FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

 
This picture, snapped on the way back from the Luberon, has me singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah

en avant! (ahn ah vahn) expression

    forward march!
.

Next Meetup: PARIS! On March 1st at Shakespeare & Company bookshop I will be talking about writing, publishing, and--bien sûr--blogging! (Starts at 7 p.m.) 

Blogger Espinasse has taken a step backward in the evolution of media by converting selected contents of her Web log into a book. Beginning students of conversational French will profit from many of these brief entries, and supplemental tables of expressions go far to demystify French idioms for anyone wishing to speak and write more fluent French. Order a book here. (Booklist)

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Here at the farm we were without phone and internet for two days and by the time I finally got Mom on the line she had a LOT to say, given her role of maman inquiète.

Speaking of LOT, I am reminded of a story that Mom still tells me, a lesson on letting go of the past and forging forth....

To illustrate the immobile, stuck state we find ourselves in when we dwell on the passé again, and again, Mom reminds me to focus on the horizon or "home" and not to look back like The Woman Who Turned To Stone.*

That would be Lot's wife, the one who was told to flee the fallen city* and warned to never look back... but in the time it took her to hesitate (to mourn her "things" and the good ol' days) it was already too late....

I often picture this scene in slow motion. I see the woman turning back... her face now looking over her shoulder... until, alas, she is frozen in her very tracks! In one simple image we comprehend that looking back is a dead end. It "hardens" us to the present moment, turns our senses to stone, keeps us stuck and far from home.

"Home" may be a destination, though we sometimes question whether home is ahead of us... or something we left behind. Then again, some say "home is where the heart is" which, as anyone reading this might agree, our heart's location (if not plain to see) is surely not behind us in a dimming city.

***

Post note: I had planned on telling you about our string of misfortune last week... oh well, out of time now. En avant!

Salon de Talk Talk

Les portes tordues (The Twisted Doors): The Scariest Way in the World to Learn and Listen to French! Check it out (if you dare).

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LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. Order Lunch in Paris

 A Day in Paris France : Eiffel Tower Cotton Tapestry Throw Blanket
A high quality Woven throw, made in USA. Great decoration for home, office, excellent to hang on wall, fold on bed, etc.

501 French Verbs with CD presents the most important and most commonly used French verbs arranged alphabetically with English translations in chart form, one verb per page, and conjugated in all persons and tenses, both active and passive.

  

Talk about The Woman Who Turned To Stone! You should have seen Immobile Me after I woofed down something that remains a mystery. I scared Gramma K silly! After one lifeless day I am back to my normal self again. Now if we can get Gramma K to quit feeling frightened.

Love,

Smokey