FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Age 62, living in Kensington, CA. I studied French for many years in school, long ago. Currently doing a fun online French course with Frantastique so that the next time I am in France (in June!) I won't be tongue-tied. Happy New Year to you, Kristin!

Salut! Managed to acquire my life's dream 17C longère in Dept 44 some 20+ yrs ago. Small agricultural hamlet with 0,27 ha of 'lawn'. I love trying to acquire the local argot but resigned to never achieving the authentic accent. Trè decu by the concept of Brexit, as are my neighbours. Jeff

Seventy-five in Berkeley. I will never speak French but love reading about your life. I cheer for your family! Your resilience is inspiring. The pictures transport me to your world. Thank you.

I am living in Sacramento, CA after returning to the US following 9 years in Strasbourg, France 😃. I found your blog when I was first learning French many years ago and have followed you ever since, feeling a kinship to another American living abroad in beautiful and crazy France. Je te souhaite une très belle année 2018!! Robyn

Always wanted to live in France. Life throws curve balls which weren’t in the planning.
Instead we now live in The Mar Menor, Costa Calida, Spain.

Have been following your posts for a number of years and love reading what’s going on with others on planet Earth. Thanks so much.
Margaret

Age 68 in Chocowinity, NC. I started learning French in 6th grade and decided I would be a French teacher at that point. Studied at l'Universite de Nice in "70 - '71. Taught French (and Spanish and ESL) most of my adult life. Still working with a group at the library in Washington, NC. Was a fellow in the first two NC Governor's Institutes in French - one in Greensboro, NC and one in Paris. I heard about your blog many years ago from my francophone friends at the Brown Library in Washington, NC. Allez-y!

Completed my primaire in a Lycee in Mexico a long time ago. Always thought of France as my second home but only visited, for the first time, ten years ago. Reading your posts keeps me emotionally connected to France as my visits are not as frequent as I wish they were.
Je vous remercie pour tout ce que vous faites et je vous souhaite une bonne année.

Enchante. What a lovely word.

Elizabeth from Charlotte, NC. The big 5-0 bday just passed and I learn French to speak it when we go over every summer to stay in my grandparents' home in the south of France in the beautiful village of Grimaud. Come visit in July! I have been reading your blog since I read your book 10 or so years ago! Time flies...

As always - full of feeling and wisdom. Thanks for sharing and a good start suggestion for the new year.
I live in Salt Lake City, UT and am 73. I studied French a couple of years way back in high school from a Latin Teacher at the time that "conversational" French was first starting out to be popular, partly as prereq. for college, but also because of a glamorous, red-headed French war bride in our village whom I wanted to emulate. I brought it all forward when the opportunity for working in France was offered to my husband, Jack. Our family studied for a number of weeks prior to moving, and then we lived in Dijon for a couple of marvelous years. Our neighbors were very patient with me, and I'm sure I was the "crazy Americaine", but I loved every minute of our life there. Now I enjoy trying to keep up with what I had gained, and to vicariously revisit life in France, through your eyes and voice, and sharing of your adventures and thoughts, Kristi.
I am so grateful for your writings! I wish you Bonne Année, and Bon Courage as you deal with your loss.
Carolyn

I've been following you for years, after reading your first book. I am a lifelong Francophile who studied French in high school and planned to major in college but decided that I wanted neither to teach it nor to translate it, so I switched majors and was a psychologist for my professional life. Finally made it to France in 2006 with my husband, and we went back several times prior to his death in 2015. I have recently bought a house in a village in the Aude, next to friends, and plan to spend about three months a year there as long as I'm able. I've enjoyed your adventures and loved seeing the kids grow up and you and JM dealing with life's joys and sorrows. Je te souhaite une belle année!

I live in NewZealand - down under . Great message today about enchanté ! I go to France every year to stay with friends in Sablet and then a few days to soak in the culture of Paris. My ancestors came to NZ from Rochefort , France in 1840. I feel there is french in my blood somewhere !!

Hi Kristi1 I have enjoyed your blog for about 8 years. My husband and I lived in Paris for 12 years then moved here to Portland, Oregon at the end of 2008. I am an artist--a painter and 71 and like to keep in touch with my "French home". I miss living in France but like Portland. Thank you for your photos and your stories which help me stay in touch with a language I like very much!

I am a retired psychotherapist living in Lafayette, La...I have been following your blog for 3-4 years. I am of French heritage & enjoy keeping up with my French thru your blog since, although of French heritage, I rarely have the opportunity to speak it. I have gone to France a number of times but have a difficult time understanding French there, possibly because the French, I find, speak so fast.
I also enjoy keeping up with your family....love your photos so much!

Enchante, bien sur! Mon esprit chante en lisant ton blog! Merci, Mon amie!

Love your writing, love your openness and honesty and love the virtual community that you have created through your blog.

I'm a 66 year-old recent retiree in Seattle Washington. I am focusing on Norwegian in anticipation of our trip there in early summer, but when we return I plan to get back into French, later reviewing Japanese and Spanish. Why all the languages? Why not!

What joy you bring to us sharing your family's life experiences in France. I'm 75 years old living in Denver, Colorado. My second language has always been French, having grown up in a bi-lingual community. Thanks for keeping me current with " all things French". You are a breath of fresh air.

I have been reading you for years. At 67 & a 3rd generation Northern Californian (worked in SF most of my nursing career), My French husband & I decided to build a house in Taos, New Mexico. We were through with overcrowded & too- expensive California. And Taos is the closest thing to a foreign country in the US. Which brings me to France. I should have moved there when I fell in love with it in 1973. But I was too timid. And now we are too old & what family I do have is small & I want to be close enough to them. Soooooo, I have instead traveled to France on a regular basis since 1973- 40 Times at least. So France is my love, but full time is not in the picture. My franglais doesn’t get much better after studying French in high school & college. But I can communicate!!

Alanna living in Whitefish, Montana. I’m older than you, but young at heart! My mother turned me on to your blog when you were still in Sainte Cecile. I learned my French living in Algeria in the 60s. I cheer your successes and mourn your losses. You have brought much light into my inbox so a great big MERÇI!

I am a 68 year old long time reader and big fan from Danville, California. Like others, I studied french in both high school and college and earned my B.A. in french in 1971. Like another responder I have always felt that I lived in Paris in a previous life. I even cried on the train when I left Paris for the first time (during my first trip to Europe) back in the summer of 1970. My claim to fame was a picture taken on that trip while I was in the Amsterdam train station that was published in LIFE Magazine! The article featured students traveling abroad with the rail pass.

My husband and I lived in Oxford, England for a couple of years after he earned his PhD as well as full post doc fellowship to work with a Psychologist at the university. We traveled to France while there.
Since then I have made several trips to France and Europe and would never turn down an opportunity to return.

I will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of my 39th birthday very soon and have lived most of my years in the Hudson River Valley, having been born here, moving to the big city a few times but always returning to my HOME. My beloved father Jack began speaking French to me as soon as I could speak, so I have never really considered it to be a classroom exercise, which is what I suppose he intended. Happily, last night I began a conversational Spanish class, as we have many new residents in our town from Ecuador and Guatemala and I would like to be able to better communicate with my neighbors. One of the first words our teacher gave us? "Encandata"...which is equivalent to "enchante"....One of the older women in the class mentioned that her reason for wanting to learn Spanish was for the "beauty of all languages"...How lovely. You mention serendipity; I am a true believer....MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL, Eileen

Morgan, did you know Professor Daniel Penham while at Columbia? He and I were friends. Eileen Burns

Bonjour mon ami,

I am Gail from Phoenix, AZ. Began feeling a strong internal yearning for France 🇫🇷 around 2008. It was the year prior my father, while studying our family history, discovered our ancestors were Huguenots from France. My father had taken French in high school and gave his two girls French names. My dearest friend and I began dreaming, wishing, hoping than planning and we were blessed to visit France in 2012. We stayed in Paris for four days and Normandy 5 days. I cant remember what year you came to Phoenix for a blog meet up? Heidi was there, too. A small group of us had coffee and went on a hike. I have a photo of the two of us and you autographed your first book for me! If circumstances were different I would go to Europe and not come home until I was finished exploring and experiencing!! However, God has me here in the sunny Southwest so I work on contentment and live in France via your blog! Thank you for sharing your life and experiences with us all. BIG HUGS, Gail (who would like to have had her name spelled Gaelle)

Such wonderful advice and a hopeful message for the new year. Fenelon's wise words are a great guide for a good start in the new year (and for life!). I have been enjoying your posts for a number of years and always find the thread of faith, hope and love in your posts very uplifting.

The glimpses of France nourish us. I particularly love the pictures; so on a grey cold London January day I am served with a generous helping of bougainvillea and sunshine. And a bonus dog. The flowers encourage as do your words. Plus the global network of fellow learners and lovers linked by your generous offering. Merci !

Small town outside of Montréal,French Canadian,bilingual ,64.
Take care!

I have been following French Word A Day since the very beginning. As a retired former teacher of French and English as well as a career computer geek it has been such a joy to be part of your family and see your children grow into such beautiful (in all ways) adults and to watch you develop into such a wonderful writer. I am rooting for that novel.
I have traveled to France several times and was tres enchante' on my last trip in 2012 when my brother and I were able to meet you and Jean Marc at Domaine Rouge-Bleu just before you moved south. I have all of your books and even won a copy once. We will never forget that you tube video of you showing us how to open a bottle of wine with a book and a shoe. That is the book that I am proudest to own.

I live in Lexington, Kentucky and once drove all the way to Alexandria, Virginia to purchase a case of Mas des Brun rose' because Jean Marc does make the very best rose'. I will be enchante' to see what adventures the new year brings.

Susan, I have been thinking of doing this for a long time! Can U B more specific about what U have in mind?

I was born in San Francisco in 1960, and grew up in California and Ohio, with vacations in Virginia at my grandparents’ farm in the Shenandoah Valley. I have lived in NYC 38 years.I began studying French before school when I was 7. My teacher was young, tall, handsome. That may be how I got hooked—a first crush! I had a yellow book with pictures of common things and their French names. I still have that book. It opened up a magic world to me. Since then, I studied throughout my school years, including speed-conjugating irregular verbs with a wonderfully creative teacher from Germany who wrote all over the chalk board with crazy enthousiasm. The language really took hold when I went traveling through France at 22. My muscles developed, I was not afraid to sound like a fool, and the French took the time to correct my mistakes in their beautiful language, which others might not have appreciated. I just thought I was getting tutored for free!
I go back once a year now during the grape harvest, to help at a vineyard in Burgundy, in Cheilly-les-Maranges, near Beaune. I cook for the grape-pickers there. Otherwise, I work as a freelance catering chef.

Almost 73, in Ontario Canada. Grew up speaking English, and learning academic French in school. Despite attending French summer camp and living for a year in French Switzerland, I never became fluent (too lazy!). Can read French fairly well, though, and do enjoy it. Raised two kids solo after early loss of my spouse, discovering strengths unsuspected. Attracted by your blog in 2000, even before I retired (was a prof of English language and literature). Visited your French-Word-A-Day for the words, lingered for the true family stories so well-told, resonated with your authenticity and seeking spirit, and now love you all to bits! Enjoying my quiet, simple life as a rather hermitty-retiree. Am myself spiritually-oriented, an HSP, a 12-Stepper, and a human being who's endlessly, caringly curious about Everything and Everyone. Happy as can be to be here, savouring the moments we so miraculously are given and can share!

Hi Gail,

I remember the meet-up also....What fun that was!

Herm

j'avais boucoup d'amis dans le sud de France. i even tried to visit Rouge Blue when there in 2009, but your family was gone to , i believe it was Romania, on vaction and i couldnt say 'Allo" Mike 62 ans, St Joseph, Mo., E.U.

Hi, Kristin,

I am in my 70s and living in Eugene Oregon. I love the challenge of learning a language. Every week several friends I meet for two hours of fractured French conversation. The effort keeps us alert and the topics keep us updated on what is happening in France. Your newsletter is a welcome resource for better understanding the culture.

By the way, last week I spotted bottles of Mas des Brun wine on the shelf of my local wine shop. The owner was amazed that I knew of JeanMarc and his recent visit to Oregon. The wine was delicious and I will be returning to buy more this weekend….if there is any left!

After getting my DNA results from Ancestry, I discovered that I am from an extensive network of French Huguenot descendants. Connecting with my French cousins and joining their Facebook page has enriched my life. I've managed to get as far back as the early 1600's and hope to keep discovering even more from the old documents I uncover...which are of course in French. I am 70-years-old and live in a rural town NE of San Diego which has vineyards popping up all over the place. My first cousin and I have it on our 'bucket list' to travel to France together someday soon!

I majored in French at the University of Houston, and in 1978-79, I had the privilege of living in Tours, France, on a Rotary scholarship. I still keep in touch with friends I made there, but my French is getting rusty. Love your blog, because it helps me keep up! Thanks, and happy 2018 to all your family.

I've enjoyed reading your blog for years.. I'm 48 live in London but have a small apartment in the 4th in Paris. We are total Francophiles and intend to move to southern France in the future - hence hearing the stories of French life is so captivating. I've been learning French for years but am clearly not a competent linguist and struggle... your posts motivate me though to keep at it !! We spend a weekend in Paris each month and adore it...