotting shutters and the room's light fixtures were obscene: dainty gray-smoked flutes giving birth to giant misfit bulbs. The slippery tub was slightly longer than the cracked sink and
missing a chain for emptying the intemperate water; the imprinted towels were stolen and, as for the toilet--which was shoved against the wall lengthwise--the only way to sit was sidesaddle.

No matter, we would only use the room for sleeping. But sleep, I would soon learn, is one thing Madrileños* don't do. This I discovered at two, three, four, five and even six in the morning when the street below ebbed and flowed with the most startling sounds. Lying there in bed, I pictured people pouring out of the bars and onto the street below our window. Amid the non-stop Spanish
murmur, I heard laughing, shouting, clacking, and even mass clinking when, at dawn, I imagined the street cleaners were pushing the noisy fêtards* along and out with the empty bottles. I could finally unwrap my head (having found a purpose for that unusually long pillow*) and breathe easy. Only now the thud of so many steel curtains crashing against the stone sidewalk took over. As the bars closed, the streets reopened to the venerable Madrileños who were up and whistling through the streets, walking the dogs with a clack, clack, clack of the heel. And, thanks to the church-bound motorists, we now had a new beat: bark-bark-clack-clack-HOOONK!-bark-bark-clack-clack-HOOONK!

Now I know where those bed bugs went: out of their minds.

....................................................................................................................
References: 48 = reference to the last story; Madriliène = inhabitant of Madrid; les pieds (mpl) = feet; Madrileño = (Spanish for "native of Madrid"); un fêtard (une fêtarde) = merrymaker, roisterer (party animal); long pillow / bolster = un traversin
.
::Audio Clip::
Hear Jean-Marc read the following proverb in French: Download Bruyant.wav

Les petites peines sont bruyantes et les grandes, muettes.

Related Terms & Expressions:
  bruyamment = noisily, loudly

In Books & More...
"Pimsleur French I" includes 30 lessons of essential grammar & vocabulary:

Five Language Visual Dictionary: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian

Lenore Tawney: Signs on the Wind: Postcard Collages

Cooking/wine magazine (Printed in French) Cuisine Et Vins De France

Must-haves for travelling in peace and quiet, and for a good night's sleep: French ear plugs!

Moleskin City Notebook: Madrid.

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


devin

Devin
Several soothsaying chaises, looking into the future... in Ste. Maxime.

un devin (deh-vuh) noun, masculine
  diviner; soothsayer, seer; fortune teller

Devine, si tu peux, et choisis, si tu l'oses.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
--Pierre Corneille
.

Column_43

           On ne sait jamais ce que demain sera.
          We never know what tomorrow will be.

I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would one day share the French word for "soothsayer" with you. But then, I never divined I'd one day speak French either. The truth, or sooth, if you like, is that much of what I think will happen in the future just never does. Sweat, fret, and toil as I may, things are never as grim (or glitzy) as I make them up to be.

So when I told you last month that, come Valentine's Day, I would be hacking my way through fields of grapevines, I might have first paused to cast an eye through the window of experience. Instead of a tangled jungle of vines, I might have seen a fuzzy ray, a glimmer, of what could be. Forget poetry--yonder, and through that foggy window, I might've perceived the number 48!

"How about Madrid?" Jean-Marc offered, tossing a guidebook my way and suggesting I read up on our neighbor west of the Pyrenees. "But I thought you needed help pruning this weekend?" I inquired, to which my husband informed me that, thanks to the help of Jérôme, another vigneron* in a nearby village, all 21 acres of vines have almost been pruned.

When Jean-Marc informed me that a roundtrip ticket from Marseilles to Madrid was running 48 euros and a hotel room in the city center was the same amount, 48 euros, it didn't take 48 seconds to agree to the impromptu trip. Coincidentally, we'll spend exactly 48 hours in Spain and, come to think of it, 48* also represents my home state of Arizona. As my mind conjures up images of a nickel-plated "'48" on the door of our Spanish hotel room, I am reminded that I can't tell the future; devineresse* I am not. And while I could look for coincidences galore and even think up 48 ways to have fun in Spain this weekend, the sooth is, I don't have time for guessing games--I've got a plane to catch!

..............................................................................................................
References: un vigneron (une vigneronne) = wine grower; 48 = Arizona is the 48th state in the Union; une devineresse (un devin) = fortune teller

Audio Clip : Download Deviner.wav
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's quote:
Devine, si tu peux, et choisis, si tu l'oses.

Related Terms & Expressions:
  deviner = to divine; to guess, predict
  devinable = guessable, foreseeable
  une devinette = a conundrum, riddle, guessing game
  poser une devinette à quelqu'un = to pose a riddle to someone
  deviner la pensée de quelqu'un = to read somebody's thoughts
  arrête de jouer aux devinettes = stop playing guessing games

........................................................................................
Books & More:
Check out SmartFrench --"the smart way to learn French"

Cheese Sampler

Môme (magazine) for students of the French language

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


ouïe

Ouie
...to get words to SCREAM some prefer to use all caps. Photo: an artists' quarter in Marseilles; the sign reads "No to the demolition of my workshop".


l'ouïe (wee) noun, feminine
   1. hearing
   2. ouch! ooh! (spelled "ouïe" or "ouille")

A homonym of ouïe (and its plural) is the multi-meaninged "ouïes". Use it when you want to talk about fish gills and other popular topics of conversation--such as those "sound holes" on a violin and the "ears" or "ventilation slots" behind your computer, in the home, on the car, etc....

                               *     *     *
Si tout le corps était oeil, où serait l'ouïe? s'il était tout ouïe, ou serait l'odorat? If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? --Saint Paul
.

                                                        Column_41
Beneath a deep gray sky I saw a white-haired woman in a raincoat blue as the heavens in summertime. The woman and I were heading in the same direction, one of us on foot, the other on foot pedal. I slowed my car to a stop and rolled down the passenger seat window.

"Can I give you a lift?" I offered.
"Bonjour, Madame," my neighbor began, remembering politesse.* "Yes," she said, "I am going to the coiffeur."* I noticed her hair, which looked pretty to me. For a moment I thought about how a certain hair phenomenon is not lost on Europeans, that is: salon bound women are never having a better hair day as when they are due to have their locks cut off. I wondered if Madame was beginning to regret her decision?

"Alors, on déménage?" So, we're moving? Madame asked, more as an affirmation than a question. I waited for my passenger to fasten her seatbelt before I replied.
"Yes...end of JUNE," I clarified.
"C'est bien," she said after one too many beats of silence.
"You are moving far from here?"
"Near ORANGE. Two-and-a-half hours NORTH..."
"Pour le travail?"*
"Yes, for WORK--my husband's WORK."

I caught myself speaking loudly and repeating my words. Why is it that when I hear a foreign tongue struggling with a second language I act as if the speaker's ears are weak? My Italian neighbor isn't hard of hearing she just speaks French with a very thick accent. And so do I--only my neighbor doesn't shout at me. But then, we've already learned that she has better manners.

As for being hard of hearing and speaking French like fondue--or, with an accent as thick as cheese--an orthophoniste* friend of mine, Isild, would argue that the two are related: that people like me and my neighbor, with accents thick as emmental, are not hearing French words exactly as they are spoken. We need to listen more carefully. Rather, *I* should listen more carefully. As for my neighbor, she hears just fine and, as we've mentioned, has pretty hair to boot.


.................................................................................................
References: la politesse (f) = politeness, courtesy; le coiffeur (la coiffeuse) = hairdresser; pour le travail? = for work?; l'orthophoniste (mf) = speech therapist

::Audio Clip::
Listen to Jean-Marc recite today's quote: Download Ouie.wav

   Si tout le corps était oeil, où serait l'ouïe? s'il était tout ouïe, ou serait l'odorat?

Related Terms & Expressions:
  le ouïe-dire = hearsay, rumor
  avoir l'ouïe fine = to have sharp hearing
  avoir l'ouïe un peu dure = to be hard of hearing
  être tout ouïe = to be all ears
  affecter l'ouïe = to affect hearing
  à portée de l'ouïe = within hearing
  les ouïes des poissons = fish gills

In Books and Gifts:
Speaking of hearing, check out one of my favorite books:

For listening to great French tunes (while improving your français...)

A household name in France.... for peace and quiet.

"Voila"-- Belinda Carlisle has a new album out -- all in French :

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


farfouiller

Farfouiller
Rummaging through the past: the verb farfouiller in action at an old postcard stand in Antibes.

Don't miss the sound clip that accompanies each edition--see the "Audio" section below...

TeLL me More French -- Used everyday in more than 10,000 academic institutions.

farfouiller (far-fooy-ay) verb
  to feel, fumble about, grope around; to rummage, dig about, search

Farfouiller is derived from the word "fouiller" (to search, dig); the prefix "far" gives the idea of motion : farfouiller (to rummage about). To form the noun, just add the suffix "ette" to the verb for "farfouillette": a place to dig about in or "a rummage shop".
                                  
                                              *   *   *

Tous les matins à l'aube, les chiffonnières de Paris farfouillent dans toutes les poubelles pour y trouver les objets vendables. (Each morning at dawn, the rag ladies of Paris rummage through all of the garbage cans in order to find saleable objects.) --from the book French: How to Speak and Write It

.            
                                          Column_40
"Allô?"* I say, clutching the phone.
"Allô? La farfouillette?" a man's voice inquires.
"Non. Vous vous êtes trompé de numéro."*
"Ecoutez...excusez-moi."*
"Ce n'est pas grave."* Click...

Hanging up the phone I feel a pang of guilt for not directing the caller to the brocante* he was looking for. After all, I know where La Farfouillette is--just a few kilometers from here on the outskirts of Vidauban. I've been to the junk shop a few times, as witnessed by the quirky bricoles* around my house, and there's an old wooden shutter, painted red, with a heart motif that I've decided to use as a gate for a future potager*--one my mom is already helping to dream up. Speaking of ma mère,* she's been to the not-so-far away Farfouillette too, having walked out a little more upright, thanks to the black lacquered cane she unearthed there, this, while waiting for her hip to heal fully. I remember, too, a wonderful swayback garden bench painted forest green...it must've sold by now. Then again, maybe it is still for sale?

Well, there you go, one good reason for not sticking around to chat with the caller whom I mentioned in the opening dialogue. After all, it is not my job to give out phone numbers, and besides, as the French might argue (while tapping index finger to forehead, crazed look in the eye): "Does it read 'OPERATOR' here?"

......................................................................................................................
References: allô? = hello; Non. Vous vous êtes trompé de numéro = No. You've got the wrong number; Ecoutez...excusez-moi = Listen...Excuse me; Ce n'est pas grave = It's nothing; la brocante (f) = flea market; la bricole (f) = trifle, trinket; le potager (m) = vegetable garden; la mère (f) = mother

:: Audio clip ::
Hear my daughter, Jackie, pronounce the French word for "to search" in the following phrase:
Tous les matins à l'aube, les chiffonnières de Paris farfouillent dans toutes les poubelles pour y trouver les objets vendables.

...................................................
Terms & Expressions:
la farfouilleuse (le farfouilleur) = one who rummages, searches, (dare we say "snoops"?): a curious person or nosey parker
farfouiller une maison = to ransack a home
farfouiller dans ses souvenirs = to search through one's memories
farfouiller dans un tiroir = to search/rummage through a drawer
farfouiller dans les poubelles = to rummage through the garbage can
farfouiller dans ses poches = to rummage through one's pockets
farfouiller dans les affaires de quelqu'un = to search through someone else's things


In Gifts & Books:
The organic French herbs kit contains a specialized mix of herbs, perfect for French cooking.

Maison Francaise -- decorating tips (and great pics) in this *French language* magazine

...a book (sort of off topic) I just ordered ....to read after this one (truly on topic).

...............................
Verb Conjugation:
je farfouille, tu farfouilles, il/elle farfouille, nous farfouillons, vous farfouillez, ils/elles farfouillent; past participle = farfouillé

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


chandelle

Santonpainter
A santon maker in Marseilles

la chandelle (shahn-del) noun, feminine
  candle

French proverb:
  Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle.
  The game is not worth the candle.



A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristi Espinasse

All good things must come to an end and in Provence santons* are no exception. On February 2nd, at Candelmas* (what the French call "Chandeleur") the meticulously arranged crèche is finally taken down and the colorful santon figurines are carefully put away. That's when the party begins--for February 2nd is also known as Crêpe Day!

Regretfully, our family didn't have any hand-painted santons to store, but boy did we put away the pancakes! When Jean-Marc couldn't find his mother's crêpes recipe, he rolled up his sleeves and made the batter "au pif"*--mixing together a bunch of flour, several eggs, a drenching of milk, a dash of salt, a swirl of warmed butter and a few tears of water.

Meanwhile, I prepared the fillings tray: the salty and sugary additions that would top off the delicate crêpes. The salé* selections included gruyère, ham, tarama,* smoked salmon and hummus. As for the dessert crêpes, we had sugar for sprinkling and other sweet spreadables including fig jam, caramel sauce, chestnut purée, Nutella and Aunt Marie-Françoise's lavender honey. Missing were the whipped cream and my mother-in-law who, if she were here (instead in Marseilles preparing sarrasin* crêpes for her neighbor) would've loved a drop or two of lemon juice and a powdering of cinnamon to go with the sugar on her crêpes.

Jean-Marc had pre-cooked the crêpes for reheating at the dinner table, this, thanks to the handy dandy "crêpes party" machine (a Teflon coated unit with six mini pancake shaped warmers). Because I didn't see my husband grilling the cakes, I can't be sure if he remembered to flip the cakes with the right hand while holding a coin in the left (an old French "recipe" for prosperity (and good crops!!!).

Some say the golden, round crêpes are reminiscent of the sun and, therefore, the coming of printemps.* While our pancakes reminded me of those things, the golden disks had me thinking of back home where the Arizona desert is lit by the large chandelle* in the sky. I remembered my nieces and nephews, little southwestern marmots who were probably just coming out of a long slumber in time to celebrate Groundhog's day; up in time to enjoy my sister's homemade waffles (a sort of square shouldered, dimply-cheeked big brother to the dainty crêpe and, in my experience, all the better for hogging).

FRENCH VOCABULARY
santon and candlemas (see "additional references", below)
au pif = "by the nose" (by guesswork)
salé = salty; tarama = a pink-colored, fish roe-based creamy spread
le sarrasin = buckwheat
le printemps = springtime
la chandelle = candle

Additional references:
santon (from en.wikipedia.org): In Provence, in the South of France, nativity scenes are sometimes composed of hundreds of small painted clay figurines, called santons, representing all the traditional trades and professions of old Provence.

Candlemas (definition from Dictionary.com) : a church festival, February 2, in honor of the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple and the purification of the Virgin Mary: candles are blessed on this day.


Audio Clip : Hear Jean-Marc pronounce the French word for candle in today's proverb: Download Chandelle.wav
Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle

Terms & Expressions:
chandelle de cire = wax candle
chandelle de veille = rush candle
chandelle de glace = icicle
moucher la chandelle = to snuff the candle
voir trente-six chandelles = to see stars
le dîner aux chandelles = dinner by candlelight
le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle = it's not worth it (not worth one's while)
brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts = to burn the candle at both ends
tenir la chandelle = (literally "to hold the candle") to play gooseberry, to be a third wheel
Window with snowflakes

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety


envie

Hate
Hâte-toi de bien vivre... Make haste to live and consider each day a life... Seneca


Envie

(ahn-vee)
noun, feminine

longing
.


I was staring at the empty branches of our dogwood tree,
willing its wooden limbs to quiver and send forth so many rosy blossoms, 
when I recognized a vague longing coming from within.


I stood up and walked over to the north window,
threw open the painted green shutters
and saw a small feathered creature pacing back and forth 
over a bed of crumbling leaves,
just above the would-be strawberry patch. 


I recognized another restless soul throwing its own will around,
this one willing so many worms to pop out of the cold ground!


I looked at my dogwood,
the red robin at its frozen patch,
neither of us able to get the universe to dance for us. 

On days like this the worms rejoice and the dogwoods, 
still as they are, cause willing hearts to stir.

It is hope that keeps us going.



YOUR EDITS HERE
Note: there is no vocab section for this story... I will leave it at that, as I do not want to introduce any words which might throw of the flow of this story of longing. Click here to edit or to comment.



::Audio Clip::
Listen to my daughter, Jackie, pronounce today's quote: Download hate.wav

Hâte-toi de bien vivre et songe que chaque jour est à lui seul une vie.
.
Terms & Expressions:
sans hâte = without haste, in a leisurely way
à la hâte = hurriedly, hastily
en hâte = fast as you can
hâter = to hasten, bring forward
hâter le pas = to quicken one's step
avoir hâte de faire quelque chose = to be eager or anxious to do something
  J'ai hâte de te voir! / I can't wait to see you!
se hâter = to hurry, to force
se hâte de faire quelque chose = to hurry to do something
hâtif, hâtive = forward; premature; precocious, hasty

In Books, etc...:
The Flying Apple Pie and Other Tales of Life and Gastronomy by David Paul Larousse

LIRE is a French-language literary magazine featuring reviews of new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, author interviews and profiles, and articles on classic literature.

French Tulip Travel votive candle in embossed tin

Cafe Au Lait Oversize Coffee Mug

Hâte-toi de bien vivre et songe que chaque jour est à lui seul une vie. Make haste to live, and consider each day a life. --Seneca

A Message from KristiOngoing support from readers like you keeps me writing and publishing this free language journal each week. If you find joy or value in these stories and would like to keep this site going, donating today will help so much. Thank you for being a part of this community and helping me to maintain this site and its newsletter.

Ways to contribute:
1.Zelle®, The best way to donate and there are no transaction fees. Zelle to [email protected]

2.Paypal or credit card
Or purchase my book for a friend and so help them discover this free weekly journal.
For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety