FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

When a coin du feu feels good!

le coin du feu (kwan dew fuuh) noun, masculine
    : fireside

Mais il existe un havre où l'on peut toujours savourer une relation authentique: le coin du feu chez un ami auprès duquel on peut se défaire de ses petites vanités et trouver chaleur et compréhension. But there is another realm where we can always find something true, the fireside of a friend, where we shed our little conceits and find warmth and understanding.

              --Kressmann Taylor, author of Address Unknown
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by Kristin Espinasse
"Childhood Memories"

The words "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" meant little to the pint-size Phoenician who once sang them. More than thirty years later, and Jack Frost still isn't hanging outside my window. (Though it is snowing in parts of Provence...)

One thing roasting "fireside" in my childhood home was cheddar cheese over a flour tortilla (and this, beneath the oven's grill). As for snug fireside seating, my mom got creative: she pulled a few chairs across the cramped linoleum floor, flush with the oven's open door (on which we set our feet).

It is early morning in the desert, near Christmas time.... Feet resting on the warm oven door, a box of black licorice between us (or orangettes, depending), my mom fueled her fire for fiction, and I, warm and toasty beside her, watched literature light up her beautiful face...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~French Vocabulary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
orangette (chocolate) candied orange peels; quelle chance! = what  luck!

.:: Audio File ::
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's French word & quote: Download coin_du_feu.mp3


My sister Heidi and me.