FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Spectacular photo! Thanks for that. Love the Fall colors and the way the sun shines in the South, not to mention those adorable pooches!

Bonjour,

Kristin, I made the same mistake with my son. He was awful at “lacer -et délacer- ses chaussures” and I couldn't get him interested in trying! On the other hand, my younger daughter wanted to make knots, pretty ones, double ones, at a very early age, so, “lacer ses chaussures” was always fun for her. I realised that, behind my back (mums do have an extra flair + eyes behind their back, don't they?), my son would go to his younger sister - quite naturally she would not only tie his shoelaces but also untie them when he wanted to take off his shoes! He would even keep his legs stretched towards his sister's hands and she, "le plus naturellement du monde", would remove his socks too! Stupidly enough, I started to buy him some velcro shoes. No more fuss. He could do it all by himself with Velcro. Great!
Then, a bit before his 6th birthday, I said: no more velcro for your next pair of school shoes. I gave my son the over-sized cardboard cut-out shoe with very colourful shoe laces (kit bought the previous year but abandoned in a drawer for lack of interest). I showed him again how to “loop it, swoop it and PULL” and told him he might even get a lovely pair of trainers IF (and only if) he could tie his shoelaces without his younger sister's help. (Ohooh! So Mum knew? No more secret?)

This time, something mentally clicked. He did show some interest and kept practising. To my surprise, after a couple of days, he got the hang of it. We told him we were very proud of him! His reply was: if I can tie the shoe laces with the cardboard cut-out, I can do it for real too, can't I? Can we go to the shoeshop please? I don't care about the school shoes with or without laces, but can we have a look at some 'wicked' trainers with wicked laces? We did - and that was it!
“Ouf!”

Notes:
1)in those days, everything a bit out of the ordinary, everything you fancied, was → 'wicked'.
2)In those days, you still tied your shoelaces properly and the knot was seen . Fashion changed and eventually made children think you've got to hide that knot. Oh well...

by -> the knot was 'seen',
I meant: seen just above the shoe, at the place where you would normally make your knot (what I consider 'normal')
What's wrong about that?
Does it look better and is it more comfortable to push the knot under the tongue of a shoe??? still fashionable to do that where I live.
As you can guess, I don't follow that fashion!

PS I had the intention to type in my previous post but forgot:
= 'trainers' (funnily called 'baskets' in French) is the UK equivalent of 'sneakers'.

Salut Kristin.

Tying one’s own shoes is a challenge for all youngsters. Alas, it becomes a challenge again for the aged. In my case, the back doesn’t willingly bend that far anymore. For others, the stomach may obstruct the view. Some ladies may have other obstructions.

Another hurdle that children have to tackle is telling time. The digital timepiece may eliminate that challenge, but will the meaning of clockwise and counter clockwise be lost?

Two sayings that may fit into today’s theme:

To “turn up” one’s nose at something. . . . Not good enough for the person.

To “look down” one’s nose at another . . . The looker is better than the other.

French translation?

À bientôt

Hi....
Great vignette!
Mama Braise's brown truffle shows that she's also a digger! Aah.....we're so familiar w/ that at our home....so far our 6 month old golden still has his black truffle......so far......we're still at a modest number of holes in the backyard.
Hope your stay in Paris was fun....& that everyone enjoyed "Chief Grapes" wines.
Kay

So sweet, if only all of life's obstacles could be surmounted with just a little practice and a devoted praying mother. Have a wonderful week.

Lovely top photo of a venerable giant, at rest now for a few months!
- easier to watch the birds...

At this time of the year, seeing a tree that lost all its leaves or walking on a carpet of dead leaves, bring back to my mind (and my ears) the poem by Prévert -> "Les feuilles mortes".
I first heard it sung by Yves Montand - he still sung that song at the end of his career. So many other singers sung it beautifully too. The English version and the half French-half English version keep the same melancholic mood.
Mille mercis for the top photo.
PS - I do sympathise with 'the contortions involved in photographing animals', and insects, ... and small creatures that can't keep still!

Oh how I understand trying to get a good photo of two dogs!

To Ann Mah,
Kristin & Jean-Marc,
and all the lucky people who can make it this evening at Shakespeare & Co in Paris,

I wish you "une excellente et joyeuse soirée"!

What a beautiful sunset you give us today. And thanks for the story. I always worried about my kids growing up in the age of velcro and digital clocks. They learned how to tie shoes eventually, but in their own strange bows I still don't understand (they are now college age). And I don't think they have an automatic instinct for such time phrases as "quarter after (the hour)" like previous generations do.

And thanks for the "behind the scenes" photos of Smokey Bear and Mom. I felt so inadequate about my own dog photographs after seeing your fabulous ones that lent themselves so easily to stories. A remembrance: when one of my furry babies passed away recently, I looked for a photo of her to put on my blog. However, it wasn't until that moment I realized that almost all of my photos of her over the 12 years were exactly the same. No matter what she was doing when I pulled the camera out she would stop it, come to me and sit at my feet, and then stare upward at me to see what I was going to do next because she had insatiable curiosity. So most of my photos of Millie were taken from above looking down at her staring up at me. I gave up trying to pose her years ago.

As I age, this story is a great reminder of the little things we take for granted in life. It's funny how learning to tie my shoes remains in my memory. How 'in the moment' we are with the shoelace - evident by your daughters lack of acknowledgment of your presence. If we could all be so present with our attentions to the task before us - the simple ones.. what a gift! Oh glorious fall colors...big sigh:)

Kristin,what a wonderful post and such beautiful pictures!
THANK YOU for them! For sharing such a cherished moment!
And also for such a sweet rememberance about 'milestones'! As important to dear Jackie then as they are to all of us now, journeying through life, hopefully still able to achieve our goals.
Only wish we could retain Jackie's enthusiasm and joy!
Bon journee! Good luck at Shakespeare & Co!

Hello,

The picture of the Mulberry Tree brings back a nice memory of our visit with you this summer.

I hope your night at Shakesphere and Co was a success..wish we could have been there.

Newforest- I wanted to tell you I did finally get to see Inspector Morse last friday. I have a few Colin Dextor books, and I have had a box set of his shows my dad loaned me years ago, but since they are VHS, I hadn't seen them. I plan to dig the VHS machine out and try to hook it up to our flat screen...not sure it will connect. It was nice to see Inspector lewis so young. Did you know he used to be a folk singer. Anyway, Sun nights Sherlock was good. I am looking forward to more of them...they left the cliff hanger.

Kristin, as always your blog is a great welcome, and a needed escape from my world right now. I sometime wish for those days when the boys were young and they were learning all kinds of new things like tying their shoes. They were so sweet back then. They still can be as you may remember, but teen years are hard at times.

Good night

Meg Tipper, I somehow missed your comment the other day. My heartfelt sympathies on the loss of your daughter. Losing a child must be the most difficult and painful experience imaginable. Having lost two husbands, however, I can say that memories WILL come, often unbidden. Maybe not of the learning-to-tie-shoes type, but random things, such as a song, a book, a game, a TV show, a clothing item - even now, with a healthy older son, I'm occasionally reminded of his younger years by one thing or another.

I'll keep you in my prayers.