FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Stumbling over the vines... a swarm of soûlards or drunks. Read on...

étourneau (ay-toor-no) noun, masculine

  : starling, star (bird)
  : scatterbrain, featherbrain, birdbrain (you get the picture)

Les aigles ... volent seul... ce sont les corbeaux, les choucas et les étourneaux qui vont en groupe. Eagles ... fly alone...they are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together. --John Webster

                                *   *   *

In books: "The Boy Who Drew Birds." John James Audubon, who was born and raised in France, was sent to America at age 18 to avoid service in Napoleon's army... Read on, here.
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Imagine a vintner's field in wintertime. Row upon row of dark, leafless vines... trunks over which a spray of rust-colored limbs (or so the morning light, reflecting across the unpruned field, would have us think). Now imagine that woody, glowing champ* disintegrating from the "waist" up (this, before your
very eyes)! Watch as the vines seem to lose their combined "heads," if not their minds!

Les étourneaux...
They are called "scatterbrains," tout simplement.* Not the vines, which appear to be losing their heads, but the birds who've alighted, eaten, and are now, once again "altitude bound" -- by the thousands! The visual effect of so many migrators "unmoored" is, if not stunning, sobering.... to the birds at least.

For while the birds themselves aren't scatterbrains, they sometimes act that way after feasting on the fermented fruit which, this time of year, might as well be grape-size "shots" considering the alcohol inside those wrinkled raisins.*

Now this would explain the odd swerving flight pattern that some exhibit--those birds that can't seem to hold a feathered finger to beak while "walking" a straight line (for starlings are known to walk and not hop). Like that, they commonly flunk French breathalizer tests before jamming jail cells from Lille to Paris, all the way down to Marseilles.

A former fêtarde* myself (and still a bit featherbrained from it) I shake my head and cluck my tongue on hearing those birds, beaks-a-begging, try to get out of jail time by pleading with the French cops, swearing that they are merely scatterbrained and not at all soûlard!*

                              *     *     *

Update: One of our birds seems to have landed on my friend Ann's Paris bistro table. Can you see its bloodshot eyes and that telling grenache-stained grin?


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References: le champ (m) = field; tout simplement = quite simply; le raisin (m) = grape; fétard(e) = merrymaker, partyer; soûlard(e) = drunkard
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:: Audio File :: 
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's French word and quote:
Etourneau. Les aigles ... volent seul... ce sont les corbeaux, les choucas et les étourneaux qui vont en groupe.
Download etourneau.mp3
Download etourneau.wav

Stocking stuffers and more for your Francophile:

Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language from the South of France
Magnetic Poetry Kids' Magnetic French Kit
This French Bingo version promotes vocabulary enrichment and hones perceptual skills.

Mistletoe in them thar hills! The Tuscan Vauclusian countryside.

gui (gee ["g" as in "get"]) noun, masculine

  : mistletoe (gui de chêne) or "Druid's plant"

Le respect que les anciens Gaulois avaient pour le gui et particulièrement pour celui qui croissait sur le chêne, est connu de tout le monde.

The respect that the ancient Gauls had for mistletoe and particularly that which grew on the oak tree, is known the world over.
          --from the "Dictionnaire provençal-français" by S. J. Honnorat

In Gift Ideas: 365 Days in France Calendar 2008 (A Picture-a-Day)
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by Kristin Espinasse

On a Sunday afternoon balade,* we (Jean-Marc, an aunt, two uncles, the kids and I) stepped outside and into a bit of kissy kissy history.

While the undulating hills surrounding the town of Cairanne resemble a famous Italian countryside, Tuscan they're not. This is the land of the Vaucan -- or rather "voconce". Here in the Vaucluse, over these pine-scented hills and across the red sea of vines below, a certain group of Gallic tribesman once puttered and maybe even puckered up....

As we stepped off the thyme-scented path to catch our breath, the men in our party took a moment to free an ailing tree. The oak's trunk was riddled with ivy until Uncle Jean-Claude and Jacques went to work, liberating its limbs.

As the men pulled down the ivy, freeing the frail tree, Aunt Marie-Françoise pointed to something high up on a branch. Next, she began talking about druids, potions and parasites! Her French words fashioned images in my head, of white-haired wizards and Gallic magicians intent on finding a potion for... parasites?

Lost in language and a very surreal tale, I tried to understand the foreign words, one of which returned again and again as if to illustrate Aunt Marie-Françoise's point. Gui... gui... gui... she repeated, pointing to the oak's branch. Gui... gui...gui...

That is when--poof!--a giddy Gallic ghost appeared in time to whisper a clue. This is what the ancient Gaul said to me (a bit shy and stuttering was he): "Gui...gui...gui... GUI-ME a kiss?!"

Kiss? Ah...mistletoe! I refused the bise* (what with, you know, Jean-Marc in tow!) but thanked the French phantom for the clue. As for the French word for mistletoe, who knew?

I observed the "parasite," its translucent white globes the size of cocktail onions. I'd never seen Gaulois* mistletoe before but can tell you that the Gallic version is grander than the store-bought stuff. Like mistletoe on Miracle-Grow!

Still, I'm not sure what druids, potions and parasites have to do with all this. And the question remains, should I have accepted? Should I have puckered up and given that Gallic ghost a kiss?

                               *   *   *

Post note: With a better understanding of language, specifically its building blocks, I might have been able to piece together the meaning of druid and how these ancient Celtic priests might be called "they who know the oak". Here now from the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com):

Druid... from O.Fr. druide, from L. Druidae (pl.), from Gaulish Druides, from O.Celt. *derwijes, representing O.Celt. derwos "true" and *dru- "tree" (especially oak) + *wid- "to know" (cf. vision). Hence, lit., perhaps, "they who know the oak."

More on the Druids, those "knowers of oak" from Wikipedia.org:
"The Druids were polytheists, but also revered elements of nature...such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, looking to them for "signs and seasons". They also venerated other natural elements, such as the oak, certain groves of trees, tops of hills, streams, lakes and certain other plants, especially mistletoe [GUI] and holly.

More on mistletoe ... druids and cures... at the end of this letter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~French Vocabulary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
une balade (f) = walk, stroll; la bise (f) = kiss; Gaulois(e) = Gallic

In Film: Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Foreign Film, Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I.


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:: Audio File ::
Hear Jean-Marc pronounce today's quote:
LE GUI. Le respect que les anciens Gaulois avaient pour le gui et particulièrement pour celui qui croissait sur le chêne, est connu de tout le monde.
Download gui.mp3
Download gui.wav

Terms & Expressions:
  au gui mener = to the mistletoe go, to lead to the mistletoe
  au gui l'An neuf = mistletoe for the New Year

Shop:
Le Petit Larousse Illustre 2007: an exceptional French dictionary!
Michel Thomas Speak French For Beginners: 10-CD Beginner's Program
Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Spoken French
In Music: Edith Piaf: 30th Anniversaire

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More on druids... how mistletoe can disarm an enemy:

"The Druids considered the mistletoe to be a sacred plant and believed it had miraculous properties which could cure illnesses, serve as an antidote against poisons, ensure fertility and protect against the ill effects of witchcraft. Moreover, whenever enemies met under the mistletoe in the forest, they had to lay down their arms and observe a truce until the next day." --from www.culture.gouv.fr

tirailleur (teera-yuhr) n.m.
skirmisher; soldier, infantryman, sharpshooter; sniper

Example sentence:
Les tirailleurs de l'armée française d'Afrique ont contribué par leur courage à  placer la France parmi les puissances victorieuses de 1945.

The sharpshooters of the French African army contributed, by their bravery, to putting France among the victorious powers of 1945. --from the book "Paroles d'indigènes Les Soldats oubliés de la Seconde Guerre mondiale"

Book: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962

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by Kristin Espinasse

The upside about those glaring plasterboard walls, here in our unfinished farmhouse, is their potential for bringing the "big screen" home (this, with the help of a laptop and a projector). The downside about home cinema is getting four Franco-American film critics to unite. (Jean-Marc likes historicals, I like drama, and the kids like Jamel Debbouze [read: comedy]). Recently, our tastes teamed up in the tear-jerker "Indigènes,"* a film about the forgotten North African soldiers of WWII.

Eight-eyes glued to the plasterboard screen, we witnessed the power of hope amidst prejudice and unreward as the "indigenous" soldiers (aka the Algerian Infantry Division) arrived in France from the colonies to help free their "motherland". The following, from OpenDemocracy.net summarizes the film's subject matter:

In 1944, the French army had 550,000 soldiers, more than half coming from the "empire": 134,000 Algerians, 73,000 Moroccans, 26,000 Tunisians, and 92,000 sub-Saharan Africans... They were also too often used as cannon-fodder, second-class soldiers: fed more poorly, clothed more shabbily, paid less, rewarded rarely, promoted hardly, humiliated routinely. [The film] Indigènes reminds us of all this.


If one can marry comedy with tragedy, then actor Jamel Debbouze offered just the featherlight sweep needed to lighten four heavy hearts who, turning from the plasterboard "big screen," paused now and again to ask ourselves, Why?

                                     *     *     *

Post note: In 1959, during decolonization, pensions for the North African soldiers were frozen. In 2006, after viewing the film "Indigènes," President Jacques Chirac acknowledged the money owed and reinstated pensions. In view of the almost fifty year time lapse, many veterans were not able to collect as they had since passed on.

Les Indigènes: a film by Rachid Bouchareb. See this film in French with English subtitles

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References: les indigènes = natives (Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan soldiers were referred to as "natives")

:: Audio File ::
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's word and quote:
Tirailleurs. Les tirailleurs de l'armée française d'Afrique ont contribué par leur courage à  placer la France parmi les puissances victorieuses de 1945.
Download Tirailleurs.mp3
Download Tirailleurs.wav

In Gifts:
Henri Cartier-Bresson 2008 Calendar
"Quiet Corners of Paris" for More than eighty of the loveliest, most tranquil, and sometimes hidden places in Paris are celebrated in this charming guidebook
Vine therapy by Caudalie
Evian Travel Trio: Pure natural Evian mineral water propelled by nitrogen.


Related Words & Expressions
  tirailler = to pull at, to tug at
  tiraillement = tugging, gnawing pain, tightness
  tiraillements = friction, conflict

Many thanks to readers for submitting these WWII book recommendations:

1. Is Paris Burning?

2. Wine and War

3. And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance

4. Suite Francaise

Warmth and light in the town of Montpellier.

paix (pay) noun, feminine
  : peace

      Qui vit en paix avec lui-même vit en paix avec l'univers.
      He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
                                                --Marcus Aurelius
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by Kristin Espinasse

(The following is a prayer* that fell out of a book on my husband's nightstand... [I wasn't snooping. Really, I wasn't!] The English translation follows...).

Seigneur, faites de moi un instrument de votre paix.
Là où il y a de la haine, que je mette l'amour.
Là où il y a l'offense, que je mette le pardon.
Là où il y a la discorde, que je mette l'union.
Là où il y a l'erreur, que je mette la vérité.
Là où il y a le doute, que je mette la foi.
Là où il y a le désespoir, que je mette l'espérance.
Là où il y a les ténèbres, que je mette votre lumière.
Là où il y a la tristesse, que je mette la joie.

Ô Maître, que je ne cherche pas tant à être consolé qu'à consoler, à être compris qu'à comprendre, à être aimé qu'à aimer, car c'est en donnant qu'on reçoit, c'est en s'oubliant qu'on trouve, c'est en pardonnant qu'on est pardonné, c'est en mourant qu'on ressuscite à l'éternelle vie.

                               *     *     *

  Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
  Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
  Where there is injury, let me sow pardon;
  Where there is discord, let me sow harmony;
  Where there is error, let me sow truth;
  Where there is doubt, let me sow faith;
  Where there is despair, let me sow hope;
  Where there is darkness, let me sow light;
  And where there is sadness, let me sow joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in forgetting ourselves that we find, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
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References: prayer = (the little card that tumbled out of the book, and on which the prayer was printed, attributes the prayer to "Saint François" [Saint Francis of Assisi]. The prayer is commonly known as "The Prayer of Saint Francis")
                        
The Guide to Lodging in France's Monasteries
A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: Camino Frances
From Martyr to Monument: The Abbey of Cluny as Cultural Patrimony

Culture color clash, but cute: my boys. Max (12) and Coco (10 weeks).


chaton (sha-ton) noun, masculine
   : kitten

In books: French for Cats: All the French Your Cat Will Ever Need


     Les caresses n'ont jamais transformé un tigre en chaton.
     No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.
                          --Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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by Kristin Espinasse

My son, Max, and I--two self-appointed mother hens--are on night watch. It is our duty to help a five hundred gram furball feel welcome and at home. Though our new pet--un minet!*--seemed to warm to our unfamiliar farm....when night fell so did his furry little heart.

Perhaps cats' hearts aren't furry, but they can be fearful. So when the crying and miaulement* became hard to bear, Max and I redoubled our efforts (adding song to our midnight bag-of-tricks). But when two dozen refrains of "Meunier Tu Dors"* didn't work we were desperate.
"She wants her mommy," I said to a sleepy Max.
"'He' does. 'HE' wants his mommy," Max corrected.

That's right: she is a he. I keep forgetting. It must be that ultra feminine coat he has on. His fur is as long as the Côte d'Azur and, the color, cool as the Paris skyline in wintertime: mostly gray with hues of blue (that bit of Provence, you know, thrown in too).

"Blue or gray, she's one big furball!" I say, as she, er, HE, curls up at our feet. "...un grand boule de poil!'" I repeat.
"Non, UNE boule de poil," Max corrects.
"Ah, so "furball" is feminine?"

OK, I can remember that: furball is feminine. Now to get the minet to forget (forget his mama... so we self-appointed hens can get some shut-eye.)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~French Vocabulary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
un minet (une minette) = kitty cat; le miaulement (m) = meowing; Meunier, tu dors = Miller, You're Sleeping

     More books: The Cat Who Walked Across France &
    The Cat Who Went to Paris
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  Shopping:
  Romantic Paris 2008 Wall Calendar
  Madeline In Paris: 2008 Wall Calendar
  Tune Up Your French: Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Spoken French
  Chansons Pour Noel: Songs for Christmas (in French):

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. 

Our totally off-topic photo-du-jour: "Italian Wine Cooler". Picture taken in Alba, if I remember correctly. Note: no need to edit the photo captions. Photos will  not appear with the chapters.

The handpainted sign reads: "To live well: love well and let others say what they will". ("Pour bien vivre, bien aimer et laisser dire.")
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attentionné,e (ah-tohn-syon-ay) adjective
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  : thoughtful, considerate
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In books: A *bilingual* classic that fits kids' language-learning needs
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When my father returned home to Idaho, from France, he had a few foreign banknotes left over from his trip. Thoughtfully, he tucked the paper euros into a book and sent the money to me.

When the slim volume arrived, I admired its gold cover... until I remembered the gift inside (and dived in)! The cash lasted only seconds in my hand before my son walked into the room, his sleeves inching up and over his growing wrists....

And so I put the pognon into my pocket, the kids into the car, and the cash into two new winter coats. The children warm and snug, I returned home from the store to feel the chill of Hiver's approach. Shivering, I reopened my father's book and the warmth of his words enveloped me.

                                *     *     *

(My father's inscription read: "I'm very proud of you. Love, Dad.")


See a photo of my dad, here, at the end of this post, and discover the book Dad sent: "The Snow Goose" (set partly in France...). After reading that book, I ordered this French-themed story by the same author.

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References: le pognon = cash, dough; l'hiver = winter
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:: Audio File ::
(Uh oh. My French speaker is out in the grape fields, drilling holes for future vines... Perhaps, with a bit of payola, I can get my pint-size Francophones to "parler" on Wednesday...)


Gifts for a Francophile:
Race to the finish with this sleek new version of Mille Bornes, the classic auto race card game.
Fallot Dijon Herbed Mustards - Set of 4 French Mustards

Medieval (and very-nearly-melts-the-heart): Les Arcs-sur-Argens, Var.

fondre (fon-dr) verb
  to melt, smelt, merge
  to slim down

     Le même soleil fait fondre la cire et sécher l'argile.
     The same sun melts wax and hardens clay.
                                            --Clement of Alexandria

In books: The Discovery of France: a narrative of exploration--full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants--that explains the enduring fascination of France.
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A trail of sawdust leading out of our house, followed by potato chips (leading out of a handyman's hamper) means our parqueteur* is on lunch break. I peek through the kitchen window and watch the would-be lumberjack sitting on the steps en face.* Finally at rest, he soaks in the sun and shares a hearty casse-croûte* with two canine colleagues (a male and female dachshund that doze while their master is paid to pose).*

"It looks like he's finished," I say to the girls who gawk alongside me. "Do you want to take Monsieur Yves his coffee?" My daughter and her friend, Manu, light up. "Oui, oui!" they agree.

On a wooden tray, I set a demitasse cup over a matching saucer. Beside the tiny tasse* I tuck one, two, oh-why-not three, colorfully wrapped caramels. I add a jam jar of sugar and a spoon before handing the tray to the girls who attempt to balance the plateau* between them. Remembering the obstacle course that is our front porch (with ladders and cords to trip over), I caution the candy/coffee caterers to find another method of transport. The girls quickly divide up the tray (Jackie taking the coffee and two caramels, Manu the sugar, a caramel, and spoon). I hand Manu one more bonbon, for balance, and off the girls trot.)

Minutes later, the girls return. I notice the coffee cup is already empty... the wrappers too.
"Well, did Monsieur Yves like the bonbons?" I say.
"He said that he's on a régime!"*
A diet? I think about the trail of greasy potato chips and wonder if he's counting carbohydrates... and candy?

"Well, then," I questioned. "Where did the caramels go?"
"Down with his diet?" the girls supposed.


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References: le parqueteur (m) = parquet layer, flooring contractor; en face = across from; le casse-croûte (m) = snack, lunch; pose (poser) = to put down (floors, tiles); la tasse (f) = cup; le plateau (m) = tray; le régime (m) = diet

Shop for sweets-n-French treats:
                ~ Melt-in-your-mouth French caramels from Normandy ~
                    ~12 French Alsace & Guignol Costumed Lollipops ~
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:: Audio File ::
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's French word & quote:
Fondre. Le même soleil fait fondre la cire et sécher l'argile.
Download fondre.mp3
Download fondre.wav

Terms & Expressions:
  fondre en larmes = to dissolve / burst into tears
  faire fondre = to melt (chocolate, cheese...)
  fondre dans la bouche = to melt in the mouth
  la neige fondue = slush

Shopping:
Joyeux Noel: Learning Songs and Traditions in French (K - Grade 4)
French in Action : A Beginning Course in Language and Culture
French Country Diary: 2008 Calendar