En avril....

This week, we have had glorious sunshine and Summer temperatures and so has everybody in France. But the French do not take the weather for granted and television and my own mum have reminded that Spring is only a few days old and things could turn nasty...Popular sayings (des dictons) and proverbs (des proverbes)  give us a warning...
"En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil, en mai , fais ce qu'il te plaît!" is one of my family's favorite! Do not take a thread (any cloths) off in April, do what you want in May! Even though, temperatures reached high maximums this week, most French people will follow this advice and not wear shorts quite yet...
"Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps!" A swallow does not make the spring! is of the same rather negative register and both sayings are hot favorites at home and on TV...
There are also plenty of proverbs mostly used by "les paysans" (those who work the land) and can be found in the ephemeride and calendar:
"Noël au balcon, Pâques au tison" Christmas on the balcony, Easter near the fireplace. Can somebody remind what kind of weather we had this Christmas?
All this negative talk has put me off this beautiful weather...Luckily I can also think of a more uplifting one: "Après la pluie, vient le beau temps."(after rain, comes better weather).



  If you want to learn how to say the weather, practice, listen some weather forecasts (la météo) , or learn more weather related "dictons", use the following links:

How to say the weather.

Practice:basic
Practice with a weather report: French region map, weather and grammar step by step
Practice: improvers
Audio exercise: advanced

Plus de dictons sur les mois de l'année.

Very recommended: today's weather for kids.

Poisson d'avril!!!

Poisson d'avril is the equivalent of April Fool's Day but not quite. It is "April's Fish Day"... Today, people will be playing tricks ("jouer des tours à quelqu'un") on others, the most popular one being discreetly sticking a paper fish on their victims' back! But all other kinds of false stories and traditional tricks are allowed too.When the fish or trick are found out, they shout out "Poisson d'avril!" at their victim. If you managed to trick somebody, you would say "Je t'ai attrapé(e)" ("I caught you!").That could be a possible connection with "le poisson".
Some books offer obscure reasons why the day is assocciated with fish; one suggests that François, duc of Lorraine, held prisoner in Nancy by Louis XIII, escaped "le 1er avril " by jumping in a river and swimming to freedom!
But there are more theories, such as the Reformation of the French calendar by Charles XIV. You'll find more explanations in French on l'Internaute.
So as well as being busy cutting out paper fish, the French will be busy "faire des blagues" , "faire des calunars","faire des farces" (playing tricks) hoping that their victims will have "le sens de l'humour"!

Histoires de pâtisseries.

Even at beginners level, very few students do not know the word  "pâtisserie". It suggests shop windows crammed with pretty little cakes with odd names, rows of creamy creations which can be "consommés sur place"(eaten in) or "à emporter" (taken home) in equally pretty boxes. Sometimes, the box will even be adorned with a yes, pretty ribbon!!! La pâtisserie can also offer chocolates, sweets and other treats such as fine liquors. But it has got to be cute and well presented. Don't be surprised if you are asked "Je vous l'emballe?"(Shall I wrap it for you?) as cakes and chocolates are often given as gifts to dinner party hosts. Or you could ask: "Vous pouvez mettre un emballage -cadeau?" (Could you gift-wrap it?)

 To name all the cakes would be an impossible task but here are some classics (sorry no croissants in sight!):


            

The Paris-Brest was created in 1910
by Louis Durand, inspired by a bicycle race.



Le mille-feuille, a pastry litteraly
meaning "a thousand leaves" or layers. 




Le Saint-Honoré, named after the saint
 patron of bakers, made of caramelised choux.

 

Le pain aux raisins.



  






Le chou à la crème.

  

La religieuse (the nun),usually comes in
chocolate or coffee flavour.

Le savarin, a variation of le baba, named after
Brillat-Savarin, a famous 18th-century food
writer, this rich yeast cake is soaked with rum-flavored
syrup and filled with cream and/or fruit.

Read more on the Food Dictionary.

Best pastry in Paris.

Best pastry in Lille.

To finish, let us correct a very famous misquote; Marie-Antoinette did not say "Let them eat cake!" but "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"

  





Les restos du coeur.

Today is Red Nose Day.
Last week, on March 11th, a similar big scale charity event took place on French television. 12 million people switched on their TV to watch "Les enfoirés" (which I can't translate because I'm a lady!), 41 French speaking artists, singers, actors and comedians to raise money to help the needy in an initiative called "Les restos du coeur".(The restaurants of the heart).


Coluche in his early years of
stand up comedy.

It all started in September 1985. A very popular TV figure called Coluche made a speech on the radio station Europe 1. This speech is very famous and begins with the words 'I have a little idea..'. The charity collects food, money and clothes for the needy and the homeless. Listen to the song "Les restos du coeur". It starts : "Aujourd'hui on n'a plus le droit d'avoir faim ni d'avoir froid..." ("Nobody should be hungry or cold today..."). Since, each year, a fund-raising concert series takes place, sadly without Coluche who tragically died in June 1986.

The Restaurants of the heart started off in Paris but have gradually spread all over France and are now also offering other ways to fight poverty directly and indirectly with shelters, workshops, help to newborn babies and children, summer camps, etc...58000 people are now volunteering and 103 million meals were handed out in 2009/2010 in over 2000 restaurants. Coluche's little idea became one of the largest and most popular charity initiative in France.





"I am not a new rich,
I am an old poor person..."

Les Enfoirés 2011
Les Restos du Coeur on the news.

Le Carnaval!

This week was "le Carnaval"! Technically, le Carnaval is the period up to the start of Lent. But it is really "celebrated" all over France the week before the " Mardi Gras" (Fat Tuesday). It is a time to party, dress up (se déguiser) and to take part in all sorts of festivities carefully planned for months if not the whole year usually around a theme.Villages, towns and cities' Carnaval Commitees plan according to their budgets and own traditions: défilés (bands who march), parades, cavalcades (with floats ), feux d'artifice (fireworks), concerts, bals costumés ou masqués (masked balls) etc... It is a time where people mingle regardless of their social background and some pretty mad things happen. Herrings are thrown to the crowd from a Council balcony in Dunkerque! It's better to watch a few clips to get the general picture!!!

Best known of ....Carnavals Français

Herring Throwing in Dunkerque   

 Carnaval de Nice

Carnaval de  Dunkerque.





Carnaval de Nice.



 

Just this once, food is not the main protagonist but you can't escape le beignet (doughnut), and its cousins la merveille, et la bugne de Carnaval, la gaufre (the waffle) and la crêpe (pancake) as it is the tradition to empty the pantry of rich foods to get ready for Lent.

Faux-ami! False friend!

When you read in another language and try to understand it, you hold on to every familiar looking word you possibly can and hope for the best! This week, I actually encouraged students to do just that and luckily, it worked. But then, there are exceptions. They are called les faux-amis, the false friends. Words which look similar in both languages but don't mean the same thing. You  read them , sometimes hear them and you jump to the conclusion that you know what they mean. But you don't. Sometimes they can really create misunderstandings!
The classics and some of my favorites are:
un agenda: not something that you might discuss at a meeting but a diary. Something worth explaining to WHSmith's salespeople who look at you blankly when you look for a 1996 agenda!!
sympathique: not about someone who is understanding but someone who is friendly and good company.
la monnaie: not money but coins!  "I need "coins" to go on holidays" (cheap holiday then!)
passer un examen:  you haven't passed it yet but you are taking it! "I come here to pass my examen!" (That's positive thinking!)
du tissu: actually cloth, material not something to blow your nose with.
demander: to ask for not to demand  "I am here to demand the bus timetables" (please!)
une librairie: a place where you have to pay for the books you take come!

Try to imagine...
The list is non-exhaustive and when reading it, you almost dread to make any kind of association between the two languages anymore and wonder how can words so similar mean something different. If it happens to French people speaking English (and me!!), it happens the other way round too. Don't be too quick to think that you can get away with an English word disguised under a subtle French accent!

An A to Z of false friends.
Some "popular" false friends.

French accents?

I am not speaking about the French accent from "Allo!Allo!". I meant the é, the ê and all those little bits that are so often forgotten. I can't stress enough that they are very important and if you woud forget them or mix them up at school in your "dictée" (dictation/spelling test), it would be bad news.

First of all because, in the case of the e, the little scribble above it makes a difference in its pronunciation, so to all those who asks "do we need to bother?" the answer is Oui! In English, "oo" does not sound the same in "blood" as in "boot". Some of us know the exact reason why, most have just learnt it by heart. And this is what you ought to try to do.

When you learn a new word, take the time to remember the accents (and the gender!) straight away.

Another reason why accents are important is that they help avoid confusion: "ou" is "or", "où" is "where" and can change the meaning of a word: " la cote "(rate) and " la côte " (rib).

A lot of  accents are signs of the word's evolution and that can be fascinating...What have hôtel, hôpital, plâtre,château, pâte in common other than the accent? The "little hat" (accent circonflexe) actually replaces an ancient "s": hostel, hospital, plaster, castle, paste...

If you want to read more about accents, here are some useful links.

Do French accents mean anything?

Can accents change the meaning of words?

For beginners and improvers, try this quick test

For more advanced students, try the 100 words test.

Lots more exercises can be founded under Accents in http://www.lepointdufle.net/orthographe.htm

Now comes another popular question: how do I type those accents on my keyboard? There are several techniques. I let you experiment and decide which works best for you and your PC.

1.  In Word, you can Insert/Symbols, then choose the Latin 1 subset.You can insert the character chosen but this can be time consuming. You could also use the shortcut key, use the current or make up your own, for example F2+e  makes é etc...I used this for years but it only worked on Word so moved on to the next option which works for Powerpoint, the internet ...

2.  You can use your Alt key on the keyboard with a range of numbers to insert the letters with accents. See the grid on: http://www.zut.org.uk/general/accents.html. I have printed one and stuck it next to my keyboard.

3.  You can type your text online with the accents on  http://french.typeit.org/ , cut and paste your work wherever you need it when finished. It works!

So no more excuses for writing without accents in French, except when I am in a real rush! Je vous dis: "à bientôt!" (see you soon!).