BIKE ABOUT

Easy going

Travel tip: have fun and make new friends biking around Paris with Bike About Tours, a grassroots ex-pat guided tour and bike rental business.

HAPPY HAZARD

Travel tip: Don't get crabby if someone makes a wrong turn, even if you're cold, hungry and it's beginning to rain. You might find a warm, welcoming haven with excellent food (at the right price) just around the corner. We did at Pascaline, where for a simple lunch we had the day's menu: parsnip and  Jerusalem artichoke soup followed by roasted chicken breasts with a creamy cider and butter sauce served over the most delicate potato cakes imaginable. A memorable meal I shall diligently try to imitate. Pascaline, 5 rue de la Poterne, Rouen.

Vocabulary

une découverte heureuse faite par hazard:  a serendipity

grincheux (-euse):  crabby

chanceux (euse):  lucky

le plat du jour:  today's special

suprêmes de volaile:  chicken breasts

galette de pomme de terre:  potato cake

©2012 P.B. Lecron

A FRENCH PRIMER: PENMANSHIP

Here's a useful travel tip I've never encountered before in any guidebook: get to know the subtle differences between French cursive writing and your own. When in France it could help reading chalkboard menus, signs, a child's homework and who knows, maybe even romantic handwritten notes.

Above is an abécédaire model like the ones used in the écoles primaires. Remember, this is the base; movement, rhythm, intensity and space vary from one writer to another. Note the differences with the American style of forming p's, v's, w's and particularly the capital G's, J's, S's, T's and X's.

An important word about numbers. Many French people's handwritten "4" resembles most Americans' "6", which can make for a great deal of confusion in a number of circumstances!

This is a French "4" not a "6".

Vocabulary
abécédaire: a small book to learn the ABC's
école primaire: primary school

©2011 P.B. Lecron



An update!
Reading children's books in a foreign language, at no matter what age, is a great jump-start for the acquisition of a second language! If you're learning French, or simply looking for a children's book in French, then here's our own recommendation, a story which highlights the importance of helping others, complete with charming text and aquarelle illustrations: Le lapin et la lune, écrit par Marianne Lecron, illustré par P. B. Lecron

And it's available in English, too! The Rabbit and the Moon

Both titles are available on Amazon sites worldwide.

Click on the following titles to take a peek!
Le Lapin et le Roi Grenouille
The Rabbit and King Frog
Le lapin et la lune
The Rabbit and the Moon

©2018 P. B. Lecron

And there is still more!

Fast forward to 2021 and three new children's fairy tales on our bookshelf!  We would like to share with you! We've been busy and hope you enjoy reading these fully illustrated books to your children, or using them as a resource for improving your French! Remember, they are written in the imparfait and passé simple; but it's easier than you think! Click on the titles to check them out. Available on worldwide Amazon sites.

Le Lapin et l'Ornithorynque 

The Rabbit and the Platypus

Le Lapin à la recherche du Printemps

The Rabbit in Search of Spring

Une Véritable Petite Souris

A Genuine Little Mouse

©2021 P. B. Lecron

STEP LIGHTLY AND CARRY A SECOND PAIR

When I coyly checked in at the ticket counter in the early 1980's with only one carry-on suitcase and boarded a plane to Paris for a week-long jaunt, I never dreamed that a high heel of my only pair of shoes would get caught and break off two days later in a small hole on a sidewalk in the 16th arrondissement.

It was thanks to that one pair of classic taupe Amalfi heels, however, that I had the most singular experience--about an hour and half before my hobbling descent into hell. Because those shoes determined what I wore, I necessarily dressed the entire trip looking as though I were on my way to a reception or job interview. So much so that while wearing a smart jersey ensemble and standing around on the terrace of the Palais de Tokyo admiring the building's architecture, a guardian at a side entrance mistook me for an invited guest to a private exposition being held there.

"Mademoiselle," he called to me in a loud whisper from a side entrance, "C'est par ici..."  Knowing only that he had said "it's over here," I hesitantly stepped in. Lo and behold, I had just been ushered into an invitation-only pre-viewing of the first major Modigliani retrospective in recent times.

Travel tip: Pack lightly, but not that lightly. Always take at least two pairs of shoes. After dislodging my shoe's heel, I was able to hail a taxi and go straight to a shoe repair shop or cordonnerie, but had this happened after closing hours it would have been an entirely different matter.

Text & photo ©2010 P.B.Lecron