FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

The sign on the back of the old truck says "(ride) in complete security...with Michelin tires".

The theme for this latest collection of photos is Vaison la Romaine and Faucon -- after the two villages that Jean-Marc and I visited on our 15th wedding anniversary! (update, we celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2019).

Couldn't get a photo of our rock star harvesters as they would like to remain unseen. Here are some rock star bees for you. Looks like they'd rather go incognito like the others...

Eazyspeak French teaches 800 vocabulary words; quickly extends conversational skills

un embranchement (ahn-brahnsh-mahn) noun, masculine
  junction; side road
.

I've been meaning to write about our grape pickers but sense that they might like to keep their privacy. Not that our harvesters are famous, though they look like rock stars to me.

"Did you see how they dress, Mom?"
My mom scrapes a board of just-diced onions into an enamel bowl.
"They're pretty cool, aren't they? Dressing like that to pick grapes!"

Our grape harvesters wear black bikini tops, have long, bare midriffs and stylish rock star pants. Where do they get pants like that? we wonder.

"I sew," one of the rock stars tells me. She's got uneven pigtails and looks like a modern day Pippi Longstocking gone punk. To look at her is to dream about a parallel life. What if... at that fork in the road... instead of stepping on board Air France flight 8919... I'd stolen into the back of Zoé's van and never looked back?

Zoé was the first girl I ever knew with a ring in her nose and a ridge on the crown of her shaved head. We were living in the boondocks of Carefree, Arizona--she, in the basement of her parents' desert casa, and me in a rental on Never Mind Trail. The town really was called "Carefree" and the street, "Never Mind": the town and street names being the most original facts of my life at the time. But Zoé was original and, at 15, she sought just enough anti-conformism to still be able to collect her allowance. Together, we craved the artful, the original and the aromatic (Zoé smoked cloves; I inhaled the air
around her).

Zoé's plan was to lose her parents' basement and get herself a van. In the meantime she listened to The Smiths, "cloved" with her pasty-faced copains,* and kept the rims and the rest of her eyes kohl-lined. I tagged along to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That's about as rock and picturesque as 1983 ever got for me.

Last time I saw Zoé, she was cocktailing poolside at the Hyatt at Gainey Ranch. She had an adored four-year-old son instead of that cross country camion* for which she had been saving her allowance. Without the Mohawk and ring through her nose I hardly recognized her. It was that helium laugh that gave her away. She always sounded as if she had just inhaled the breath out of a party balloon. Indeed, she sounded breathless. It must have been the very absence of oxygen that made her seem otherworldly to me. Looking back, I realize she was my ticket to another time and place--back when awkward adolescence was nothing but a slap in the face.

As for me, I got on that Air France flight back in 89' to find myself.  Make that "to find myself cooking" ... for these rock star harvesters who have rings in their noses and grown-out Mohawks like Zoé's, last time I saw her. We never did hit the road together, Zoé et moi, but took another embranchement.* How different this French chemin* is from Route 66.

                                         *     *     *

Back to our rock star grape harvesters: seventeen mouths to feed today... time to come up with enough grub for a small audience (or, as Zoé would prefer, a mosh pit).


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References: le copain (la copine) = friend; le camion (m) = truck; un embranchement (m) = side road; le chemin (m) = road

In French music: "the anticonformist artist" Alain Bashung
     Spotted in France: A Dog's Life...On the Road
     

More in Shopping:
Cote Sud magazine (in French): "A superbly illustrated decoration magazine about the art of living a sumptuous life in the South of France."
French vine therapy for sensitive skin: Caudalie Gentle Cleanser
Emile Henry's Flame Top Tagine: perfect for brazing, heat conduction and for slow, natural cooking
"Tune Up Your French"--includes tips on how to avoid taboos and common faux pas and is "the next best thing to a year abroad"

I realized later that we had vegetarians at the table... Live and learn.

Infuse your soul (and studious self) with French music: Les Nubians

la bombance (bon-bahns) noun, feminine
  feast; carousing

Ou je me trompe fort, ou quelque joyeuse bombance est dans l'air aujourd'hui.
Either I am greatly mistaken, or there is to be some jolly merry-making today.
--from the book "On ne badine pas avec l'amour" by Alfred de Musset
.

Along with sous-chef, Jules,* I'll be spending the morning sorting out savories for today's Harvest Lunch Number 9. By the time I figured out that the harvest meal is celebrated at the END of harvest, it was too late: our grape pickers (who've finally admitted they are used to packing a sack lunch) had been
spoiled rotten and looking forward to the next feast. So far, I haven't had to ask the butcher for help--why should he be so adored? And I am learning, after so much resistance, that feeding others is the best reward. (Though I stop and growl when the oven breaks down, as it does when using a gas-fueled four.* Don't panic, unhook the empty gas tank, put it in the trunk of the Citroën, zip over to the supérette/gas station and get a refill. Back in time to finish baking those beans before the harvesters file into the kitchen....)

Today we are fourteen at table, two less than yesterday. I've got chickpeas for a change, fresh from Cousin Sabine's garden; the little beige boules* have doubled in size after soaking overnight (who knew?). The pois chiches*--along with potato gnocchi, betterave,* red cabbage, and guacamole are just a few ideas that come to mind today as I try and accommodate our vegetarian and vegan harvesters who've brought their own supply of soja* just in case. Wait till they discover the peanut butter... They'll never connect celery to soup again!

That's all for now...back to the casserole dance--instead of La Bamba we'll call it La Bombance!*

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References: Jules = my mom; le repas (m) = meal; le four (m) = oven; la boule (f) = ball; le pois (m) chiche = chickpea ; la betterave (f) =beet(root); le soja (m) = soya; la bombance (f) = the feast

     The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
     From the Caudalie Spa in Bordeaux, France: Sauvignon Scrub   

:: Audio File ::
...back soon (half our French speakers are at grade school, the other half [is]
out in the vines...)

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Shopping:
Caudalie Purifying Mask
In music: Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre
Garden Harvest Basket--holds vegetables, bread, rolled towels, knitting supplies....
SmartFrench CD-ROM--"the smart way to learn French"
Roger & Gallet Signature Mini Guest Soaps

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French Expressions:
faire bombance = to revel, to feast; to go on a spree, binge

French Synonyms
...to bombance:
le repas (meal), le festin (feast), la ripaille (blow-out, feast), le gueuleton (big feed)

And what if we all just ate grapes and called it a day? Our dog, Braise (brez).

Today's word is "faim!" (That's right: "faim exclamation point".) There's so much to tell you but I'm afraid we'll only skim the surface of this French soup as I've got fruit farmers to feed! More, in today's column, below.

                                    *     *     *
From the makers of Rosetta Stone software: "Pronounce [French] words correctly after practicing with our proprietary speech recognition and analysis tools." More info here.

faim (fan -- N is nasal, silent) noun, feminine
   hunger

Un homme qui a faim n'examine pas la sauce.
A hungry man doesn't consider the sauce. --Socrates
.                                                   

Kicking and screaming. That is how I went into it, this two week stint of cooking for the masses. Not that anyone dragged me into the kitchen. When the subject of feeding our harvesters came up, Jean-Marc told me not to worry about it. But if I didn't worry about it, who would?

At the village supérette* I stare at the shelves of cheese, yogurt, and cream.
"Je peux vous aider?" Can I help you? the man behind the meat counter calls out.
"Non, merci." I thank him, turning back to the cheese aisle.

Forget calcium, the grape pickers need fuel! I dash over to the cereal section and stare at rows of pasta, rice, polenta... Polenta! Aunt Marie-Françoise came over last weekend, her trusty wicker panier* in hand. Inside the basket there was an entire pork roast bathing in mustard cream sauce! When eight of us harvesters devoured the pork roast, Aunt Marie-Françoise offered the recipe, suggesting it went well with rice, potatoes, pasta, or even polenta...

Today we are eleven at table. I toss the polenta into the caddie* followed by rice, pasta, couscous, and tabbouleh. Grains, grains, grains! Fuel, fuel, fuel! (Filler, filler, FILLER!)

Next, I stare at a row of boîtes de conserves.* Beans, corn, peas.... I snap up two of the biggest cans of lentils and plan to add them to yesterday's pasta. I am learning to stretch leftovers, that what isn't enough for four can--with the pull of an aluminum tab--be plenty for fourteen. Just add beans!

My eyes are fixed now on a package of instant flan aux courgettes.* Just add eggs. Perfect! I'll need four boxes but at nearly seven euros a box...Oublie-le! Forget it! I'll make vegetable soup instead. I've got two sacks of potatoes and plenty of onions...Vichyssoise!*

"Je peux vous aider?"* The man behind the meat counter seems concerned. This time I'm frozen, eyes-glued to the pastry aisle, wondering about making quiche for a quinzaine.* We'll be fifteen pickers this weekend when we move our équipe* over to Uncle Jean-Claude's wine farm (in thanks for all the picking and pork roasting he and Marie-Françoise did for us last weekend).

"Je peux vous aider?" Monsieur repeats.
Help? Can he help me? He wants to help me! So why am I still saying "Non, merci"?

The man behind the counter looks sympathetic.
"We've got harvesters," I tell him. "I'm trying to plan meals for the next two weeks."
"I can prepare a pork roast for you!" the butcher says.
"No, thanks. I've got that covered."
"Daube*...roast chicken...lasagna!" Monsieur offers. I respond with a hesitant look. "Here, take my card," Monsieur says. "You can always call in an order. Bon courage!"*

I hear a little voice inside that says "Take him up on it! Take him up on it! Let him help cook!" Only the voice is drowned out by another voice, this one evil and snickering. It says: "You can't have someone else cook! It's too expensive and besides--what would the neighbors think?!"

Why is it that when I need it the most, I have the hardest time asking for help? Thankfully, like Aunt Marie-Françoise and the man behind the meat counter, there are those who fall out of the French sky, arms open like angels. Up to me to learn to stretch my mind, like those leftovers, and let the idea sink in that it is OK to let people help. Benevolence and baked beans--I'll get through harvest season one way or another.

                              *     *     *

The next word goes out Monday--if you know what I mean. (Back to the kitchen!)

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References: la supérette (f) = mini-market; le panier (m) = basket; le caddie (m) = trolley (cart); la boîte (f) de conserve = can of food; le flan (m) aux courgettes = zucchini flan; la Vichyssoise (f) = cold potato soup with leeks and onions; Je peux vous aider? = Can I help you?; la quinzaine (f) = about fifteen, fifteen or so; une équipe (f) = team; la daube (f) = beef stew; bon courage! = good luck!

     La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange
     The French oven -- a timeless standby and a must for pork roast!


:: Audio File ::
(...back next week. All our French speakers, pint-sized and otherwise, are out picking grapes!)

Shopping:
French comfort food: Vichyssoise Soup
French chef apron with wine label
Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl
Mille Bornes: the classic French auto race game.

Terms & Expressions:
  avoir faim = to be hungry
  avoir une faim de loup = to be starving ("to be hungry as a wolf")
  n'avoir plus faim = to be full
  manger sans faim = to pick at/toy with one's food
  manger à sa faim = to eat to one's fill
  avoir faim de = to hungry for

    
The sign says "Products from the beehive". Picture taken in Serre Chevalier.

Thank heavens the vines are abuzz once again! And, no, it isn't the grape pickers that are causing so much commotion--but the honey harvesters. That's right--the bees are back!

When the "girls" jumped ship two months ago, leaving their hive as hollow as a hull, I gave Jean-Marc a verbal thump on the side of the head. "Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?!"* I cried from the other end of the telephone line.* Jean-Marc wasn't sure what happened, but I had a hunch:

Juggling happened. Newly acquired vines (and the tending of them), renovation, moving homes, bees... too many ballons* in the air and one fell. Make that *flew* for everyone knows that bees don't jump ship.

But beekeepers do, or can, or can do if they don't get their act together! No use getting mad, besides--every jongleur* deserves a second chance...

And so it was that, still smarting from that thump, or verbal "bee bop" alongside the head, my jongleur/husband raced right out, empty beehive in hand, and found his queen another colony--this, after much negotiation at the bee brokers (or would-bee brokers. The bee boutique in question doesn't officially sell bees but, faced with one head-thumped and hiveless husband, they quickly changed their pollinator policy.)

The bee homecoming (new bees, old home) was grand and included all the pomp and circumstance of a Provençal parade. (The "pomp" being Jean-Marc's Gallic march down to the blackberry capped creek....followed by an ear-shattering scream I heard out in the field...

"MEEEEERRRRRRDDDDDE!"*

...the "circumstance" being a footloose vine and one fallen Frenchman, the latter having tripped over the former, beehive in hands and 60,000 "girls" strong...

"MEEEEERRRRRRDDDDDE!"

Meanwhile, clueless from the balcony and admiring the full moon above, the shriek caused my eye to wander from the moon and catch on an erratic movement below. Next, I saw a streak across the horizon and could have sworn it was a shooting star disguised in a bee suit. Those silly stars.

                                      *     *     *

Post note: our "juggler" succeeded in placing the beehive on its stone platform beside the creek, beneath the shimmer of stars above. But he's up to his old tricks again, with yet another ball in the air (French Wine Label Design). Check out his progress in the "Vineyard Update" at the end of this edition.

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References: qu'est-ce qui s'est passé = what happened; the other end of the telephone line = the kids & I were still living in Les Arcs, Jean-Marc had already moved north to begin pruning season; le ballon (m) = ball; le jongleur (la jongleuse) = juggler; merde! = sh--!

     => Dont miss "A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them"
     => Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee: The Classic Beekeeper's Manual
   
:: Audio File ::
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's word & quote:
Abeille. La diligente abeille n'a pas de temps pour la tristesse.

MP3 file: Download abeille.mp3
Wave file: Download abeille.wav

Shopping:
Don't be caught in customs without it: Burt's Bees Head To Toe Starter Kit
Orange blossom honey from Provence
In Music: "Vive la France" by Jazz great Sidney Bechet including "Petite Fleur" "Moustache Gauloise" "Dans Les Rues D'Antibes"

Terms & Expressions:
  une abeille maçonne = mason bee
  une abeille tueuse = killer bee
  une piqûre d'abeille = bee sting

English Terms & their French Equivalents:
  to have a bee in one's bonnet =avoir une idée fixe
  it's the bee's knees = c'est chouette! c'est extra!
  bee eater (bird) = un guêpier

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:: Vineyard Update ::
Thanks to a flurry of feedback from "The Wine Label Poll" Jean-Marc has come up with a new prototype that he will enter into our October 1st contest. Check out his latest here.

A Frenchman's photo fit for a French wine label? Well, that was a mouthful. But will it make an eyeful?

French Demystified...simple enough for a beginner but challenging enough for a more advanced student... Check out the book, here.

un avis (ah-vee) noun, masculine
   1.  opinion; notice; advice

[From Old French "ce m'est à vis" ("this seems good to me")]

Je donne mon avis non comme bon mais comme mien.
I give my opinion, not as right, but as mine. --Michel de Montaigne
.

Jean-Marc and I are seated at a sushi bar in Aix-en-Provence. Each time the waiters appear (only to collect more hand rolls or sashimi) we must duck our heads as trays of sushi pass over us. The bar, after all, doubles as a wait station. The waiters are busy waiting...and so are we.

It will be a long time until our order arrives. I try to cool a cup of boiling green tea with a few puffs of air. Meantime, Jean-Marc has pulled out his portable phone and is thumbing over the buttons.
"Jean-Marc!" I protest. "We can't check email here!"

I remember back to when my husband stood in as sommelier at a gastronomic restaurant. Arriving home smelling like a roast duck in a cigar shop, he told me about how one of the diners, portable phone in hand, checked email throughout the meal. Realizing my Frenchman's shock (for eating is an art in France and not a three-ring high-tech circus) I made another mental note, this time about how to behave in a French restaurant.

I wonder about hypocrisy and cultural pride as I watch my husband check email. Well, we weren't eating...not yet at least...and we weren't exactly in France (but sort of in Japan, never mind that the Japanese waiters were speaking French). I pushed my chopsticks aside and quickly rooted through my purse for my own phone. I was just as eager as Jean-Marc to see the results of Friday's wine label poll. While I checked the website for percentages (noting that 44 percent of voters preferred the "red/blue" label), Jean-Marc read the comments as they arrived into his inbox.

The feedback was eye-opening. As for the labels, the three prototypes were described as anywhere from "eye-catching" to....

"... simple... forgettable... quirky... intriguing... [expletive].... odd... enfantine*... contemporary... [expletive]... cheap... cute... cartoonish... California... fussy... beurk*... tasteful... modern... belle... ugly... amateurish... ordinary... avant-garde... traditional... harsh... nice... drab... [expletive]... fresh... busy... hard... fly-by night... attirante*... rustic... homemade... young... too much..."

...and--last but not least--reminiscent of "Two Buck Chuck".

I put down my phone and turn to my distracted date. "Do you know what Two Buck Chuck means?"
Jean-Marc, putting his phone away, says "I do."
"You're not making Two Buck Chuck are you?"
"No."
"OK, then. Back to the drawing board!"

                        *   *   *

Read some of the comments that we received, and be sure to add your own, over at Jean-Marc's blog:

If you haven't voted yet, please help us out by taking the Wine Label Poll (at the end of this post). Mille mercis for your avis!*

............................................................................................................
References: enfantin(e) = childish; beurk = yuck!; attirant(e) = attractive; un avis (m) = opinion

Shopping:
Rosetta Stone French - the award-winning method used by NASA and the Peace Corps
We drink way too much of this in summertime: Grenadine / Pomegranate Syrup.
Don't miss the soundtrack to Les Choristes
Caudalie Scrub Trio: A set of three petite sizes of the Vinotherapie Spa signature scrubs

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:: Audio File ::
Je donne mon avis non comme bon mais comme mien.
MP3 file: Download avis.mp3
Wave file: Download avis.wav

Expressions:
  à mon avis = in my opinion
  changer d'avis =  to change one's mind
  donner son avis = to give one's opinion
  un avis amical = some friendly advice
  un avis au lecteur = a short preface to a book
  sauf avis contraire = unless otherwise indicated