NUTS

Il faut casser la noix pour en avoir la chair.

proverbe français

He that would eat the kernel must crack the nut; God gives the nuts, but he doesn't crack them.

Vocabulary

la chair:  flesh

casser:  to break

©2012 P.B. Lecron

FOLK ART

This grotesque-style 19th-century nutcracker carved in the shape of a tête de vieillard has been cracking walnuts and hazelnuts for generations in a French friend's family.

Vocabulary
un casse-noix, un casse-noisette:  a nutcracker
une noix:  a walnut
une noisette:  a hazelnut
un vieillard:  an old man
l'art populaire: folk art

©2012 P.B. Lecron

SAND AND FOAM

At Cabourg

Vocabulary
le sable:  sand
l'écume:  foam

Expression
Le marchand de sable est passé.
The sandman has passed.


©2012 P.B. Lecron

AWAY IN A MANGER

Twelfth-century Syrian nativity scene, one of the many treasures on the walls of the Cathédrale Notre Dame in Saint-Omer. 

Vocabulary

une mangeoire:  a trough, manger

emmailloter:  to swaddle, to wrap up

un maillot:  a jersey; shirt

un maillot de corps:  an undershirt

©2012 P.B. Lecron

MITTENS

Learn French with Pompon

Un chat avec des moufles n'attrape pas de souris. 

Pompon, A French Education's mascot--or should I say mask-cat, illustrates an ancient Greek proverb: a cat with mittens doesn't catch mice. 

Vocabulary

les moufles:  mittens

attraper:  to catch

une souris:  a mouse

un tapis de souris:  a mouse mat (for computers)

©2012 P.B. Lecron

OH, MY DARLING

Les clémentines de Corse sont arrivées! 

Quality controlled Corsican clementines are picked by hand with their leaves, and only at maturity. No storage room ripening for these babies.

©2012 P.B. Lecron