FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Pooh Bear, you've got competition in France. Share today's "extra" edition with a Teddy Bear lover.

le nounours (noo-noorce)

    : teddy bear 

Word origin: Nounours--from un ours (en peluche), or a "stuffed bear," is French baby talk. See a list of French Baby Talk here.

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Un nounours c'est un câlin à quatre pattes.
A teddy is a cuddle with paws at the end. (Gill Davies) 

Pronounce It Perfectly in French - with exercises in sound discrimination and accurate sound creation. Order your copy here.


When I was little, at the hospital getting my tonsils out, my stepfather (we'll call him that, as Dick was a big part of my childhood, even if Mom never married him) brought me a giant teddy bear.  Only, when Dick learned that the little girl sharing my room was dying, he gave her the big teddy bear. (He gave me another, on his next hospital visit.)

My would-be stepfather passed away several years ago, but I will never forget his gesture. From then on, teddy bears were BIG in my life and that seed of empathy grew and grew.


 "Teddy, Resurrected". This yellow nounours, seemingly rescued from the municipal trash, was given to my mom by a villager in Les Arcs-sur-Argens. As you can see, I swiped it from Jules....


We all need to vent sometimes. Go ahead, air your teddy laundry! (Can't remember where this picture was taken... Not too far from Sainte Cécile.)


Longing to go out and play.... A teddy reminder that we might stop what we are doing, for a moment, and get out for some fresh air. Solutions come and problems seems to solve themselves... with the help of a little fresh air.


(A second reminder to get up and get out for some fresh air. You needed that second reminder, didn't you?)


Teddy Bears hanging out in Les Baux de Provence. And thanks for hanging out with me, dear readers, for a few moments this Thursday morning.... I needed to concentrate on something besides the pounding and sawing and crumbling going on around here this morning.

Did you ever have a teddy bear? When's the last time you gave someone a nounours? Comment here. My friend Kate gave me two last time I saw her. I shook my head, "It's been years..." I thought, and my thoughts skipped off, right down memory lane. 

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