Tourist Faux Pas

Bonjour tout le monde!
I have met many people who tell me that I get good treatment in France because I speak the language fluently.  I have heard their stories of how the French are so rude, and how they are treated in stores.  My first questions is, "Did you say hello?"
Saying 'Bonjour' is one of the most important things that anyone can say in France.  It sets the tone, tells the salesperson that you're tuned into cultural clues, and is really, really polite.  Even if you can't say anything more than that, you will be treated well, almost like a local.
Today, I ran across this from www.thelocal.fr (which, by the way, is an awesome website) about what the French think about tourists.  The first one is pretty funny - Don't get robbed - as if it is tourists' fault that they get pickpocketed. But then again...
Take a look, and then in the comments section, tell me which one jumps out at you...
http://www.thelocal.fr/galleries/travel/twelve-things-tourists-to-that-annoy-parisians

The Eiffel Tower as seen from Montmartre

Oops! What did I just say?

Bonjour tout le monde!
Being a world language teacher is always interesting.  One of the most challenging things we have to teach our students is that not all words and expressions go from one language to the other, and that it doesn't always work to use a familiar word and 'Frenchify' or 'Spanify' it.
The most interesting expressions have to do with being excited, as in 'excessively affected by emotion', but in most romance languages, excité means to be aroused.  I would always encourage my students to find another way to express their great emotion.
Tampon is another good word.  Students don't like to use it, although if you've been through immmigration at any international airport, you have had your passport stamped, or tamponné.  
Other fun words that are faux amis are préservatif (a form of birth control), attendre (to wait for), and douche (a shower). Of course, that is just the tip of the iceberg (or glaçon)
Do you have any favorite faux amis?  Please share in the comments section  

http://io9.com/not-every-familiarword-in-a-foreign-language-is-your-fr-1594409523?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

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D-Day 70years later

A visual of the D-Day Landings

Bonjour tout le monde!

American Cemetery in Normandy

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing on the Normandy beaches.  Dubbed "Operation Overlord" by the Allied forces, over 9,000 men lost their lives that day.  In French, D-Day is le Jour-J, and marked the start of renewed Allied fighting against the Germans.   Many of our memories stop at June 6, but the Allies didn't enter Paris until August, 1944.  In between, the fighting and bombing continued between the two sides, leaving many towns, cities and villages in ruins.
Such was the case with the town of Caen, which lost many buildings that dated from the Middle Ages.  They rebuilt, then constructed the Caen Memorial Museum.  I have visited the museum at least three times, and each time I learn something new.  When you visit the museum, as you go through, you see original footage from the day, plus huge mechanical montages that show how the Allied forces worked hard to force the retreat of the Germans.  Now it is possible to go through a museum that has artifacts from the fighting that started in Normandy and ended in Paris two months later.
Here are some photos from one of our visits to the landing area of Omaha Beach, which included the Point du Hoc, where huge depressions in the land show what the entire region looked like during the war.

Omaha Beach

A part of the Cemetery memorial

If you make it  to the Normandy area, make sure that you see the museum in Caen, the Point du Hoc, and also the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.

For more information on the Museum in Caen:
http://normandy.memorial-caen.com/

Photos of D-Day then and now:
http://golem13.fr/70-ans-liberation-de-paris/

Flags flying at the American Cemetery

Point du Hoc

Looking into one of the German bunkers.

I think this was a gun placement (a BIG gun)

the Monument of the Point du Hoc -
erosion has it now behind a fence to protect visitors

Love in Paris, and the Pont des Arts

Bonjour tout le monde!
If you have been in Paris within the past six years or so, you might have found yourself on the Pont des Arts, which links the Louvre with the 6th arrondissment on the other side of the Seine.  This pedestrian bridge originally dates back to 1804 but was rebuilt in 1985 in steel rather than the weaker cast iron.  Sometime around 2008, lovers and visitors to Paris started "locking in their love" by leaving a lock on the bridge. Bouquinistes lining the sides of the Seine near the bridge started selling locks and providing Sharpie pens for the lovers to inscribe their initials.  Similar love lock bridges exist in New York, Seoul, and London.
Now, it seems, that all this love is negatively affecting the structure of the Pont des Arts bridge.  The bridge is actually buckling under the weight of all those "love locks" that have been attached to the railings.  Now, tourists in love are asked to send  a virtual lock to http://www.lovemasterlock.eu/.  After all, once it's on the Internet, it's really forever!
I must confess that Michael and I have been tempted, but we have never done the lock thing.  What about you?  Have you ever left a lock on a bridge to commemorate your love?  Where?  When?  And, most importantly, are you still together?
Here is the original article:  http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20140421-paris-to-tourists-stop-locking-down-love

Love locks on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Sur la Table

Bonjour tout le monde!
I love to cook.  For me, being in the kitchen is a sort of therapy.  I find the perfect recipe, which for me usually means not to many steps, go to the grocery store for the ingredients, and then I cook.  I'm pretty good at following directions, which makes recipes great for me.  I have, though, honed the craft of adding little bits of this or that to see how it tastes (no complaints yet).
I think that the process of cutting, boiling, or baking is what I enjoy.  It's just me, the words on the paper (and more commonly now, the computer) and the ingredients on the counter.  I don't have to think about much more, except making sure that whatever I am doing comes out right.  That is the therapy part. And, we eat.
Then, it is on to making my table look beautiful.  When I travel, I love to buy tablecloths and the matching napkins.  They are not only a cool souvenir, they are useful, too.  I use cloth napkins because they are pretty, and because I am not putting more stuff in landfills.  Naturally, after a dinner, I throw everything into the washing machine, the dryer, and then I iron them.  Yeah, I'm anal...
This morning I came across this blog titled "5 Things That Will Make Your Kitchen More Parisian", and I was intrigued.  Would I pass the test?  Do I have it, the Parisian kitchen?
Almost.  I got #1, there is an almost empty bottle of  #2, but I'm going to have to do the lentils, which is an awesome idea.  The finishing salt will have to wait a little bit, but I'm all over the cloth napkins.  Now, for a new butter bell...
How about you?  What's in your kitchen?  And if you have any finishing salt (fleur de sel), where did you get it?

http://food52.com/blog/10278-5-things-that-will-make-your-kitchen-more-parisian

My table - the cloths are French from Provence and Basque (in background).  I made the bread, too.

Renovating a Chateau

Bonjour tout le monde,
I love to watch HGTV and all the flipping shows that are on television.  I dream of what my kitchen will be; sometimes I recreate my dream house in, well, my dreams.If anyone has seen my Pinterest page, they will see that my perfect house will pretty much consist of just kitchens and bathrooms because that is all I seem to post.  Gotta work on that.
However, in France, an Australian family has bought an abandoned chateau in the south of France, near the village of Chateau Verdun.  The Class 1 Historic Monument-listed building was designed by Parisian architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, famous for his neoclassical architectural symmetry including the Petit Trianon and the Place de la Concorde.  The couple who bought the chateau have begun restoring this chateau to its former glory.
I started following the restoration a couple of months ago.  Photos of each newly discovered room and architectural treasure are posted on the Chateau's Facebook and Instagram..    
In the process of fixing up the building, they have discovered an internal tower, plus a really cool chapel with stained glass windows.  You have to admire the way the building was planned.  Built before electricity and indoor plumbing, windows have been strategically placed to provide each room, even the below ground cellars, with lots of light.
Those working on the chateau have uncovered the most amazing details: the painted beams of a ceiling, little wooden scrolls on the walls, intricate patterns on the doors.
If you're interested in history, architecture, renovations, and just French stuff in general, you must follow the renovations to see how this Australian couple turn an abandoned chateau back into its former beauty.  
Be inspired - now that kitchen reno looks pretty good!
www.chateaugudanes.com
instagram.com/chateaugudanes

j'escargote

bonjour tout le monde!
I'm running a little slowly today, but I did have time to check out 10 suggestions for new French words.  They run the gamut of topics, but I like the #1 suggestion: escargoter, which means to take your time over something.  Just imagine yourself in a restaurant in Paris, as you escargotez over dinner with that last digestif. Or you could escargote over that wonderful novel that you're reading.
Check out all of the wonderful ideas here: http://www.thelocal.fr/galleries/culture/new-french-words-that-might-join-the-dictionary-
If you have any ideas of French words that you would like to see in the dictionary, write them in the comments!