Vivent les vacances!

 

http://blocs.xtec.cat/avaclajota/files/2011/07/vacances_1_.jpg

Three words much awaited for by many kids! " Long live the holidays!" By the way, three controversial words. Should it be Vive les vacances! or Vivent les vacances!  There are two theories and  sides who agree to disagree. I believe (that's my theory) that originally vive or vivent are used when making a wish therefor sing the subjunctive mood.
For example, Vive la France! (which means Long lives France!) is actually short for Que vive la France! (I wish that France lives long!). Consequently, when using a plural subject, the verb should be conjugated accordingly in the "they" form . Example: Vivent les Bleus! (the French footballl team) should be the correct spelling. But you will never see this on a flag or Tshirt. Probably too grammatical correct!
So, eventually Vive has lost its value as a verb, become invariable and almost an equivalent to Bravo: Vive les mariés!
To come back to Vivent les vacances! (I am starting a new trend and have decided to use the subjunctive!), it is worth reminding that vacances is a plural noun; it will always be "les/des/mes/nos vacances".
Now these grarmmatical points are out of the way, let us get to the fun part of "les vacances"!
Summer holidays are much longer in France and have started 3 weeks ago! That is why they are often called "les grandes vacances"...
No French person will read "Vivent les vacances! without feeling the compulsion to hum a very old tune sung on the last day of school by many generations:

"Vivent les vacances!
Plus de pénitence!
Les cahiers au feu
Et la maîtresse au milieu!"

Obviously it is not available on Youtube (I could not fing it) , as the lyrics suggest to burn exercise books and the teacher too! Things have changed!
To finish and put us in a holiday mood, here is a blast from the past Vive les vacances! ,a video clip by Dorothée, a children singer/TV presenter from the 80's. It illustrates how the French associate holidays with being stuck in huge traffic jams...but thats' another story. Watch this space soon.
Bonnes vacances!

La Francophonie.

That's the name of the "French speaking world". Immediatly, we would think of Belgium or Quebec but there are many other places in the world where French is the native, administrative or cultural language (region or pays francophone).L'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie has got its flag, motto,summit every two years (next one in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (2012) ), its Secretary General etc...
The French spoken is all these differents areas of the world will of course differ in vocabulary, syntaxe and accents. Figures will vary from one source to the other but it would be fair to say that French is spoken by 200  million people in well over 50 countries.
The hot spots are the obvious ones (Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco,Quebec) but also in North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco), Gabon, Congo, the Middle East (Lebanon, Egypt), Central Europe (Roumania), Madagascar, Vietnam, Cambodia....
Watch the international French Television TV5 Monde.
Listen to an Hymn to Francophonie.

14 juillet! Aux armes....etc...!!!

Today is July13th.France is getting ready to celebrate "la prise de la Bastille" on July 14th 1789, when la Bastille, a symbolic prison in Paris was taken over by the people "le peuple". It was the D Day of the French Revolution and became France's National Day and so a Bank Holiday. On July 13th, towns and villages organise their "bal du 14 juillet " (dance) and feu d'artifice (fireworks). Again, "une fête populaire"!
July 14th called "Bastille Day" by the British is actually called "Le 14 juillet" by the French!! Biensûr!!
14th July is a more official affair with military parades :"le défilé du 14 juillet" (this link is really worth looking at) all over France and particularly in Paris on the Champs Elysées.
Not wanting to start a whole history lesson, it is worth mentionning a few classics:

• "la Marseillaise", the national anthem was written by Rouget de Lisle and only adopted by the nation in 1792. Lyrics and audio in French with translation.
• "Liberté,égalité, fraternité", the French nation "motto" originates from the French Revolution's Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen  but was not adopted officially till the 3rd Republic.
• the "sans-culottes" poor, badly dressed militants and the "tricoteuses",who sat, knitting, through hundreds of executions.
• " le drapeau tricolore", the French flag which originates from this historic period too.

More information on "La Révolution Française"

TIP: Walk around Paris and visit every landmark which played a role in the Revolution:  La Bastille, Place de la Concorde, le Louvre etc...
And for something different, Serge Gainsbourg's own version of la Marseillaise: "Aux armes, etc...!"

C'est la Fête!

I have already written about la Fête as in a Saint Patron's Day. By the way, today is "la Saint Thibaut" and "Edgar". So Bonne Fête to all the Thibauts and Edgars! I have a strange feeling that they will not be many! If you have no idea of what I am speaking about, try reading my posting of February11th.
"Pour revenir à nos moutons" (to come back to our sheep/business), there are also plenty of other feasts happening all over France, particularly at week-ends to keep the French busy, planning, taking part, eating, dancing etc...
There is la fête patronale, again related to the saint Patron of the village/town or city this time.Sometimes simply because the town/village 's name, economic activities or past history. Originally, it wa a religious feast with special religious service and une kermesse, sharing of food , drinks, music, games etc... to celebrate the Saint Patron and thank him/her for his/her protection. This is slowly loosing its religious connotation but still alive in other shape and forms, especially fairs ("la foire", the fairground type with rides and so on..).
Then there are the myriad of "fête" advertised especially in the summer. Some can be justified :"la fête de la Mirabelle" to celebrate the harvest of the yellow gold plum in Metz,"la fête du citron" in Menton (it does not always have to be food), some are not "la fête des cow-boys" for example!

The "fête" has obviously a committee who plans an array of activities such as un défilé" ( a parade), un corso fleuri ( parade with floats decorated with flowers), un buffet campagnard (local food table), un barbecue, l'élection de la Miss (election of the Queen of ...),races (bikes, boats, sheep, horses), a dance (le bal), light shows (Son et Lumière) and fireworks (feux d'artifice).Plenty to do!

Link to more examples.

       

      

So if you travel to France and see one advertised,it might be a good idea to take the time. If on a small scale, it could give you the taste of "la France profonde" (the deep/real France).

Le Tour de France.

From Saturday 3rd till Sunday 24th July, the Tour de France will be the headline of sports news. This is the 98th edition of this cycling race which technically should travel around France but never actually does. It takes mainly place in France but over the years, there have been "étapes" (rounds/stages) in all the neighbouring countries, even England I believe.
This year, it will cover 3430,5 kilometers over the 3 weeks and visit places such as Cap Fréhel, Carhaix, Serre-Chevalier, Valfréjus, Olonne-sur-Mer, and Pinerolo (Italy). Also named "la Grande Boucle" (the Big Loop), it is the yearly celebration of  a very popular sport; the bicycle ,a national treasure is nicknamed "la Petite Reine"(the little Queen).

There is a lot of jargon attached to this sport and "le Tour".
Every day ,cyclists will cover une "étape de plaine "(flat terrain), "de montagne "(mountain) or "contre la montre" (against the clock!).This year , there will be 21 étapes.See this year's itinary.
The cyclists will be relieved to see "la flamme rouge" which lets them know there is only one kilometer left to "la ligne d'arrivée". The main bulk of men who cycle together is "le peloton".
Every day, the "classement "(ranking) will change according to performance.The last cyclist is called "la lanterne rouge"!
The more successful ones will wear "un maillot" (Tshirt) with specific coulours.



The most famous one is le "maillot jaune" (the best of the race). It has become an expression to describe somebody/a country/a town/a business who is the best at something... L'Italie porte le maillot jaune de consommation de pâtes! (Italy eats the most pasta!)

"Le maillot vert" goes to the best sprinter, the white one with red dots to the best climber, the white one to the best young cyclist.
The "Tour" finishes on a Sunday with a last sprint on the Champs Elysées.  in Paris.

Even if you are not interested in sports or cycling, it is a great "periple" (venture) to follow the "Tour" day after day, discovering France and its regions, its cities and villages, its mountains and plains which are the backdrop of this classic race.

Offical website Letour.fr
Official Letour.fr in English
Follow the Tour with http://www.cyclingfans.com/



Que le meilleur gagne!
May the best man win!

It's all in the past!!!

It is not advised to read this  if you are a beginner!!

Once students get over "conjugating", this usually starts with  the present tense, I hate to break the news that there are more tenses: future and past tenses. The past tenses are quite tricky because there is a selection to choose from and it takes time and practice to not only conjugate (build the verb with the right ending) but also to choose the right past tense!

Basically you will need to know the perfect (le passé composé) and the imperfect (l'imparfait). Some people like to mention the past historic (le passé simple), called the simple past, not so simple, since nobody ever uses it in the spoken language and it only shows up in history books, poetry or novels. It is handy to identify it and understand its meaning but there are so many verbs to remember in the first place in useful tenses that I like to priorotise.There is only that much one can memorize in the first years.

I don't like to explain things by translation but sometimes it helps so here goes:

The perfect(J'ai mangé)  is called "passé composé" , a compound of 2 elements : an auxilary (avoir or être) and a past participle (mangé=eaten, été=been, allé=gone). You would use it to narrate an event which happened in the past, it is the equivalent of the English past tenses: "I have eaten", "I ate" and even "I did eat".

The imperfect (Je mangeais) is called l'imparfait. You would use it to:

• describe an action in the past that occured often or regularly. It would then translate: "I used to..."
• describe an action in the past which was happening and interrupted. "I was reading when..." *
• describe a feeling, the atmosphere of the moment, the weather.It sets the scene. "It was a rainy day..."
• report speech in the past: "She said that she was going to the cinema".
• give a suggestion: "If w went to the beach today!"

*Incidentally, whatever interrupts this action would be in the perfect!!!!

And that's why I will leave the past historic for the time being. Follow these links for more information.It is worth reading this , several times to process it and of course practice, practice, practice...

When to use the imperfect.
How to conjugate the imperfect.

When to use  the perfect.
How to conjugate the perfect.

Perfect or imperfect: Practice.

Don't forget to use the Conjugueur to check your verbs or the verb Bible: le Bescherelle!

A Famous French poem in the perfect tense:
Hear the audio.

Déjeuner du matin (Jacques Prevert)

Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuiller
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler
Il a allumé
Une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder
Il s'est levé
Il a mis
Son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis son manteau de pluie
Parce qu'il pleuvait
Et il est parti

Sous la pluie

Sans une parole

Sans me regarder

Et moi j'ai pris

Ma tête dans ma main

Et j'ai pleuré.

Prepositions: little important words

La pomme est dans la boîte. La pomme est sur la boîte.

Luckily, prepositions can be straight forward in some cases!

But they can sometimes be quite tricky....

Prepositions in French deserve a blog of their own. It is a vast territory and a dangerous one to explore.To start, we need to understand what a preposition is. We use them all the time without realising. They are those little words that can change the whole meaning of a sentence:
"I look at the apple"." I look for the apple."
It is the same in French...
Here are the links: basic French prepositions.
More complex list of prepositions
It is all very good to memorise them but it is probably wiser to memorise them in context, for example with a verb or in a sentence.There is no point remembering that en, à and dans mean "in".It is important to know when to use them.
In this last case:
J'habite à Lyon.(estate, town, cities)
J'habite en Normandie/en France. (certain areas, countries, not all of them)
J'habite dans un immeuble /une maison/un appartement.(housing type)

I could carry on but I want to keep the audience awake!

"Dans" and "à" are quite troublesome because they are also involved in the temporal (time) prepositions dilemna:
When to use dans , à, depuis, en and othersto talk about time periods?

 Best is to give examples:

DANS.
Je travaille dans une heure.
I (will/start) work in an hour.

A.
Je travaille à 12:30.
I work at 12:30.

DEPUIS.
Je travaille depuis 40 minutes.
I have been working for 40 minutes.

Je travaille depuis 12:00.
I have been working since 12:00.

EN.
Je travaille en 2 heures.
I finish this work in 2 hours.

PENDANT.
Je travaille pendant 3 heures.
I work for (during) 3 hours.
etc etc etc....

Then you have the verbs which take a preposition in French and English:

Je parle à mon amie.
I speak to my friend.

Those which take a preposition in French but not in English:

Je téléphone à mon amie.
I phone my friend.

And those which take a preposition in English but not in French:

Je cherche mon ami.
I am looking for my friend.

Je soigne mon apparence.
I am looking after my apparence.

You must admit that prepositions are a mine field! But they are in all languages. Again, I can't advise enough to learn by meaning and context, maybe trying to memorise simple phrases initially.

Click these links for more information and exercises.
Position prepositions video
Position prepositions activities
Geographical prepositions explained
A/au/aux/en in front of countries
Time prepositions explained
A/dans/pour/pendant/depuis which to  use?
all about jouer au/jouer du
Jouer