A French Education

WITHOUT PRETENSION

2012-01-28T08:41:00.003+01:00

To give a kingdom for a Carmargue horse

De donner le trône et le reste contre un seul cheval carmarguais...
-- from Georges Brassen's song, Le Modeste

The Carmargue is a brave race of small white to light-gray horses indigenous to la Carmargue or Rhone delta territory in the south of France. The race, thought to be one of the oldest in the world, is the traditional mount of the Carmargue gardians or cow herders--cowboys if you like. (The year 2012 marks the 500th anniversary of Carmargue's confrérie des gardians.) Carmarguais horses continue to range in semi-liberty in the marshes of its origin where they've nostalgically become spirited symbols of untamed freedom.

Georges Brassens, poet, composer and performer was a native of Sète, a Mediterranean port which is about 15 km from this thin strip of beach, La Plage des Aresquiers. Bordered on one side by the sea and the other by a lagoon, it's one of the last wild, natural beaches in the Hérault department--and it still has seashells.

Vocabulary
un cheval: a horse
un trône: a throne
la mer: the sea
à cheval: astride a horse; to be on both sides of the fence, figuratively

Expressions
être à cheval sur les principes: to be demanding or rigorous
Ne changez pas de cheval au milieu de la rivière: Don't change horses in the middle of the river.
Mon royaume pour un cheval: My kingdom for a horse! (from Shakespeare's Richard III)

©2012 P.B. Lecron

MUM'S THE WORD

2012-01-23T09:26:00.003+01:00

The less said about the local tradition that turns around this statue (and its nickname) the better. Carved in wood, l'Homme sur Sa Bouée (1993) seemingly floats in the canal on the Quai Bélu in Amiens. It is one of three of a series of oak sculptures in the Quartier Saint-Leu carved by German artist Stephan Balkenhol. This once dangerous but now refurbished and picturesque neighborhood is the "QG" of Amiens students who regularly see to the statue's wardrobe, sometimes dressing it in a sweater, other times less gloriously.

Vocabulary
la bouée: the mud
bois: wood
chêne: oak
QG: for quartier général, general headquarters
une garde-robe: a dressing room, but by extension also means one's clothes and accessories

©2012 P.B. Lecron

ONLY IN NORMANDIE

2012-01-22T10:49:00.002+01:00

Roadside still

Where I come from this sort of contraption would have been nefariously hidden in the backwoods. In Normandie, however, licensed artisanal stills used to transform apple cider into the famous 40° Calvados alcohol are scattered around the countryside.

Calvados, named for the Normandie apple-producing department, is served dry, on ice, in cocktails and as a digestif; it's used as well as a cooking ingredient in sweet or salty recipes, and for flambéing. So much has it been used to lace coffee that if one orders a café nature in Normandie it would likely be understood to mean without "Calva."

Vocabulary
un alambic: a still
un cidre: a cider
un café nature: ordinarily means coffee without sugar

©2012 P.B. Lecron

EMANATING GOOD VIBRATIONS

2012-01-19T10:45:00.006+01:00

Violin makers inevitably have fascinating storefronts necessarily located in the calmer parts of a city or town (concentration and precision oblige). This atelier is in Rouen on a pedestrian street at Place du Lieutenant Aubert. In Paris luthiers are grouped around the rue de Rome, back behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, the historic music quarter of stringed and other instruments. Worth more than a detour for any mélomane.

VOCABULARY
un luthier: a violin maker
un atelier: a workshop, studio
un instrument à cordes: a cord instrument
un archet: a bow for stringed instruments
un mélomane: a music lover, especially of classical music
la musique savant: genre including opera, symphonic, chamber, sacred, baroque and contemporary music

©2012 P.B. Lecron

NAIL SELLERS SINCE 1799

2012-01-16T09:13:00.006+01:00

Chez Revert

Fancy that...this Versailles hardware store has been selling nails since 1799. The establishment has changed locations and owners since that time, but the business has been an ongoing affair for more than 200 years in the royal city.

What was happening in 1799?

For one thing, the Rosetta Stone was discovered by a French soldier, Pierre-François Bouchard, during Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt. The stone, inscribed with the same text in three scripts including Egyptian

hieroglyphs, provided the key to deciphering the ancient Egyptian writing system. The Rosetta Stone fell into the hands of the British upon their defeat of the French in Egypt in 1801, and has since then been on display in the British Museum in London. Plaster casts of the stone were circulated among European scholars and it was Jean-François Champollion who in 1822 actually deciphered the stone, enabling the interpretations of many other early Egyptian records.

Vocabulary
un clou: a nail
une quincaillerie: a hardware store
un vendeur: a seller
décrypter: to decode

©2012 P.B. Lecron

NIGHT IN PARIS

2012-01-15T19:10:00.003+01:00

Night view of Paris with the Seine, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palais and the Champs Elysées, as seen from the Grande Roue, near Place de la Concorde (foreground). The 65-meter high Ferris wheel--more currently known as an observation wheel--with thank-the-stars heated cabins is a seasonal attraction usually set up for the winter holidays.

Vocabulary
la grande roue: the big wheel
faire la roue: to turn cartwheels

©2012 P.B. Lecron

MORNING MOON

2012-01-13T10:46:00.002+01:00

The moon this morning at 7:30.

La lune du matin
Weather report from Paris: beautiful but unseasonably mild winter; we can't remember when we last had a frosty morning.

Expression

Noël au balcon, Pâques aux tisons. Christmas on the balcony, Easter at the fireplace.

Vocabulary
la lune: the moon
le matin: the morning
un temps doux: mild weather
la météo: the weather report; forecast
la gelée: the frost; the jelly
une gelée blanche: a hoarfrost
le balcon: the balcony
un tison: a coal ember

©2012 P.B. Lecron

ON THE TO DO LIST

2012-01-10T20:51:00.005+01:00

En attente

Last but not least, it would seem, to be on the restoration list at the Domaine du Château de Versailles, is the superb cascading water fountain, le Buffet d'Eau. The bronze sculptures, once golden, represent water dieties, Neptune and his wife Amphitrite.

Red marble of Languedoc heightens the sense of impetuosity often associated with Neptune--and the flow of water.

Four young tritons, the equivalent of male mermaids, complete the mythical sea scene.

One of the more beautiful fountains in the park is probably one of the least visited; this masterpiece of Jules Hardouin-Mansart is on an extremity of the formal grounds near the Grand Trianon. Depending on one's starting point--which for most is the château--seeing it can require a certain amount of determination.

Vocabulary

une fountaine: a fountain

en attente: waiting

une restauration: a restoration

marbre rouge de Languedoc: red marble of Languedoc, a former province in the south of France

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

UP, UP AND AWAY

2012-01-09T11:24:00.005+01:00

Funicular starts with f-u-n

An outil ludique is how the Tréport mayor described his city's funicular, refurbished in 2006 after 60 years of abandon.

The funicular links the lower city to its upper terrace, saving citizens and tourists 365 steps up and down. It's free of charge to all users!

The funicular climbs and descends this chalk cliff, part of the 120 km formation that extends from Le Havre to Le Tréport, on the Côte d'Albâtre. Steady erosion of the chalk gives the water its milky green color.

View from the cliffs of Tréport, a fishing port on La Manche. For your free trip up the cliff, click here.

Vocabulary
un outil: a tool
ludique: playful
un funiculaire: a funicular
gratuit(e): free
Côte Albâtre: Alabaster Coast
La Manche: The English Channel; literally "the sleeve"

©2012 P.B. Lecron

THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

2012-01-08T18:26:00.013+01:00

A French friend's homemade galette des rois. Une réussite.

It's galette des rois season in France...and I say season because these tasty pastries, although traditionally served on Epiphany, are sold and eaten for days before observance of the Christian festival, as well as for a couple of weeks after. Most of France, secular included (because nearly everyone succumbs repeatedly to the playful charm of the tradition), will be putting on weight these next few days.

The galette is typically made of pâte feuilletée stuffed with either frangipane or compote de pomme, in which a "fève" is hidden. When served, the custom is for the youngest person--usually a child, to hide under the table and to say to whom each piece of galette is to be given. This is what is called " tirer les rois." The server's question "C'est pour qui?" (Who is it for?) is almost sung like a refrain. The person whose slice has the fève is the king, and is given a paper crown to wear; if a second crown is available he or she may choose a queen or king.

Vocabulary
une galette: a flat round cake
un roi: a king
une pâte feuilletée: a flaky pastry
frangipane: an almond flavored cream or paste
compote de pomme: apple sauce
une fève: a bean which symbolised a piece of money and used to be hidden in the galette des rois; today it is usually a tiny porcelain charm or figurine
tirer les rois: draw the kings, i.e., select by chance
fait maison: homemade
une réussite: a success

©2012 P.B. Lecron

CLEAN-CUT CHEESE

2012-01-08T16:27:00.001+01:00

We like this style of cheese knife for its clean cutting and versatility. Holes in its blade reduce friction when slicing, so softer cheeses don't stick to it. Its sturdy rounded blade wields firmer cheeses well, and its forked tip is of course for pricking then lifting the cheese slice to the plate. Stainless steel and kitchenproof, but nice enough to go on a plateau de fromage. If you had tight drawer space and could only have one cheese knife, this would be the kind to have.

Vocabulary
un couteau: a knife
un plateau de fromage: a cheese plate

For more on cheese slicing:
The Right Slice: Cheese Tips
The Right Slice: Cheese Cutting Tips
The Right Slice: Un Art de Vivre

©2012 P.B. Lecron

SOMEONE SPECIAL

2012-01-06T15:07:00.012+01:00

Jeanne d'Arc

Sculpture of Jeanne d'Arc in Eglise Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, Rouen, erected near the site where the young woman was burned alive.

January 6 is the 600th anniversary of the birth of the young French martyr, Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc). In the 15th century the teenager led French armies against the English in the One Hundred Years War, liberating Orléans in 1429 and enabling Charles VII to be crowned king of France. She was later captured, turned over to the English, then burned at the stake in 1431 following a trial for heresy.

The French national heroine has been appropriated, so to speak, as a symbol of the extreme right political party, le Front National. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, however, today in giving hommage to the "Maid of Orléans" pointedly declared that "Jeanne n'appartient à aucun parti, à aucun clan." (Joan belongs to no party, to no clan.)

American author and humorist Mark Twain, was fascinated by her life and spent twelve years researching his biography of her, producing what he himself considered to be his most important work: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. (The rest of the world doesn't necessarily agree.) It's preface by Louis Kossuth, 19th century Hungarian revolutionary and statesman, bears repeating:

"Consider this unique and imposing distinction. Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen."

OUT TO LUNCH

2012-01-05T14:48:00.000+01:00

Traditional cuisine and Versailles institution

A LA GIRAFE

2012-01-03T13:51:00.031+01:00

Gustave Eiffel, when conceiving the Eiffel Tower, surely must have been influenced by the graceful form of the very first live giraffe, Zarafa, ever to set foot in France.

Zarafa, a gift to Charles X from the Pacha of Egypte, was shipped to the port of Marseilles, then led by foot to Paris in 1827, accompanied by the director of the Jardin des Plantes, three cows (from which the young giraffe was given milk) and an escort cavalry of gendarmes.

All of Paris thronged to the ménagerie of the Jardins des Plantes to see the exotic creature which inspired graphic and literary artists of the time. Zarafa's coming was a highly exceptional event, only two other hapless giraffes had ever been displaced to Europe before.

Now a museum mascot

After Zarafa's death in 1845 the famous giraffe was stuffed, mounted and put on display at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in the Atlantic coastal city of La Rochelle.

Photo of Zarafa at the Muséum d'histoire naturelle, La Rochelle, published under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Soon to be a film

A feature-length animated film based on a story about Zarafa's friendship with a little boy from Sudan who promises to bring the animal back to the savanna, is scheduled to be released February 8, 2012. For the film trailer of Zarafa by Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie, click here.

Vocabulary
une girafe: a giraffe
une ménagerie: a collection of wild animals
un gendarme: an armed French national police officer
naturalisation: in zoology, process of stuffing and mounting animal skins by a taxidermist

©2012 P.B. Lecron

MINDING ONE'S OWN BUSINESS

2011-12-31T11:56:00.011+01:00

Exercising rights

Here's a popular and low-brow (but fun) French expression from days gone by--and inspired by the late 19th century liberation of women from their tight corsets and cumbersome skirts so they could pedal bicycles: Je ne te demande pas si ta grand-mère fait du vélo. (I don't ask you if your grandmother rides a bike; i.e., I haven't asked your advice, mind your own business.)

A delightful réplique to quell indiscreet questions, the expression is used as a refrain in a 1925 hit opérette song, Est-ce que je te demande.

Vocabulary
un vélo: a bike; the word is short for vélocipède
une grand-mère: a grandmother
demander: to ask
une bicyclette: a bicycle
une réplique: a retort
une opérette: a musical genre mixing comedy, song and dance

©2011 P.B. Lecron

DREAM IN COLOR

2011-12-30T20:42:00.002+01:00

Rêve ta vie en couleur, c'est le secret du bonheur.

Dream your life in color, it's the secret to happiness. -- Walt Disney

Walt Disney, an American of Irish extraction, has made his way onto this blog because his surname is an anglicization of the French Norman name d'Isigny. According to Wikipedia a branch of the d'Isigny family emigrated to Ireland in the 17th century. Disney's grandfather would leave Ireland for America in 1834 to establish his family there. Later Walt would be born in Chicago in 1901.

Butter by the way: One of the three best butters produced in France is the beurre d'Isigny, the other two being the beurre Charentes-Poitou and the beurre Deux-Sevres. All three have been accorded the prestigious A.O.C. label--appellation d'origine contrôlée, which is an official and strict state guarantee of a food product's origin and quality; i.e. that it comes from a specific terroir or country area, and was produced and conditioned with a particular and traditional savoir-faire.

BE IT EVER SO BAROQUE

2011-12-28T12:17:00.006+01:00

En trompe-l'oeil: il y a l'être et le paraître

On the theatrical side of the urban revolution and in all its piney splendor is this French mobile telephone relay antenna masquerading as a conifer. In recent years, portable telephone operators with a taste for ecological paradox and an audacious sense of mise-en-scène have planted the metal and plastic supercheries here and there to dissimulate hideous rods and wires. Is it the perception or the reception that counts?

Curiously, this tree that hides the forest is in the town of Villepreux, on the plaine de Versailles--a plain which is almost on the axis of the perspective of the Grand Canal of the Château de Versailles, some 12 km away. Louis XIV, who had a special liking for elaborate baroque theatre decor and machinery, would have undoubtedly approved of the camouflage.

Vocabulary
une antenne arborisée: an antenna dissimulated as a tree
être: to be
paraître: to appear
une mise en scène: a stage setting
une supercherie: a deception, a fake
par ici et par là: here and there

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

CHOCOLATES AND EPISTLES

2011-12-26T15:30:00.018+01:00

A reminder to read Les Lettres de Madame de Sévigné

One-thousand-five-hundred letters and three centuries later. Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1626-1696) who would marry and become the Marquise de Sévigné, a revered woman of letters of the Grand Siècle, had a fashionable passion for chocolate. With a fine mind and sense of humor, she had also what the French call de l'esprit. Her witty epistolary works, occasioned by the moving away of her beloved daughter and years of correspondence with her, have important literary and historic value.

Chocolate was introduced to the royal court in France in 1643 when Louis XIV's Spanish fiancée, Marie-Thérèse, gave some to him as an engagement gift; by 1650 a chocolate craze had taken hold among French aristocrats. (Cortèz had initially brought chocolate to Spain in 1528 from the New World.)

In 1898 a chocolatier created the brand Marquise de Sévigné, one of the principal haut de gamme chocolates since. Today simply mentioning "la Marquise" is enough to conjure up visions of cocoa...

Vocabulary
Le Grand Siècle: during the reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715); the apogee of French classicism
l'esprit: the spirit, soul, mind
avoir de l'esprit: to be witty
avoir l'esprit vif: to be quick-witted
épistolaire: epistolary; that which pertains to an exchange of letters
un chocolatier: a chocolate maker
haut de gamme: high end

Boutiques Marquise de Sévigné
61 Avenue Victor Hugo
75016 Paris

32 Place de la Madeleine
75008 Paris

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE

2011-12-24T22:53:00.000+01:00

La veille de Noël -- Christmas Eve

©2011 P.B. Lecron

SACRE POMPON

2011-12-23T09:38:00.000+01:00

Le bonheur est dans la cuisine

What will it be for the traditional French Christmas dinner--stuffed capon, turkey or goose?

Vocabulary
sacré(e): sacred; blasted, 'good ole' (familiar)
le bonheur: happiness
la cuisine: the kitchen; cooking
un chapon: a capon
une dinde: a turkey
une oie: a goose
farci(e): stuffed

©2011 P.B. Lecron

EVERGREEN

2011-12-22T14:56:00.005+01:00

Druids believed holly was sacred and eternal, ancient Romans thought holly protected against maledictions and planted it near their houses, and superstitious English maintained that whoever in a couple brought the first sprigs of Christmas holly indoors would be the one who wore the pants in the family for the coming year.

In France, where the Roman traditions left their mark, it was once the custom to hang a holly branch on the doors of stables and houses on Christmas Eve to guard against harm. Still today some French observe the custom of not bringing holly into the house until December 24 lest it bring bad luck. (I might add that there is a practical side to that habit, considering how painfully prickly dried-up holly is.)

Another curiosity is that in olden days French wagon drivers would even insert a small piece of holly wood into their new wagon's assembly to protect against accidents.

Vocabulary

un houx: a holly

une écurie: a stable

un charretier: a cart or wagon driver

une charrette: a cart

SAINT-POMPON

2011-12-20T16:04:00.004+01:00

When the GPS stopped working in the Dordorgne backwoods and we unexpectedly found ourselves in a village with the unlikely name of St. Pompon, there was no question but to stop to take a souvenir photo to show the family cat. Once home we learned that a local seigneur upon his return from a crusade in the 13th century decided to name his village for Saint Pomponius, a sixth-century Neapolitan bishop.

Traditionalists in France still take a dim view of giving pets Christian names, like Georges, Pierre or Benoît. That's why we had thought we were safe when we started calling this fellow Pompon...

Vocabulary
désapprouver: to disapprove of, to take a dim view of
un seigneur: a nobleman
une croisade: a crusade

In the Occitan dialect, Saint-Pompon is said Sent Plemponh. Plen ponh is translated to French as à pleines poignées...i.e., handfuls!

YOU'D BETTER WATCH OUT

2011-12-19T07:44:00.001+01:00

An anonymous French wag wrote: There are four ages in the life of a man--the one where he believes in Santa Claus; the one where he no longer believes in Santa Claus; the one where he is Santa Claus; and the one where he looks like Santa Claus.

Il y a quatre âges dans la vie de l'homme--celui où il croit au Père Noël; celui où il ne croit plus au Père Noël; celui où il est le Père Noël; et celui où il ressemble au Père Noël.

POPULAR CULTURE

2011-12-18T11:01:00.008+01:00

Usually it's the religious icons that find their places in architectural recesses here, but in the south of France it's not surprising to see a santon provençal, this one a shepherd, in a small alcove above the front door.

Santons de Provence are brightly painted clay figurines used to create crèches de Noël. Part of their charm of these nativity scenes is that there are not only the holy principals, but also figurines representing all of the trades of a provençal village, from miller to basket weaver. (My own collection includes the mayor of the village and a bohemian!)

A bit of history

Franciscan monks introduced enacting living nativity scenes at Midnight Mass to Provence in the 13th century. When these were prohibited during the 18th-century French revolution, faithful individuals of Marseilles took to fabricating their own nativity scenes, inviting others to admire them in their homes. The practice became widespread, giving birth to the small industry of modeling santons.

Every year during the month of December a fair is held in Marseilles, the historic capital of santons, to display and sell works of France's forty leading santonniers.

Vocabulary
un santon: a figurine or small personage coming from the word santoun, little saint
un santonnier: a maker of santons
une crèche: a model of the the scene representing the birth of Jesus, displayed in homes or public places at Christmas, a nativity scene
Provence: former province of southeastern France on the Mediterranean coast, east of the Rhone River
une niche: a shallow recess, often used to display a statue or ornament
un berger: a shepherd
un métier: a trade or profession

©2011 P.B. Lecron

TODAY IN HISTORY

2011-12-17T09:59:00.003+01:00

Effigies of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, at the Basilique de Saint-Denis, necropolis of the kings of France. It seems like trivia today, but after diplomatic efforts of Benjamin Franklin, it was on December 17, 1777 that Louis XVI first recognized the independence of the American colonies from the British state. This lead to a friendly commercial alliance, then to France giving financial and important naval support to the colonies against the British.

MISS-BUTTONED

2011-12-15T09:12:00.005+01:00

What does a French youngster say when he has mis-buttoned his shirt? An old-fashioned nursery school expression and mental exercise that pairs days of the week to indicate how many buttons he skipped:

J'ai mis lundi avec mercredi. I've put Monday with Wednesday. (If he's only missed one button.)

J'ai mis mardi avec vendredi. I've put Tuesday with Friday. (If he's missed two buttons.)

Of course, he can start with any day of the week.

Vocabulary
un bouton: a button
vieillot(te): old-fashioned
une école maternelle: a nursery school
une pouponnière, une crèche: a day nursery

Days of the week
dimanche: Sunday
lundi: Monday
mardi: Tuesday
mercredi: Wednesday
jeudi: Thursday
vendredi: Friday
samedi: Saturday

©2011 P.B. Lecron

COCOONING ATTITUDE

2011-12-13T13:19:00.007+01:00

So cosy at home, there's no need to go out. The French use the word cocooning, but have other ways to say it, too. In fact the word originally comes from the medieval Provençal language where coucoun meant eggshell.

Vocabulary

le coconnage or le couconage: the formation of cocoons; the feeling that one is so well at home that one hardly needs to go out except for vital necessities

un cocon: a silky case spun by insect larvae; something that envelops or surrounds, in a protective or comforting way

cocooner: to stay at home

cocooning: staying at home

casanier: stay-at-home, sedentary as an adjective; homebody, as a noun

LESS IS MORE

2011-12-12T07:26:00.003+01:00

Le moins est le plus

Vocabulary
un sapin de Noël: a Christmas tree
une boule de Noël: a Christmas ball
une guirlande: a garland
une guirlande electrique, lumineuse: a string of lights
le moins: less
le plus: more

Expression

Quand on décore un sapin de Noël, on a toujours l'impression qu'il nous faudrait une guirlande de plus. When decorating the Christmas tree, we always have the impression that it needs one more garland.

WHAT IMPRESSES ME

2011-12-11T15:00:00.002+01:00

Ce qui m'épate

Les pâtes m'épatent. The 16th century marriage of Catherine de Médicis with Henri II brought pasta to France. Making homemade pasta has become our latest indoor cold-weather activity.

Vocabulary
épater: to astonish, to impress (familiar)
épatant: amazing
des pâtes: some pasta
des nouilles: linguine or tagliatelle in Italian

Comment épater sa famille?

©2011 P.B. Lecron

IMITATION OF NATURE

2011-12-10T18:43:00.003+01:00

La Nature sculpted by Niccolo Pericoli, dit Tribolo (circa 1500-1550). The French king François I commissioned the statue in 1529 to serve as a support for a vase. Bella maniera.

Why oh, why, does the beauty of this pristine statue remind me of the old television jingle "Calgon, take me away...?" My commonplace and misplaced commercial reference aside, the sculpture in all its exaggeration is just one among many of the splendors of the Château de Fontainebleau.

ALL IN PUN

2011-12-09T08:46:00.005+01:00

When Repetto, the world reference in danse shoes since 1947, announced yesterday that it was getting into the perfume business and would introduce a powdery fresh parfum, the first thought that came to our minds was this would surely be an "odeur-rat."

Ageless photo made several years ago of children's tutus and ballet shoes in the Repetto store window, near the Opéra Garnier, Paris. Courtesy of Dr. Carol E. Cass

Vocabulary
un petit rat de l'opéra: a young ballet pupil
un jeune élève danseur de l'opéra: idem
une odeur: a smell
un rat: a rat
l'odorat: the sense of smell
un jeu de mots: a play on words; pun
un parfum: a perfume

©2011 P.B. Lecron

WINDOW DRESSING

2011-12-08T22:26:00.001+01:00

Deconstruction

Lanvin Homme-- a marked predilection for René Magritte. 15 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris.

©2011 P.B. Lecron

GLASS CEILING CHIC

2011-12-08T12:56:00.002+01:00

Detail of ceiling at Le Hall des Sources, inaugurated in 1903, Parc des Sources, Vichy. Under the diffused light of this Belle Epoque geometry are grouped the buvettes of five thermal sources.

Vocabulary
une buvette: a water bar, as here; or refreshment
vitrail(aux): stained glass window(s)

©2011 P.B. Lecron

KAKI FRUIT

2011-12-07T21:37:00.006+01:00

Persimmons or kaki fruit at the market. No translations necessary.

Mousse de Kaki

Peel 2 ripe persimmons and cut into pieces. Make a purée with fruit and 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Add 1 cup of cream and whip until mixture forms a mousse. Spoon into dessert bowls or verrines and chill 3 to 4 hours before serving. Sprinkle with cinnamon powder and/or crushed almonds.

A WHIFF OF RUM

2011-12-06T09:13:00.009+01:00

When they begin the bisquine...

We were lucky to happen upon the passage of the schooner, La Cancalaise, through the rocky strait between la Pointe du Grouin and l'Île des Landes, which forms the outer limit of the Baie du Mont-Saint- Michel. The craft is a replica of "La Perle," one of the powerful and agile fishing boats, or bisquines, that typically navigated around the bay and the Côte d'Emeraude from the 1800's to the early 1940's.

The Ile des Landes is a continental island isolated from the Brittany mainland by virtue of the water level; just beyond it is the starting point for the legendary Route du Rhum, a solo translatlantic " 3,510 mile race between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. The break-neck speed sailing event is held every four years during the month of November. The next will be in 2014.

Vocabulary
la côte: the coastline; also rib, hillside
émeraude: emerald
une île: an island
une goélette: a schooner

For information about going on a day-long sailing adventure as a "crew member" on the Cancalaise, click here. No experience necessary.

FOR PITY'S SAKE

2011-12-02T10:47:00.004+01:00

Par pitié...

The vacuum cleaner noise was too much for any cat to bear. He gave up; il a baissé les pattes.

Vocabulary

un chat d'intérieur: an indoor cat

un chat de maison: an ordinary house cat and not purebred

un chat de gouttière: an alley cat

un vacarme: a harsh noise, din

un boucan: a noisy racket

un aspirateur: a vacuum cleaner

une patte: a paw

Expressions

J'abandonne! I give up! It's hopeless.

Je donne ma langue au chat. I give up (as in a guessing game); literally "I give my tongue to the cat."

Par pitié! For pity's sake!

De grâce! Please!

Il a baissé les bras: He gave up; literally he lowered his arms.

DESIGNER TREES

2011-12-01T13:56:00.007+01:00

Architectural pruning--plumb perpendicular

To accentuate landscape compositions and to control volumes, the French have resorted to the taille architecturée of ornamental trees for centuries. Above is an example of the very regular and controlled taille à rideau in an allée in the park of the Château de Versailles. This laborious pruning technique, so typical of classic French gardens, today is done with large motorized circular blades mounted on mechanical lifts. Lines of rectangular trees like these are thus seen more and more in urban landscapes where trees are fitted in to coexist with traffic and utilities. So much for the practical side of the tree.

Vocabulary
une taille architecturée: an architectural pruning
un rideau: a curtain
tailler: to cut; to prune
un arbre d'ornement: an ornamental tree

©2011 P.B. Lecron

TALKING HEADS AND ROMANTICISM

2011-11-28T20:35:00.010+01:00

Art rock: if only stones could speak...

A thoroughly modern curiousity in the rather surprising Jardins Suspendus de Marqueyssac in Dordorgne, from a grouping of heads carved in stone.

If nothing else, don't miss a virtual visit of this enchanting suspended garden with its 150,000 meticulously clipped boxwoods, 6 km of winding shaded footpaths and one of the most spectacular views of the Dordogne River Valley, 130 meters below. Click here.

Most of the boxwoods, sculpted in complex topiary patterns, were planted in the second half of the 19th century in sinuous, romantic period outlines. ©Jardins Suspendus de Marqueyssac

A fine view of the Dordorgne River and the village of La Roque-Gageac from a belvedere.

VOCABULARY

un buis: a boxwood

une pierre: a stone

une allée: footpath or alley in a formal garden or park, bordered by

trees or bushes

Say something nice.

NYMPHE AUX PERLES

2011-11-27T19:35:00.001+01:00

On a perfectly calm day still water mirrors clouds and bare trees in a reflecting pool in gardens of the Château de Versailles.

STAYING CONNECTED

2011-11-25T12:25:00.007+01:00

Me and my cybercarnet

In the officialdom of the French language, cybercarnet, rather than blogue for blog or Web log, is the desired term to use; just as carnettiste is what preservationists of the language exact as a translation of blogger, rather than the Frenchified blogueur or bloguiste. Need I mention the official term courriel? Its popular shorthand alternative, mél (imagine "mail" said with a marked French accent), however, is what most people in these parts calls an e-mail.

Vocabulary
en ligne: online
faire un petit somme: to catnap
un somme: familiar for sommeil, or sleep

Language as a national treasure

The French take protection and preservation of their language seriously, so seriously that a commission specialized in terminology and neologisms maintains an inventory of and oversees the introduction of new words officially admitted into the language. Terms the commission decides to be the French equivalents to new words and phrases coming from foreign languages are required to be used, rather than any other, in all documents emanating from state services and public institutions. See articles 7 and 11 of Decret no 96-602 du 3 juillet 1996.

ON YOUR MARKS

2011-11-25T11:17:00.002+01:00

A vos marques, prêts, partez...

Whippets prepare to course an artificial lure at a leisurely Sunday morning event in a French field.

Le matos: all that's necessary to set up the poursuite à vue sur leurre event in an open field.
Bunched plastic strips serve as lure.

Vocabulary
à vos marques: on your marks
prêts: ready, set
partez: go
poursuite à vue sur leurre: lure coursing
le matos: the gear or material, slang

EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY

2011-11-24T18:49:00.002+01:00

A chacun son heure de gloire...

Time out in the French countryside: a pair of elegant Salukis, or Lévriers Persans, finish coursing an artifical lure.

Vocabulary
un dossard: a number worn by an athlete or competitor
à chacun: to each
son heure de gloire: his hour of glory
un lévrier: a sighthound
Persan: Persian

©2011 P.B. Lecron

BEING THERE

2011-11-24T10:45:00.003+01:00

Watching sighthound lure-coursing is not entry level tourism, but it is a fun Sunday morning distraction and a way to take in some fresh country air, or as they say in France, s'aérer-- an important preoccupation of French city dwellers.

The lure runs along low-lying cables set up in an open field and controlled by a system of pulleys to simulate a fleeing hare. The contests are between two dogs which are judged for their speed, strength, agility and capture of the lure. This practice event took place near Mantes-la-Jolie, in the Yvelines department.

Vocabulary

poursuite à vue sur leurre: coursing simulation of hare hunting with an artificial lure

un lièvre: a hare

un lévrier: a sighthound

s'aérer: to get some fresh air; to clear one's head

aérer: to air, to ventilate

FOR THE BIRDS

2011-11-23T06:32:00.002+01:00

Spunky company joins the table for lunch on the digue-promenade at Etretat, on the Normandy coast.

This photo is courtesy of I. Byrd.

Vocabulary
un goéland: a seagull
un drôle d'oiseau: a bizarre person
une digue-promenade: a seawall esplanade

©2011 P.B. Lecron

DISTURBING THE PEACE

2011-11-22T12:55:00.002+01:00

Hard-to-resist packaging
Tapage nocturne is what my neighbors could complain of if they were to hear me late at night pounding on this slab of white chocolate embedded with dried raspberries.

Vocabulary
un tapage: a tumultuous noise
tapage nocturne: disturbing the peace after 10 p.m.
casser: to break
un maillet: a mallet
un vacarme: a deafening noise
une framboise: a raspberry

Chocolat à casser is available on line...

©2011 P.B. Lecron

AN AFTERWORD TO LIP SERVICE

2011-11-22T11:14:00.003+01:00

Post-scriptum

Although I don't usually buy Beaujolais Nouveau (see Lip Service), this year's batch has turned out remarkably well. So we tried another bottle, chosen also for its pretty label. In both wines, strawberry and banana notes overrode any tendency toward an acid-green taste.

Vocabulary
une cuvée: a batch of wine
une postface: an afterword

©2011 P.B. Lecron

SWILLING RHUBARB IN PICARDIE

2011-11-22T08:12:00.005+01:00

Beverages for all that ails you

Lists of medicinal properties claimed for plants and herbs never cease to amaze. The one for rhubarbe is no exception. Originating in Asia and introduced to Europe by Marco Polo, rhubarb has been serving as a multi-purpose remedy for centuries. Today it's the plant most singularly associated with Picardie, a region in northern France comprised of the Aisne, the Oise and the Somme administrative departments. As an oddly refreshing summery pétillant fruit drink (Nectare de Rhubarbe has less than 1 % alcohol) or as a unusual warming winter tea, its liquid form has one of the most peculiar flavors your papilles will probably ever encounter. Sample or swill, according to your case...

Vocabulary
un thé: a tea
les papilles: the tastebuds
un soupçon: a suspicion, hint of, a drop of
pétillant: sparkling
©2011 P.B. Lecron

AN APPLE A DAY

2011-11-21T13:58:00.000+01:00

Une pomme par jour éloigne le médecin, pourvu que l'on vise bien.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, if you aim it well enough.--Winston Churchill

Vocabulary
éloigner: to move away or to keep from
pourvu que: provided that
viser: to aim at
le médecin: the doctor

©2011 P.B. Lecron

LIP SERVICE

2011-11-20T12:27:00.010+01:00

I'm not a fan of Beaujolais Nouveau--it's often too green for me--but the annual race to be the first bar or restaurant in the world to uncork the newly arrived vin primeur is a clever marketing ploy that merits at least lip service, figuratively and literally. A tradition since 1951, the young gamay table wine, which is the first bottled of the season, systematically goes on sale the third Thursday of November. More to do is made about its festive arrival on the market abroad than is in France, where the general public is looking more for a finished wine than for thrills. But still it's a phenomenon that does not go ignored, although a Frenchman would probably get a bigger kick out of imbibing it in Japan than in Joinville.

To read a P.S., click here.

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

HURRYING HOME

2011-11-20T09:21:00.001+01:00

Spiffy and compact shrimp boat or sauterellier returning to moor at Le Tréport. Once small sailboats, the sauterelliers owe their name to their catch--a small gray shrimp called the sauterelle that not only swims and walks, it jumps.

Vocabulary

une crevette: a shrimp

un crevettier: a shrimp boat

une sauterelle: a grasshopper; a small gray shrimp found on European coastlines

sauter: to jump

un chalutier: a fishing boat whose name comes from the net it uses, un chalut

le chalutage: fishing technique using nets

fruit de la mer: seafood

un filet: a net

View of the same sauterellier, above, from the high chalk cliffs of Le Tréport, a fishing port

on the Normandy coastline.

THE GREEN DOOR

2011-11-18T14:12:00.000+01:00

Lighthouse at Le Tréport

Traffic-light green makes the bas-relief marine motifs on the door of this lighthouse at the Tréport fishing port even more striking.

Vocabulary
vert criard: loud green
marché à la criée: open outcry market; e.g., for the day's catch
un phare: a lighthouse

©2011 P.B. Lecron

EASY DOES IT: BAIE DE SOMME

2011-11-17T11:39:00.014+01:00

For best land-side views around northern France's exceptional estuary: foot or bike it

A laughing gull or mouette rieuse, sitting on the dock of the bay, Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme.

Near Cayeux-sur-Mer.

Shifting sands on the north side of the bay, Plage de la Maye.

A family of swans or cygnes along the road outside of Le Crotoy.

Majestic dunes near Le Hourdel.

Peace and quiet around Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme.

Cattails or quenouilles in the Marquenterre bird reserve.

Tide's up! Mallards or colverts noodling for grub on the shoreline of Saint-Valèry-sur-Somme.

View across bay looking from Le Hourdel.

Adorable lapwings or vanneaux huppés.

Expect to see storks or cigognes.

Do as the Saint-Valéry locals do.

Each sunset or couché de soleil a marvel or merveille.

Vocabulary

une balade, une promenade: a walk

une balade en vélo: a bike ride

Though it's easy to get around the bay by car, opt for more environmentally friendly bipedal locomotion, or even a guided field tour. See Maison de l'Oiseau as well as Parc Ornithologique du Marquenterre. For information about bike tours and rentals around the Baie de Somme see Baiecyclette. Or consider discovering the site on a fastidiously restored 19th-century steam-powered train, classified as a historic monument, which in addition to its regular schedule offers sunset dinner rides around the bay on certain dates of the year: Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme.

Click on photos to enlarge them.

FLAX IT

2011-11-17T00:26:00.012+01:00

Our lastest favorite cheese

We hadn't even been aware of the flaxseed craze until we discovered that the Bray, a creamy and delicately textured artisanal cheese from Picardie, can be had with the wonder health food grain, too. What's interesting about the Bray is that it has the taste of a cow cheese and the fine consistency of a goat cheese. The cheese is a local terroir product of what is known as Pays de Bray, a long and narrow strip of rich dairy farming land that straddles the Seine-Maritime and Oise departments.

Softened during the cheesemaking process, the flaxseeds are not overly crunchy, but have a remarkable nutmeat consistency. Why not then at home, add flaxseeds, presoaked for about 2 hours, to creamed cheeses, cheeseballs or yogurts?

Say Cheese...

Everyone with a camera in hand the world over knows that to provoke a smile from an Englishman one only has to ask him to pronounce "cheese." Which French words have the same affect on a Frenchman? Try ouistiti, sexe...

The good address: Fromagerie Caséus, 1 place des Pilotes, Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme.

Vocabulary

graines de lin: flaxseeds

lait cru: raw milk

ouistiti: the French vernacular name given to different species of monkeys in South America; pronounced oui-sti-ti

TREASURE HUNT IN THE BAIE DE SOMME

2011-11-14T20:24:00.012+01:00

Shellfishing for cockles

Be it hardwork for the two hundred or so families living around the Baie de Somme who make their living from the traditional pêche à pied, or a low-tide leisure-time activity for others, the food-gathering adventure is the same--a treasure hunt for the heart-shaped coques. Iodine and big horizons guaranteed.

Vocabulary

pêche à pièd: shellfishing

une coque, un hénon: a cockel

hénonier, hénonière (pêcheur de coques): cockel fisherman, fisherwoman

Click here to see a video filmed at the Baie de Somme showing how the coques are scooped up.

DO NOT DISTURB: BAIE DE SOMME

2011-11-14T14:46:00.003+01:00

Wild seals are easily frightened, so to prevent young from being startled and separated from their mothers, visitors to the Baie de Somme are advised to observe the animals from afar. Boaters must maintain a distance of at least 300 meters from seals resting on sandbars.

Keeping count of the two species of seals that inhabit the Baie de Somme.

Vocabulary
Ne pas déranger: Do not disturb
Un phoque: a seal

©P.B. Lecron

DESTINATION: BAIE DE SOMME

2011-11-14T13:07:00.006+01:00

France's meager wild seal population resides in the Baie de Somme, a nature reserve and migratory bird refuge on the northern coast.

Visit the Baie de Somme vicariously by clicking here to access the above interacitve map.

Unretouched photos made on a tawny November day.

FAIRY-TALE FLAVOR

2011-11-14T11:22:00.004+01:00

Incontestably France's favorite pumpkin

The Muscade de Provence or Muscat de Provence, is an heirloom "fairy tale" variety pumpkin. Le must for a Velouté de Potiron with its slightly sweet, fine nutty flavor and deep orange flesh.

Vocabulary
un potiron: a pumpkin
le must: the have-to-have item
un velouté: a cream soup
muscade: nutmeg

Gardners: Seeds for this pumpkin variety are available in the U.S. from Planet Natural

Photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

NATURE'S DECO 'EN VRAC'

2011-11-13T19:58:00.001+01:00

Vocabulary

en vrac: loose, without wrapping; higgledly-piggledly, disorderly

la gourde: plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family

une gourde: a small recipient used to carry water or drinks; a stupid person (familiar)

COUNTRY STORE, FRENCH STYLE

2011-11-13T13:39:00.009+01:00

Dimanche matin à la Ferme de Gally

I have French neighbors who qualify the country garden and general store at the Ferme de Gally near Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole as "trop Parisienne." I say general store--it consists of greenhouses, garden and pet supplies, home decor and kitchen boutiques and a terroir and fresh food market all under one roof on a historic farm. Although it's only about 40 km from Paris, it's in the heart of the picturesque plaine de Versailles and country enough for me. One of the few stores in these parts that's open on Sundays.

For more photos and posts about the Ferme de Gally:
Fancy Pantry
Read My Boots
Haiku Farming
Pick Your Own
Photos ©2011 P.B.Lecron

FULLY HUMAN

2011-11-10T10:32:00.002+01:00

Those were the days...

Quand il y a une vielle fille dans une maison, les chiens de garde sont inutiles. --Honoré de Balzac, Pierrette (1840)

When there's an old maid in the house, guard dogs are useless.

Bust of Honoré de Balzac in the garden of the Maison de Balzac,
a literary museum dedicated to the 19th century writer, one of the founders of European realism.
47 rue Raynouard, Paris 16éme
©2011 P.B. Lecron

MONOCHROME

2011-11-08T10:02:00.001+01:00

Up until now, I had always thought whitewashed trees didn't look very nice, but this one, thanks to the ton sur ton effect with the roses at its feet, enchanted us. The photo was taken just before sunset in garden of the Château de Noyelles, Noyelles-sur-Somme.

Planning a garden? Remember that white flowers are always the last visible as the sun goes down.

Vocabulary
ton sur ton: monochromatic
lait de chaux: whitewash

©2011 P.B.Lecron

WALTZING NASTURTIUMS

2011-11-07T14:08:00.005+01:00

Compare these photos of the same garden path in the Jardins de Giverny; the first we took in late July, the second in mid-October. Claude Monet liked nasturtiums and planted them along the alley leading to the front door of his house, as they are here--where they've gained momentum for the last dance of the season.

A KIND OF HUSH

2011-11-06T09:01:00.008+01:00

Listen carefully on your way to the Centre Pompidou

It's no secret, Paris' 4th arrondissement has a penchant for street art. Favorite French street artist Jef Aérosol's monumental mural "CHUUUTTT!!!" somedays calling for calm, somedays confidentiality, appeared suddenly last summer at the Place Igor Stravinsky. With the colloboration and mécénat of the Groupe Doublet, plus a little help from his friends, Aérosol completed the stenciled work within only a week, June 11-18 2011.

Chut is the French way of saying "shush."

Metro station Rambuteau, line 11.

Text & photos ©2011 P.B.Lecron

NEWFANGLED IN THE FIFTIES

2011-05-14T18:46:00.009+02:00

A classic film with lilting music--not to have been missed

Set decor of the then super-modern Villa Arpel-- full of improbable and sometimes
avant-garde gadgets--from the 1958 Jacques Tati film, Mon Oncle.
© Jean-Christophe Benoist. Photo reproduced through GNU Free Documentation License.

After playing the cheerful and tinny theme song from the world-famous French film, Mon Oncle (My Uncle), a radio announcer yesterday told an amusing anecdote about President Charles de Gaulle greeting the film's director, Jacques Tati, in a reception line at the Elysée. Standing next to de Gaulle was his majordome, who as the filmmaker approached, discreetly said to the president, "Mon Oncle."

De Gaulle warmly shook Tati's hand and said, "Je suis très content de votre neveu!"
(I'm very pleased with your nephew!)

The comedy, which won the Oscar for best foreign film in 1959, parodies the emergence of contemporary design, labor-saving appliances and the nouveau riche at the beginning of the Trentes Glorieuses.

Vocabulary
un neveu: a nephew
une nièce: a niece
un majordome: a butler
le palais de l'Elysée: the residence of the French Republic's president
Les Trente Glorieuses: literally, The Thirty Glorious; the period of strong economic growth between 1945 and 1975 in the majority of western developped nations

KATAGAMI NIGHT FLIGHT

2011-05-08T14:29:00.015+02:00

Late at night I hear owls hooting in the nearby forest--a marvel being so close to Paris. It's not likely that I'll be out in the woods after dark to capture our nocturnal serenader numerically, so this vintage Japanese katagami of flying owls will be my illustration.

Poster from an exposition at the
Maison de la Culture du Japon, Paris.

An exceptional decorative art

Katagamis are highly collectable Japanese dyeing stencils used to pattern silks for kimonos. Hand-cut from mulberry bark paper, the innumerable katagami patterns vary in delicacy and design. The one above is simple and bold, but chouette. Note the repetition of the smaller abstract owls to form a vertiginous background.

Although most of the katagamis available on the international art market today were produced in the 19th century or later, the traditional "Ise-Katagami" technique dates to the 13th century, if not earlier.

In 1955 the technique was officially recognized as an important intangible cultural property of Japan. Katagami stencils are still being produced by a small group of ageing artisans who keep the tradition alive in the city of Suzuka, where a museum is dedicated to this exacting art.

For a taste of the exquisite contemporary katagami culture as well as explanation of the stencil carving techniques: http://www.okoshi-katagami.com/

Vocabulary
une chouette: an owl
chouette: great, nice
un pochoir: a stencil
le japonisme: a French term to describe the influence of Japanese arts on French and western artists, especially during the second half of the 19th and early 2Oth centuries--notably the Art Nouveau as well as Impressionism and Cubism movements

©2011 P.B. Lecron

SCRAPS OF MUSIC

2011-05-07T07:55:00.004+02:00

These are fragments of a music partition handwritten on parchment that a French friend found in an antique book; they merit a consultation of musicologists at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. Any thoughts or educated guesses?

Vocabulary
parchemin: parchement
un musicologue: a musicologist
dix-huitième siècle: eighteenth century

©2011 P.B. Lecron

THE GRAND CHARLES: PRESIDENTIAL CORKSCREW by P.B. Lecron

2011-05-04T20:11:00.006+02:00

The ineffable Charles de Gaulle.

My nifty but clunky rabbit-form corkscrew gave up the ghost yesterday, a casualty of too many stubborn resin corks in inexpensive bottles of wine. Its breaking just before dinner created quite a stir in the kitchen drawer as we fished for another corkscrew. That was when we learned from the token French person present that the old classic chrome lever model we were looking for--and one that nearly every Frenchman's grandfather has or had--is fondly called le Grand Charles.

Why? With each turn of the the corkscrew its two levers rise symmetrically like two arms spreading up and out in the typical Charles de Gaulle victory gesture.

Pushing the upright levers downward lifts the cork out. Oh no, another one of those...

Vocabulary
rendre l'âme: to render one's soul to his maker; in the case of an inanimate object, to quit working; to give up the ghost
un tire-bouchon: a corkscrew
un bouchon: a cork
un levier: a lever

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

THE GOOD PORT

2011-05-03T14:02:00.001+02:00

View of Tour de la Chaîne, to the right, at the vieux port of La Rochelle. The tower is one of three at the majestic entry to the port city's harbor on the Atlantic Ocean. A chain was once stretched across the harbor entry from this tower to another to prevent enemy vessels from entering the port.

Vocabulary
un tour: a tower
un vieux port: old port
une chaîne: a chain

Expression
arriver à bon port: to arrive well and in good health at the place one wanted to go

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

IT'S MAY!

2011-05-01T18:49:00.004+02:00

May is the month of the lily of the valley, or muguet. The custom in France is to give a bouquet--or even just a stem--of the fragrant woodland plant to friends and loved ones on the first of May. If the muguet is not handpicked, then it can be easily purchased on almost any street corner where vendors set up stands for the day to sell this indispensable porte-bonheur. In the language of flowers, muguets with their tiny white clochettes, represent the return of happiness.

Vocabulary

une clochette: a little bell

un brin de muguet: a sprig of lily of the valley

une porte-bonheur: a lucky charm

acheter du muguet: to buy lily of the valley for good luck

A CERTAIN SOMETHING

2011-04-29T15:38:00.003+02:00

Views of one of the two pairs of bronze hunting dog statues at the entrance of the Château de Chantilly. Sculpted by monumental animal sculptor Auguste Cain (1822-1894).

Un chien, is of course, a dog. But what does "avoir du chien," literally "to have some dog," really mean?

Expression
Elle a du chien(!): she has a certain something(!)

FLOWER LANGUAGE

2011-04-27T13:48:00.006+02:00

What does a peony say in French? If it's blushing pink it says, "Je suis timide." (I'm shy.) If it's pure white, then it says "Prudence, veillez sur vous." (Be careful, watch over yourself.) If it's red, then its topic of conversation surely is passion.

Vocabulary
une pivoine: a peony
le langage des fleurs: the language of flowers
personnifier: to personify

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

LIKE GRAND-MERE USED TO MAKE AT EASTER

2011-04-24T10:01:00.015+02:00

A French Easter tradition, like grand-mère used to make: oeufs à la coque en chocolat--emptied egg shells filled with melted chocolate, cooled and hardened. These are simply peeled and eaten. Another variation is to fill the eggshell with a creamier chocolate ganache that can be eaten with a spoon, and served in a coquetier for a yummy Easter dessert.

Who brings the eggs?

In Alsace and Loraine it's the lapin de Pâques or Easter Bunny, as in Germanic and Anglo-Saxon countries, who hides chocolate and candy eggs in the garden for children to find on Easter morning. In the rest of France, however, the popular legend is that the chocolate Easter eggs fall from church bells "returning" from Rome where they had "voyaged" during the three days before Easter. In fact, during those three days, church bells in France are silenced, then on Easter Sunday burst with sound celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

Le voyage des cloches à Rome.
Engraving by Grandville.

Vocabulary
une grand-mère: a grandmother
un oeuf à la coque: a soft-boiled egg
un coquetier: an eggcup
une ganache: a whipped filling of chocolate and cream used in desserts such as cakes and truffles
un lapin: a rabbit
les cloches d'eglise: the church bells

Expression

There is a distinction in the French language between "la Pâque" the original Jewish celebration and "les Pâques" the multi-faceted Christian celebration. Thus:

Joyeuse Pâque, i.e. Pâque without an "s" is said to wish a Jewish person a Happy Pessah, and Joyeuses Pâques with an "s" is said to wish a person of the Christian faith a Happy Easter. There is no difference in the pronunciation!

THE PERFECT FORM

2011-04-24T04:16:00.014+02:00

Eggs, source of life and the forme parfaite!

Vocabulary
un oeuf: an egg
parfait, -e: perfect
une douzaine: a dozen

Expression
Il ne faut pas mettre tous ses oeufs dans le même panier.
Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

More on Easter...

©2011 P.B. Lecron

READ MY BOOTS

2011-04-23T17:14:00.006+02:00

What's new in French garden stores? First we saw...

Cushy pads. These new gardening boots are both kicky and a quick read. By Aigle, the manufacturer which has been giving 'the French touch' to outdoor wear and gear since 1853!

Vocabulary
bottes en caoutchouc: rubber boots
bottes de jardinage: gardening boots
un jardin: a garden
un jardinier: a gardener
un aigle: an eagle
Expressions
avoir un coeur d'artichaut: to have the heart of an artichoke, meaning to be a person who falls easily in love
avoir la patate: to have the spud (literally), meaning to be in top physical form
raconter des salades: to tell of salads (literally), meaning to tell tall tales
gagner du blé: to earn wheat (literally), meaning to make money; to earn dough
en rang d'oignons: in a row of onions, meaning in a line; originally the 17th century expression meant to be in a place where one was not invited

Then we noticed these...

Flower boxes have come out of the closet! New bright colors are as eye-catching as the flowers coordinated to bloom in them.

More vocabulary
une jardinière: a flower box
un bac à fleurs: a flower planter
du terreau: (some) potting soil
une jardinerie: a garden center
assorti, -e: matched

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

CULTURE IS LIKE CONFITURE

2011-04-23T09:50:00.008+02:00

My all-time favorite French expression: La culture c'est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l'étale. Culture is like confiture, the less one has, the more one spreads it around. Some attribute this to French writer Françoise Sagan (1935-2004), others say that it was an anonymous slogan that appeared on graffitied walls during the May 1968 demonstrations in Paris.

Vocabulary
la pensée du jour: the thought for the day
étaler: to spread out or on
une brioche: brioche, a sweet yeast bread

Expression
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche! Let them eat cake!

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

A HEAD OF LETTUCE

2011-04-22T10:11:00.011+02:00

From the window of superb modiste-chapelier Novalande in the charming
Normandie port village, Honfleur. photo Carol E. Cass

There's a citation in French attributed to Mark Twain floating around on the Net that for the life of me I cannot find in his work to authenticate: Il y a trois choses qu'une femme est capable de réaliser avec rien: un chapeau, une salade et une scène de ménage.

Roughly translated: There are three things that only a woman is able to make out of nothing: a hat, a salad and a domestic argument.

That sounds like Mark Twain, but is it really? The Web site proffers the quotation comes from Twain's Contes Choisis, i.e., Selected Stories. I've skimmed through the book twice without finding the citation. A third and careful reading I will have to forego, having misplaced that volume. Can anyone be of help?

VOCABULARY
un chapelier, -ière: hatter, hatmaker
un modiste: milliner (a person who makes or sells women's hats)
une salade: a lettuce, a salad; also a muddle or tangled confusion
raconter des salades: to spin yarns, to tell stories
égarer: to mislay (here) ; to mislead, to lead astray

©2011 P.B. Lecron

VIVE LA SIESTE

2011-04-22T03:34:00.001+02:00

By the way, Napoleon and Leonardo da Vinci were also catnap adepts.

Vocabulary
une sieste: a nap, siesta
une micro sieste: a nap that lasts less than 5 minutes
vite fait: rapidly done
faire un petit somme: to take a catnap
sommeiller: to catnap

Expression
En Provence, le soleil se lève deux fois, le matin et après la sieste. --Yvan Audouard (1914-2004), French journalist and screenwriter

In Provence, the sun rises two times, in the morning and after the siesta.

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

ON THE WATERFRONT

2011-04-18T09:41:00.001+02:00

photo P.B.Lecron

An idle moment along the quais of Conflans-Ste-Honorine, the long time capital of French inland waterways. The inland port is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) downstream from Paris, at the confluence of the Oise and the Seine rivers.

A TASTE FOR LUXURY

2011-04-17T15:07:00.013+02:00

One way to make sure you don't miss dinner...

Give French cats the choice between a bowl of tap water and a bowl of Evian, and they'll inevitably choose Evian. Cachemire, silk, camel hair? These cats recognize quality right away and will curl up on the best fabrics in a second. But I never dreamed they knew anything about stainless steel cookware until I discovered Pompon, a.k.a. Guy l'Eclair and sometimes called Yo-Yo, nesting in my best French Cristel marmite.

Vocabulary
soie: silk
cashmere: cachemire
poil de chameau: camel hair
inox: stainless steel
marmite: stock pot

Expression

Une truite dans la marmite vaut plus que deux saumons dans la rivière. A trout in the pot is worth more than two salmon in the river.

FIND THE INTRUDER

2011-04-17T08:38:00.001+02:00

Cherchez l'intrus--is the French term for the ubiquitous children's game where the child is shown a group of images and has to select the one that does not belong in the group.

Vocabulary
chercher: to search for, to look for, to try to find
l'intrus: the intruder
un jeu d'enfants: a children's game

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

DUSTING: DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS

2011-04-16T10:07:00.003+02:00

Do you have a stringed instrument that needs a good dusting that simply playing it won't give? Try this tip.

A French architect told me about how one of his more meticulous clients kept her personnel busy dusting every nook and cranny, baseboards included, of her pied-à-terre in Paris with high quality, natural bristle artist's paintbrushes. After having rolled my eyes imagining myself dabbling over my entire apartment and its eclectic contents with post-modern strokes, it occured to me that this is the best way to clean in between the strings of musical instruments. Computer keyboards, too.

I use, however, an ordinary, but soft, virgin housepainter's brush for a wider sweep.

Vocabulary
un pied-à-terre: a small apartment or house kept for occasional use, literally 'foot to earth'
un pinceau: a paintbrush
poils de martre: sable bristles
un instrument à cordes: a stringed instrument
un clavier: a keyboard
un ordinateur: a computer

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

TULIP

2011-04-14T08:12:00.001+02:00

On a tulip jag, or should I say, on jagged tulips...

Chilly April weather gives long life to the tulips I walk past every day.

Vocabulary

une tulipe perroquet: a parrot tulip

frisé(e): curled, frizzy

panaché(e): variegated

avoir du panache: to have brio, panache

GREENING UP

2011-04-13T13:03:00.007+02:00

April in Paris is almost synonymous with the blooming of flowering chestnuts, like these young trees in front of the administrative building of the Musée du Quai Branly, also known as the Musée des Arts Premiers. The museum is dedicated to the primitive arts and civilizations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The vertical garden, created by botanist and researcher Patrick Blanc in 2006, has become one more must-see landmarks on Paris streets, and is practically at the feet of the Eiffel Tower. More than 15,000 plants colonize the vertical surface of the building.

Vocabulary

un marronier: a chestnut tree

Expression

En avril, ne te découvre pas d'un fil; en mai fais ce qu'il te plaît." In April, don't remove a thread (of clothing); in May do as you please. That is to say, better not count on warm weather until the month of May.

KITSCHY SWEET

2011-04-11T18:35:00.006+02:00

Even though I don't usually buy individually wrapped sugar, I cracked for these Eiffel Tower sugar sticks. Considering we have only one friend who takes sugar in his coffee, they may be around for a long while.

Very merchandisable. The box opens into a sugar stick distributor and the back has interesting Eiffel Tower fun facts. Can holidays be far away?

Next to the sugar sticks in the supermarket were these Béghin Say sugar cubes wrapped in minature postcard views of Paris, Versailles, Strasbourg, Nancy, Lille, Honfleur, Le Mont Saint Michel, La Rochelle, Carcassonne, Avignon, Marseille, Nice and Ajaccio. Bed and breakfast hosts will undoubtedly set out these "visit France" enticements on their morning tables.

Vocabulary

le sucre: the sugar

une dosette: a little dose

une bûchette de sucre en poudre: a sugar stick

sucre enveloppé: wrapped sugar

un morceau de sucre: a piece of sugar; sugar cube

L'ESPRIT TULIPE

2011-04-07T15:08:00.005+02:00

Vocabulary & Expressions

l'esprit: the spirit

une tulipe: a tulip

La Tulipe: a name given in military camps to corporals and sergeants who had a knack for seducing women during the Ancien Régime, i.e., the old reign before the French Revolution in 1789

faire le joli coeur: to adopt affected or precious manners, sometimes pretentious, in order to be liked by women

HAIKU FARMING

2011-04-07T13:06:00.008+02:00

The Field
The field was full of
closed tulips and a red
umbrella nearing.

Wheelbarrows
Nothing depended
on green wheelbarrows waiting
in the cool light rain.

Thinking of William Carlos Williams.
Photographed at Les Fermes de Gally. ©2011 P.B. Lecron

PICK YOUR OWN

2011-04-06T13:45:00.005+02:00

Les Fermes de Gally...a reference in French self-pick farms

One of the best pick-your-own farms in France, Les Fermes de Gally, is not far from Versailles, and therefore, not that far from Paris. A real treat tiptoeing through the tulips and digging up leeks even on a drizzly Sunday in the mud.

Vocabulary
cueillir: to pick
la gadoue: the mud
une pluie fine: a drizzle
pluvieux, ieuse: rainy
bottes en caoutchouc: rubber boots
For your easy listening pleasure

La Gadoue with Petula Clark or try Jane Birken's more graphic version of the same tube (that's French slang for hit). Fun.

THE COOL FACTOR: MEN'S COLORED LACES

2011-04-04T20:22:00.010+02:00

Tying into men's fashion

Eye-popping power statement at your feet. A houseguest visiting from America just returned from a Parisian shoe store with a flashy men's accessory, convention-kicking colored shoelaces to re-look his shoes. One more choice to make when getting dressed: reverent or irreverent. Trés Stendhalien en rouge et noir.

FANCY PANTRY

2011-04-03T19:20:00.006+02:00

My word, is that jar of apricots wearing a tutu? Be the first on your block to dress up your preserves with a round of tulle netting and gold elastic ribbon like these French cherries, prunes and apricots soaked in wine. A ballet on the shelves of the épicerie of Les Fermes de Gally, near Versailles.

VOCABULARY
une griotte: a Morello cherry
une cerise: a cherry
un pruneau: a prune
un abricot: an apricot
une épicerie: a grocery store
une ferme: a farm
Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

WHAT'S INSIDE A POISSON D'AVRIL?

2011-04-02T18:40:00.008+02:00

Breaking into a piñata may be more lively, but there's the same element of fun spilling the chocolate friture and candied eggs out of a poisson d'avril, a prelude to the cocotte de Pâques..

This poisson d'avril which we bought yesterday is a simple milk-chocolate child pleaser; more serious chocolate lovers would prefer a higher-grade and more noble chocolat noir. Recommended Parisian chocolatiers that also sell online(!): Marquise-de-Sévigné, Patrick Roger or Jean-Paul Hévin.

Vocabulary
une cocotte de Pâques: an Easter hen
un poisson: a fish
un poisson d'avril: an April Fool's day prank; chocolate or cut-out paper fish
une friture: a small fish, here chocolate fish
Text & photo ©P.B. Lecron

APRIL FOOL--POISSON D'AVRIL!

2011-04-01T12:27:00.014+02:00

Crybaby, my Franco-American hybrid kids' pet fan-tailed goldfish must have been on my mind when I went to the chocolate shop.

One more slip of the tongue, this time on the funnest day of the year in most places in the world, April 1. In France the April's Fool prank is called a poisson d'avril, literally fish of April. The most common gag here is for school children to stick a cut-out paper fish on the back of a teacher or classmate, then giggle about it.

It's a big day for the chocolatier, too, who makes and sells ribbon-clad chocolate poissons d'avril, usually filled with smaller chocolate fish or fritures. Wanting to buy a chocolate fish on a first of April at our town's chocolatier, I inadvertantly asked the salesgirl for a poisson rouge (goldfish). It was not until after she looked at all of the chocolate poissons d'avril on display, then say that she didn't have a poisson rouge, that both of us realized that I had just pulled her leg.

All of these poissons d'avril were swimming around Aux Colonnes, a chocolatier in Versailles.

Our prettiest poisson d'avril ever--a Lalique fish.

Vocabulary
un poisson: a fish
un poisson rouge: a goldfish
une friture: a small fish
chocolatier, ière: maker or seller of chocolate
faire marcher quelqu'un: to pull somebody's leg
une farce: a prank
un canular: a hoax
une plaisanterie: a joke
Expression
Ton lacet est défait: Your shoelace is untied.

A comedy of errors!
For more language fun, including some of my now famous slips of the tongue :
Sip 'n Slip
Caution: Language Barrier Crossing
Chic, Chickpeas
Madame Malaprop Goes to the Dentist
I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore
It's All in How You Say It
Accidental English
The Artichoke Next Door
Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

SPRING STROLL IN BAGATELLE CONTINUED

2011-03-29T22:39:00.003+02:00

More photos from the Parc de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, this past Saturday--the first weekend of spring!

Click on photos to enlarge. Thank you, Marine!

PRIME TIME AT BAGATELLE

2011-03-27T16:45:00.003+02:00

A showy first Saturday of spring

Marine Sanz-vico, a young graphic designer and guest photographer for A French Education, captured these shots yesterday at Paris's most bucolic park, Bagatelle. Click on photos to enlarge.

Vocabulary

un paon: a peacock

faire la roue: deployment of feathers into a fan, as a peacock; to do cartwheels

léon: for the French, the sound that a peacock makes

A WORD TO THE WISE

2011-03-26T23:27:00.005+01:00

Listening to the sung word is a wonderfully osmotic way to learn, especially a Romance language. Even if un peu ringard--in the first sense of the word, out of date and not minable--these two French songs with lingering lyrics are more than listenable: Françoise Hardy singing Mon Amie la Rose and Yves Montand interpreting Les Roses de Picardie.

Vocabulary
une rose: a rose
un rosier: a rose bush
rose: pink
rose saumoné, -e: salmon pink
un peu: a little bit
vernaculaire: vernacular
minable: mediocre, pathetic
ringard, -e: (familiar) out of date, square
Expression
voir la vie en rose: to see life in rose-tinted glasses

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

IN FORM AT ETRETAT

2011-03-25T11:04:00.024+01:00

Can you remember the first time you ever saw the sea or ocean?

L'aiguille formation at Etretat. Image from
User Urban, GNU Free Documentation License.

A quote from a 19th century French writer has me remembering my first impressions of the Gulf of Mexico as a small child. Now that I'm expecting young visitors from the flat--but beloved-- Gulf Coast I'm eager to show them how dramatically different the French coastline is.

Our starting point will be the cut-out alabaster cliffs and pinnacle formations at Etretat in Normandie. The old fisherman's village turned seaside resort a century ago attracted famous French painters and writers by the droves: Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet, Camille Corot, Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant and Maurice Leblanc to name-drop a few. It was writer Alphonse Karr who said: "If I had to show the sea to a friend for the first time, I'd choose Etretat." (Si, j'avais à montrer la mer à un ami pour la première fois, c'est Etretat que je choisirais.) That's quite an endorsement.

Surf's up at the Elephant Cliff. Photo Carol E. Cass.

See it now
Armchair and laptop tourists can click here for a virtual trip to experience the dramatic beauty of Etretat. Or here for a 360° panoramic view of Etretat's Elephant Cliff. But for a stupendous minute-long aerial video click here! To feel like your there walking around, try this video, however you might want to lower the volume of the music...and keep in mind that as much as I enjoyed their promenade, I don't know these friendly people.

View of beach from opposite hillside. Photo Carol E. Cass.

Vocabulary
albâtre: alabaster
une falaise: a cliff
une aiguille: a needle
la mer: the sea
le littoral: the coast
littoral, -e: (adjective) coastal
un village de pêcheur: a fisherman's village
une plage de galets: a stone beach
Expression
être en état: to be in good form
N.B: you'll want to be in good form if you decide to walk up the steps to the hilltop church, Notre Dame de la Garde.

Click on photos to enlarge them.
©2011 P.B. Lecron

GETTING THERE

2011-03-23T21:58:00.005+01:00

Almost musical. Weeping willow branches reach
downward in a decrescendo at Giverny.

I hadn't realized what a big deal learning to drive was until my own sweet-sixteen Franco-American hybrid teenagers were behind the wheel. Suddenly the legal age to have a learner's permit seemed far too young, even if the kids had grown up with priority on the right. "Relax," my sister reasoned with me, "they can see better than we do and have quicker reflexes."

So, to rack up some of the 3,000 kilometers required of young learners in the French conduite accompagnée program, we'd pile into the car to make pèlerinages to Monet's gardens at Giverny, an hour's drive away--for maman to walk, pray and unwind.

Atmosphere, atmosphere
Claude Monet (1840-1926) said, "For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at each instant; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life--the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value."
"Pour moi, un paysage n'existe pas dans son propre droit, puisque son apparence change à chaque instant, mais l'atmosphère environnante qui'l apporte à la vie--la lumière et l'air qui varient sans cesse. Pour moi, ce n'est que l'atmosphère environnante qui donne des sujets à leur juste valeur."

Vocabulary
conduite accompagnée: accompanied driving for learners 16 to 18 years-old; apprentice drivers must be accompanied by a designated adult licensed driver
un pèlerinage: a pilgrimage
un paysage: a landscape
maman: mamma
un saule pleureur: a weeping willow

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

SIP 'N SLIP

2011-03-22T16:07:00.006+01:00

Vendange or vidange?

I came back from one of those terrific hotel barge trips on French waterways raving to my French friends about the meals and wine served on board. But I slipped up--again--and created one more of those moments of hilarity that mes amis have come to love and expect. Instead of saying we had sipped a very good vendange tardive wine, I said vidange tardive.

Vendange tardive is a late, hand-picked grape harvest to produce a liquoreux wine that pairs well with fois gras or some of the stronger cheeses. Vidange is a motor oil change...

Vocabulary
une péniche: barge
mes amis, -es: my friends
liquoreux, -euse: syrupy (an adjective to describe wine)
moelleux, -euse: mellow (color); moist (cake); sweet (wine)
hi-hi: (pronounced hee-hee) laughing, tee-hee
hilarité: hilarity, mirth
fois gras: liver of a duck or goose which has been fattened through the forced feeding of grains
tardif, -ve: late
tarder: to delay

Expression
La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l'on n'a pas ri. -- Nicolas Chamfort, French writer (1741-1794)
The most completely wasted of all days is that in which we have not laughed.

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

AN ARTIST'S PALATE: MONET'S RECIPES

2011-03-22T07:49:00.006+01:00

This is not simply a pretty coffee-table gift book, it's also a great compilation of classic French recipes, copied from the Claude Monet family's carnet de recettes. Lavish food and table setting photos, as well as those of Alice and Claude Monet's Giverny interieur, easy enough to follow instructions and delicious historical anecdotes make this a must for the collector's cookbook shelf. Claire Joyes and Jean-Bernard Naudin. Preface, Joël Robuchon. Editions Chêne.

Beautiful book jacket, beautiful cover board. Mine is the 1989 French edition.

Sample an easy Monet family recipe
Bananes au gratin
6 bananas
1/3 cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Cut the bananas in quarters, lengthwise. Arrange them in an oven dish.
Mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice and butter.
Pour half of the sauce on the bananas.
Bake in a hot oven 20 minutes, basting often with the rest of the sauce.
Serve hot or cold. Serves 6.

Vocabulary
un carnet: a note book
une recette: a recipe
un livre: a book
une banane: a banana
sucre: sugar
sucre en poudre: powdered sugar
beurre: butter
jus de citron: lemon juice

The book is also available in English: Monet's Table:

For more recipe books no collector should do without, see Taste and Imagination, Try It, You'll Like It, and Life's Little Luxuries: Ladurée Sucrée.

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron

FLOATING LIGHT

2011-03-21T19:01:00.009+01:00

Early spring at Giverny

Lily pads and morning reflections at Giverny in early spring.

In 1899 Claude Monet began painting his water lily series, some of the most loved and well-known works of the 2Oth century. He continued to paint them until the end of his life:

"J'ai mis du temps à comprendre mes nymphéas... Je les cultivais sans songer à les peindre... Un paysage ne vous imprègne pas en un jour... Et puis, tout d'un coup, j'ai eu la révélation des féeries de mon étang. J'ai pris ma palette. Depuis ce temps, je n'ai guèrre eu d'autre modèle." -- Claude Monet

"It took me time to understand my water lilies... I planted them without ever thinking of painting them... A landscape doesn't pervade your spirit in one day... And then, all of sudden, I discovered the enchanting visions in my pond. I picked up my palette, and since then, I have hardly painted anything else." -- Claude Monet

"Je veux peindre l'air dans lequel se trouve le pont, la maison, le bateau. La beauté de l'air où ils sont, et ce n'est rien d'autre que l'impossible."-- Claude Monet

"I want to paint the air that's around the bridge, the house, the boat. The beauty of the air where they are, and it is nothing other than the impossible." -- Claude Monet

Monet's kitchen door.

Tulipier or tulip tree on the grounds.

For more information, opening, hours and history, go to http://www.fondation-monet.fr/uk/

Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

NORTHERN BEAUTY

2011-03-21T07:37:00.002+01:00

Here's one more monumental door, this one in the north of France at 3 rue de Bergues in Esquelbecq, a typical Flemish village, population 2,200. The house was built in 1780; it's sculpted façade is listed on the inventary of Monuments Historiques.

Esquelbecq is situated in the heart of Flanders on the banks of the Yser, a well-known river which formed a natural obstacle to the German advance during WWI. The village's name is derived from the Dutch Ekelsbeke or "acorn brook" because the Yser is lined with numerous oak trees.

Vocabulary
Flamand(e): Flemish
Flandres: Flanders
un chêne: an oak tree
un gland: an acorn
glander: to hang around

Another in my series of French monumental doors: Stone and Illusion

Text & photo © P.B. Lecron