AS THE WORLD TURNS

Rien sans nous

Here's one of the hundred or so sundials to be seen in Paris. Look for this late 17th-century lyre-shaped cadran solaire on the tower of the Musée de Cluny. Its Latin inscription, "nil sine nobis" means nothing without us.


©2015 P.B. Lecron

TAKE YOUR TIME

Prenez votre temps

Sixteenth-century sundial, absent it's needle, at the famed Alsatian Musée Unterlinden in Colmar.

Patience et longueur de temps font plus que force ni que rage.

Moral of Jean de la Fontaine's fable, via Aesop, Le Lion et le Rat: patience and time can do more than strength and rage.

Vocabulary
s'enerver:  to get excited, to get worked up
agir:  to behave, to act
la force:  strength
une aiguille:  a needle

Expressions
dans le sens des aiguilles d'une montre:  clockwise
dans le sens inverse des aiguilles d'une montre:  counterclockwise

©2013 P.B. Lecron

SEIZE THE DAY

Cueille le jour présent sans te soucier du lendemain. 

Advice from antiquity frequently handed out by cadrans solaires. This one watches the hours pass in the Alsatian village of Riquewihr.

Vocabulary

un cadran solaire:  a sundial

cueillir:  to pick, to gather

se soucier de: to care about

For more French sundials, click on these links: A French Rule of Conduct and Courage Every Hour

©2013 P.B. Lecron

COURAGE EVERY HOUR

Courage de toutes les heures

We were intrigued by this heart-shaped sundial carved in stone on an historic house in the town center of Mortagne-au-Perche, then learned that there are two others similar to this one on churches in the Perche departement. All three date to the mid-17th century. The sundial's time lines mark 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with small diamonds interspacing the Roman numerals to indicate the half hours.

In Old French corage (courage) came from the Latin cor for heart; in the 17th century, coeur was used synonymously in the figurative sense with courage.


Vocabulary
un cadran solaire:  a sundial




©2012 P.B. Lecron

A FRENCH RULE OF CONDUCT

 Don't waste a minute... N'en perdez aucune

Why not abide by this sun dial adage and make it your New Year's resolution? Don't lose one of them!

Sun dial or cadran solaire near the French inland port of Marseillan in the Languedoc-Rousillon region.

©2011 P.B.Lecron