COCORICO

Gentil coquelicot

So many days have been cool and rainy this season that it's nice to have wake-up reminders that it actually is summer in northern France, like these field poppies bordering a wheatfield at Gerberoy, a country village in Picardie. Until the 16th century the flower was called coquerico because it resembled a rooster's cockscomb. Its name was eventually morphed to coquelicot.

A classic French children's song with sing-along words for French learners: Gentil Coquelicot

Vocabulary
un coquelicot:  a poppy
rouge coquelicot:  poppy red
un champ de blé:  a wheatfield
gentil(-le):  nice, kind
une comptine d'enfant:  a nursery rhyme; a children's song
cocorico:  cock-a-doodle-do
un coq:  a cock, a rooster
une crête:  a crest
une crête de coq:  a cockscomb





©2012 P.B. Lecron

CORSICA OF COURSE

Île de Beauté

No one has, nor probably ever will again, cut my hair as well as a certain coiffeur did in the small town in the north of France where we used to live. One look at these photos and it's easy to understand, much to my dismay and split ends, why he packed up and retired to Corsica. Not surprisingly, the Mediterranean island and French region is nicknamed Île de Beauté.

Vocabulary

la Corse:  Corsica

un coiffeur, -euse:  a hairdresser

les fourches:  split ends

la beauté:  beauty

une île:  an island

un coquelicot:  a poppy

Photos  of poppies on the coastline near Porto-Vecchio courtesy of  Marianne Lecron.

©2012 P.B. Lecron