FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Once again I am inspired by your mother's free spirit and love of life! What a sweet photo and story!

kristin, lovely pictures of your beautiful mother. without seeing her face still you know how beautiful she is. treasure these times.

Wonderful photos ..... such happy moments!

Very nice indeed to use beau / belle.... but it's a bit confusing when there is a re-marriage

Suppose I am the daughter of my father's first wife, and my father remarried.
My “belle-mère” means my father's second wife and it also means, my husband's mother! So, no distinction between “stepmother” and “mother-in-law"! A word seems to be missing here, in the French language!

Traditionally, (specially in the world of stories, fairy tales) stepmothers are cruel towards their stepdaughters, so, I think it's when the word “marâtre” should be used.... same with “parâtre”.
I may be wrong, but, in my mind, I associate marâtres & parâtres with bad treatments, cruelty ... Of course, I know that some stepmothers and stepfathers can be as good as mothers and fathers!

Easier with stepson & son-in law / stepdaughter & daughter-in law. General use of "beau-fils" & "belle-fille" but, if we want to be very precise and avoid confusion, the French language gives us 2 specific words -> gendre (only used for son-in law) and bru (only used for daughter -in law).

I wonder when the French introduced the adjective "beau" to describe their in-laws...

Dear Kristin,

Your mom is great and supremely elegant! An inspiration for we mid-aged ladies!

All best,
Colleen (I met you in New York and am now resident in Adriers in Poitou-Charentes and loving every minute!)

Kristin,
What a beautiful time.......does your maman live in France as well or is she just visiting? Mon mari is Parisian and it is difficile to live here in Californie so far from ma belle famille.
Merci for the wonderful newsletter!
patti

In response to Lori - not all Frenchmen are worth having. I was married to one and ended up leaving France to get away from him.

I also agree with the others who say that it is confusing that there is no differenciation in French between step and in-law. I can't tell you how many times, when speaking with my French colleagues, that I have had to retrace my words to make it clear about if I was talking about my dad's wife (not my mother) or my husband's mother. I have never heard gendre, bru, marâtre or parâtre used in conversation and I understood beauf to be slang.

What a very special time you share with your mom!My husband has made the same comment about looking at a womans mother to get a glimpse into the future....

All the best at the book fair.How I wish I were visiting my family in the Luberon right now. I could certainly drop by to visit you,(even though I own all your books). However, my daughter and beau-fils might not appreciate having both her divorced parents there at the same time.

A belated happy birthday to you mother who is looking much more glamourous than I am, although she is a few years younger.
Peggy

There were words to describe the stepmother/father in French: marâtre and paråtre. But they have/had a very negative connotation and seem to have been dropped from the current French vocabulary. Children of a stepparent from a previous marriage are "les enfants du premier lit" ou "du second lit" depending on the speaker's relation to the said children. Et pourquoi est-ce que "gendre" est sympa et "bru" non? C'est comique, non?

You're lucky you married a Frenchman... they say sweet, tender, sensitive things like that.

Augusta