French Word-A-Day

Carte de Fidelite

Name this photo (taken in the nearby village of Suze la Rousse)

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la carte de fidélité (lah kart deuh fee del ee tay) noun, feminine

    : rewards card, discount card (loyalty card)

Next Meet-up in Phoenix, AZ!: Jean-Marc and I will be at Vincent's French market on December 26th from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. We hope you will come out to 40th st & Camelback to see us!

Audio File and Example Sentence: Download Wav or Download MP3

Avec votre carte de fidélité, vous recevrez dix pourcent de réduction.
With your rewards card, you receive a ten percent discount.

A Day in a French Life...
by Kristin Espinasse

Waiting in the supermarket checkout line, I overhear the man in front of me flirt with la caissière.

"Non, je ne suis jamais fidèle!" he boasts, and his eyes brighten like a predator having zeroed in on his proie. Those same self-satisfied eyes leave the young cashier, to fall upon the forty-something femme in line behind him. Hands in his pockets, his heels lift, then touch the ground, lift, touch the ground with one, two, three counts of immodesty, baby.

Next, Monsieur I'm Too Sexy for this Supermarché, swings his big ego eyes over to the cashier—then back to forty-something me—for a conspiratorial glance. I look away, no conspiratorial glance receiver am I! 

The adolescent boy, standing next to his flirting father, looks as if he'd rather be passing the dreadful BAC, cleaning out his closet, or sitting through a six-course meal with the former monks at his private Catholic collège—he would rather be anywhere but here, listening to his father drag la caissière.

Eventually, the caissière responds to the shopper-seducer's comment, by an abrupt handing over of the credit-card receipt and a sarcastic smile. With that, our playboy trots off.

When it is my turn to be greeted by la caissière, I receive another conspiratorial glance.
"Ils disent tous ça!" the cashier complains. "All the guys that come here say the same thing: 'Je ne suis pas fidèle'!"

'Ce n'est pas tellement original!" she says, referring to all the customers who have come up with the same recycled retort. I nod, sympathetically, but our conspiracy is short-lived when the caissière switches swiftly back to business mode and fires off the same question that had, only moments ago, caused her such a hassle:

"Vous avez une carte de fidélité?"

***
Post note: Just like Mr I'm Too Sexy for this Supermarket, I realized, soon after, that I, too, had forgotten my carte de fidélité... only I didn't trot out of the store, as he did, but was a bit bummed to not get credit for all those groceries.

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French Vocabulary

la caissière (f) = cashier; non, je ne suis jamais fidèle = no, I am never faithful; la proie (f) = prey; la femme (f) = woman; le supermarché (m) = supermarket; le BAC (baccalauréat) = French exam / school leaving certificate (high school diploma); le collège = junior high school; ils disent tous ça = they all say that

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Mediterranean Island Life (c) Kristin Espinasse

A Day in a Dog's Life...
by Braise and Smokey

Day-old baguettes just hit the spot... a step up from those sticks, anyway.

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s'egarer

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s'égarer (ay gar ay) verb

    : to lose one's way

French Verb Conjugation:
je m'égare, tu t'égares, il s'égare, nous nous égarons, vous vous égarez, ils s'égarent pp= égaré

ne nous égarons pas! = let's stick to the point!

s'égarer du droit chemin = to stray from the straight and narrow

s'égarer dans des détails = to lose oneself in details

...More expressions in the Robert Collins Dictionnaire

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Nos invitées se sont égarées sur le chemin qui amène au Domaine Rouge-Bleu. Our friends lost their way along the road that leads to Domaine Rouge-Bleu.
;

RECHERCHER... S'EGARER... TROUVER!
The Road to Domaine Rouge-Bleu
by Suzanne Dennis... with Margaret et Portia

Late in the afternoon … late in September … our last full day in Provence … we set out to find Domaine Rouge-Bleu.  We included my mother Portia, my sister Margaret, and me.  We had dinner reservations in Gigondas … but first … a long anticipated visit with Kristin and Jean-Marc Espinasse. After years of following Kristin’s blog, reading her book, and watching Jean-Marc’s progress with their vineyard and wines, we were looking forward to finally meeting the Espinasse family and to tasting their wines.

Staying in the lovely Maison des Pelerins in Sablet not far from Ste. Cecile les Vignes, and remembering Kristin’s offer to just call when we were in Provence to arrange a visit, I realized we had arrived at the height of la vendange!   Each morning when we opened our windows, we could see the grape gathering in the vineyards below Sablet.  As we drove through the countryside, we saw the grapes ready to be picked and also the bounty of the harvest piled into orange carts traveling from vineyard to cave.  What was a delight for us I knew was incredibly hard work for Kristin and Jean-Marc. This was confirmed when reading Kristin’s posts and seeing her photos.  La vendange AND puppies … surely the Espinasses did not need to have us descend upon them.  Mais, non! 

Kristin invited us to come and emailed a map that, without a printer, I had to replicate by hand.  I didn’t copy it exactly leaving off a lot of side roads.  Because of my shorthand, we became lost. We turned around at a collège, stopped at a pizzeria, and I inquired at un marché.

Because I only understood some of what the helpful residents of Ste. Cecile les Vignes told me in rapid French, we winged it and began to search!

(photo: Margaret)
I thought I was leading my sister (who was driving) and my mom on a wild goose chase.  We drove down a dirt road into “no man’s land” amidst vineyards but thankfully turned around before offending anyone or being chased off. I turned to my sister suggesting, “It’s ok; let’s just go to Gigondas. I will email Kristin and apologize.”  (Our cell phone had lost power so we couldn’t phone from the road).  Margaret looked sternly at me and said, “This is the one thing you have wanted to do since arriving in Provence so we will find Domaine Rouge-Bleu.”  I had been calling out the names on Kristin’s map along the way and at the point when I was ready to abandon our search, Mom said, “There’s the sign!”  And indeed it was.  Mom had spied the pancarte and we knew we had found the right road.

In minutes we arrived at our destination.   Jean-Marc greeted us with a warm “Bienvenue” and escorted us to a table under the tree, where we joined a couple from Los Angeles, and Kristin, who was holding one of the puppies (Sugar).

(left to right: Margaret, Sugar, Angela and Bob Fowler, Portia, Jean-Marc, Suzanne)

Over the course of an hour, as the sun began to set and a light Mistral stirred the leaves, we tasted wines, gazed out at the lovely countryside agreeing with Kristin that it looks a lot like Tuscany.  We had set out from Sablet to find the Espinasses, we lost our way and had to search, and finally discovered warm and welcoming people, lovely wines, and the most splendid way to spend our last evening in Provence.  And of course we brought a little bit of Provence back home with us … the wines of Domaine Rouge-Bleu!  

***

Suzanne Dennis grew up in Monrovia, CA, but now lives in Monroe Township, NJ, just east of Princeton. She is a senior administrator at Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn Heights (oldest neighborhood in NYC). Suzanne and Margaret's mother, Portia, were born in Duluth, MN, and grew up in Nashwauk, MN and So. CA.  She was a Navy WAVE in WWII stationed on Treasure Island, San Francisco, where she met her husband, an ensign in the Navy.  She now lives in Durham, NC, and is writing her memoirs.

Margaret Dennis was born and raised in Southern California. She moved to Durham, NC, in 1997 to take a position at Duke University. On the side, she sells antiques in Hillsborough, NC. Yes, her luggage was filled with "finds" from brocantes and puces in Paris and Provence!

Each September, Suzanne, Margaret, and their mother, Portia, travel together, they having been to Canada, Oxfordshire and Devonshire, Paris, Venice and Provence.

Thank you for leaving a message for these ladies in the comments box. (And please wish Margaret, who is recovering from a cold) "bon rétablissement"! Don't we all wish we had a sibling like Margaret, one who reminds us of our chemin... just when we are about to a make a U-turn... and give up on our goal.

This just in... Angela and Bob's response:

Hi Suzanne ~ Yes, we are here! We, too, got lost that afternoon trying to find Domaine Rouge-Bleu. Fortunately, while driving home after picking up her children at school, Kristin spotted us parked at the side of a country road (trying to interpret that infamous map!) and led us the rest of the way, getting there just a few minutes before your arrival. But the frustration was well worth it -- such a warm, friendly welcome by Kristin and Jean-Marc -- and such great wine (and adorable little puppy!) It's not often that tourists have an opportunity to experience even a little slice of real life in France. Our bottles of Rouge-Bleu didn't make it past our next stop, near Lyon, visiting the family of a high school girl who stayed with us two summers ago to work on her English. (Fortunately, we have a source at a wine store a half-hour drive from our home -- how lucky can one be!) As we told Kristin, we thought it might be a faux pas to give a gift of wine from one region to those in another (they live in the heart of the Beaujolais), but they said absolutely not -- they loved it. We enjoyed meeting you, your sister and mother -- and Bob especially enjoyed chatting and sipping wine with Portia! We thank you and Kristin for posting this little story as a reminder of our visit. And we wish you, Margaret and Portia many more years of such wonderful family vacations. Angela and Bob Fowler Monterey Park, California

French Vocabulary

la vendange (f) = harvest; la cave (f) = cellar; mais non = not at all; le collège = junior high school; le marché = market; la pancarte (f) = (road) sign; la bienvenue (f) = welcome 

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***

And here's a puppy healing update for Becky: Smokey is full of flageolets (or beans, if you like). He is one jumping, burglar barking, puppy machine (by this, I do not mean "maker of puppies", no! I mean he just keeps on going -- as a paper shredder (so long Arizona Highways, goodbye William Blake), a stuffing sucker (au revoir couch cushion), or a  meuble muncher (that little antique bassinet... the one in which we store books and magazines? It now sports a few new "etchings"). I guess you could say Smokey's got all of his energy back and then some. As for his wounds, they continue to heal. Some things take time.

"Réserve de Chasse" (and Vines on Fire) just outside the town center of Sainte Cécile.

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bibi

"Cuttings"(c) Kristin Espinasse. The bright orange leaves, fallen, along with their newly-cut branches, are like flames over nature's snowy moquette de fleurs.

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bibi (bee bee) pronoun

    : yours truly, me

Audio File & Example Sentence: Download Wav or Download MP3

Cette année, la dinde et les marrons c'est pour bibi. A moi la lourde tâche de recevoir dans la joie, la bonne humeur - et la déco adéquate bien-sûr. This year, the turkey and the chestnuts are for yours truly. Up to me the heavy chore of receiving in joy, in good humor -- and with adequate decor, of course!
                --from aufeminin.com "Bientôt les Fêtes : 10 astuces pour décorer ma maison

Questions for Bibi...
New: A Question & Answers section! If you enjoy this Q&A column then let me know and I will keep it up! Here is a recent question, received just last night, from Roseann:

Kristin- Do you live in a postcard shop? What is that thing to your left in the jumping photos? It looks like one of those twirl-around stands with postcards on it......... Roseann

Hi Roseann, Re that thing in the jumping photos, several people, including Laura and Christine, asked the same question, wondering, of the diversified decor, "Are you in a restaurant?".

Though it is unlikely that I would wear my house robe to a restaurant (or, d'ailleurs, to a postcard shop...) only to set up hurdles and then jump over them, I will always aspire to greater heights of creative, cut-past-the-status-quo country life. Having only just set out on the path to unselfconsciousness... I am finding that the road to une vie sans gêne is a l-o-n-g one!

Currently, I am only comfortable wearing my bathrobe in my own bercail--or, à la limite--as far as the end of our front porch.

But, to finally answer your question...

=> No I do not live in a postcard shop (though, living in a postcard shop, whether in Phoenix or Paris, would be cool!); the photo was taken in our kitchen and partly in our front hall.

The postcard rack was a $25 find at a troc shop, in Draguignan. It doubles as a tall and twirlable photo display where family and friends are welcome to leave their photos close to our hearts (which are often in the kitchen, near the wine-for-him, chocolate-for her, cookies-and-kibbles for them, both kids and chiens): thus the strategic placement of the photo stand).

My turn to ask you all a question...
(Note to newsletter readers: Please click over to the blog to answer--and to see other answers!):

poll by twiigs.com

Comments
Comments and corrections are most welcome. Do you have more "Questions for Bibi"? Add them to the comments section.

French Vocabulary

une moquette (f) de fleurs = carpet of flowers; d'ailleurs = for that matter; une vie (f) sans gêne = a life without self-consciousness; le bercail (m) = fold (synonym for "home"); à la limite = at most; le troc (m) = second-hand shop; le chien (m) = dog

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Current state of the Provençale landscape... it's pruning time! Fiery leaves on nature's floor... white "mustard" flowers, scented "snow" galore.

Tra-la-la! Summer's scorched grass is gone... the flowers are back! I love to tip-toe over the fallen petals, Smokey says, after my latest edible attack!

***

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Mille Bornes (Card Game).
First published in 1962, Mille Bornes (pronounced "meel born," French for "milestones") is an auto racing card game whose object, for each team of two players, is to be the first to complete a series of 1,000-mile trips.

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concours

I took over a dozen photos of Isle sur la Sorgue on Sunday. See them in Saturday's Cinéma Vérité!

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concours (kohn koor) noun, masculine
    : competition; examination

Audio File & Example Sentence: Download MP3 or Download Wav

Notre fille a réussi le concours de saut d'obstacle sans fautes (sans faire tomber les barres).
Our daughter succeeded in finishing the obstacle-jumping challenge without fault (without knocking down the bars).
.

A Day in a French Life...
Kristin Espinasse

For my daughter's latest concours de saut, we arose avant l'aube to drive the 45-minute journey to Isle sur la Sorgue...

The weather forecast was bleak so we wore our K-ways and brought our parapluies. After an early-morning averse we were rewarded with mild temperatures and a drizzle- and drip-free day... in time for my daughter to complete the CSO challenge sans fautes!!!

Aunt Marie-Françoise, Uncle Jean-Claude, and Kiwi The Canine arrived in time to félicitent our 12-year-old cavalière and to join us for a picnic of merguez, frites, and Domaine Rouge-Bleu rosé, bien sûr!

Seated in the grassy parking lot, either par terre or, if lucky, on a portable chair, we watched Jean-Marc pass around his wine to the other cavalières' parents and, comme ça, we properly celebrated our girls' performances.

Speaking of our own girl, encore bravo! Jackie!

We left Braise and Smokey behind (grosse faute), for there were almost as many dogs at the event as horses! Our goldens would have had a blast... and loved meeting that precious bouvier bernois puppy)...

So that our dogs wouldn't be completely left out, we decided, on returning home, to re-enact the concours de saut -- or obstacles-jumping challenge! Because we are used to setting up these kinds of obstacles in our home (...), we set up the CSO course illico presto. The only new addition to our game was maman.... and maman waited patiently for her turn, just after Braise, who set the standards pretty high as you can see, here:

I don't mean to make excuses for my own pitiful performance, but I had a housedress handicap... (After a sleepless night and an exciting day at the horse event, I couldn't wait to get home and change into my pajamas).

Anyway, I was off to a running start....

... hoping to lift-up over the bar, with the help of my hands... My daughter had to lower the high bar (really, just a mop handle) for me and, I admit, remove the second obstacle-bar (which was actually a fishing pole.)

On clearing the bar and landing I received félicitations from an ever-encouraging eye-witness, Braise. Cowabunga! Braise says. (In the background you can see one of Jules's paintings and the bike she bought me so that I might experience endorphins instead of "story stress". Thanks, Mom, but as you can see, I am enjoying endorphins this way, too!)

That's Smokey, Braise's son, who cheated by passing under the bar instead of over it. Cheater, cheater, potiron eater! Just in case, let's do a replay and see if we can catch him en train de tricher... I see one paw under the bar, n'est-ce paw, n'est-ce paw!, and you?

Fashion note: those are my son's socks and the slippers are from Jean-Marc. The robe was a find, by my belle-mère Marsha, at a troc shop in Sun Valley. My mom wore this very robe to the cancer clinic in Marseilles. Not counting the previous owner (wonder who she was?) the robe has quite a history (and quite a few holes, now that the pupster, Smokey Dokey, high-fives me each morning (missing my hand, his claws catch at my robe). My sister bought me the pj top... and the pj bottoms were purchased in the latest century (before leaving on a trip with friends, and wanting to have matching pjs. Now to get in sync and actually wear the top that goes with it...

But back to our home-style concours de saut... Here comes Jackie to steal the spotlight.


Talk about putting Braise and me to shame! Is it any wonder that she's the one who wears the jodphurs around here? Congratulations, Mademoiselle -- we are so proud of you!

***
Many thanks to Jackie for taking the "concours" photos of Braise et moi.
Comments, corrections, weather forecasts--and stories of your own--are always welcome and enjoyed.

French Vocabulary
le concours (m) de saut = jumping challenge; avant l'aube = before dawn; K-Way (so named after its brand, like "Kleenex")= raincoat; le parapluie (m) = umbrella; une averse (f) = shower of rain; CSO = Concours de Saut d'Obstacles; sans fautes = without fault; féliciter = to congratulate; la cavalière (le cavalier) = horsewoman, horseman; la merguez = kind of spicy sausage; une frite (f) = French fry; bien sûr = of course; parre terre = on the ground; comme ça = like that; la grosse faute = big mistake; bouvier bernois = Bernese mountain dog; illico presto = right away; la maman (f) = mom; la félicitations (f) = congratulations; le potiron (m) = pumpkin; en train de tricher = in the middle of cheating; troc = trade

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retirer

"Carpet of Flowers & Cabanon" (c) Kristin Espinasse: hundreds of French photos at Cinéma Vérite.

retirer (reuh-tee-ray) verb

    1.  to withdraw;  to take back
    2. to remove, take away
    3. to take out; to redeem
    4. to reprint (photos) 

... there are many more meanings for "retirer", add to this list, here. The verb conjugation is: je retire, tu retires, il retire, nous retirons, vous retirez, ils retirent. pp = retiré
. 

Audio File & Example Sentence: Download Wav or Download MP3

Quand mon fils m'a taquiné, en disant que j'étais vieille, ma fille a crié "retires-le!"
When my son teased me, saying that I was old, my daughter shouted, "take that back!"
.

A Day in a French Life...
    by Kristin Espinasse

I am driving the kids home from school, singing a silly French chanson--something I have just made up, based on the latest grammar correction I've received from my French son--when the latter puts a stop to my singing.

"Bon, ça suffit!" Max implores me to arrêter and, with that, I pull a very long, comically sad face.

"Oh, you look so old!" Max teases, "when you make a face like that!"
My mouth drops even lower and my eyes are now great big bawling balls.

"Max!" Jackie protests, "RETIRE LE!"
"So old! SO OLD!" Max repeats, ignoring my darling defender.

My mouth drops even lower, so low that it might reach my clavicule if the jabber jabbing continues.
"Old, old, old," Max snickers, stealing a surreptitious glance, to see whether he's hit a nerve, by chance...

(Oh, he might have hit just the littlest nerve, but mostly he's hit a funny bone!)

I continue to make funny faces, but my daughter, in the back seat, is taking things a little more personally.

"RETIRE LE!" she orders her brother, determined to defend me (or, simply, determined to have a young mom?). From the back of the car, Jackie grabs her brother's long locks:

"RETIRE LE!!!" she demands.
"Vieille! vieille! vieille!" my son snorts, undeterred by his sister's claws.

That's it! There's a limit to my half-baked humility, wizened woman I am not.

(Enter Aggravated Ego!...)

With one hand on the wheel, I reach over and pinch hold of the freckled French nose to my right.

"TAKE THAT BACK!" I order my son.
"RETIRE-LE!" Jackie repeats, menacingly.

But apparently my son is a martyr, for he would rather be tortured tress-less, pinched peau*-less, than give in to a couple of raging and aging opponents.
.

***
Comments welcome here--and thanks for telling us from which city you are writing (and how's the weather?)
.

French Vocabulary

la chanson (f) = song; bon, ça suffit! = alright, that's enough!; arrêter = to stop; retire-le! = take that back!; la clavicule (f) = collarbone; vieille (vieux) = old; la peau (f) = skin

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"A DEMAIN"
by Jean-Marc Espinasse

Mercredi dernier, la France a obtenu sa place pour participer à la prochaine Coupe du Monde de Football.

Cette qualification s'est faite dans la douleur face à une vaillante équipe d'Irlande qui aurait aussi bien mérité de l'emporter. Mais cette victoire est surtout entachée d'une grossière double faute de main de la part de Thierry Henry qui a fait la passe décisive au buteur.

"Deux mains" consécutives sur le ballon, comment l'arbitre n'a t-il pas vu cela ?

A l'heure où les caméras vidéos sont partout dans le stade pour filmer le match, comment se fait-il que l'on n'autorise pas la vidéo dans ce genre de rencontre capitale ?

Tradition vous diront certains. Et bien aussi traditionaliste que je puisse être, je pense que la vidéo aurait plusieurs aspects intéressants dans le Football.

En premier lieu, cela empêcherait les éventuelles corruptions d'arbitres car à chaque action litigieuse, les 4 arbitres se concerteraient devant le « replay »avant de prendre une décision. Ensuite, pendant la rediffusion de la vidéo, les joueurs pourraient se reposer et se parler. Enfin, la télévision pourrait passer quelques spots de publicité pendant la prise de décision, ce qui financerait par exemple des caméras vidéo supplémentaires.

Le Rugby, sport encore plus traditionnel a adopté la vidéo depuis bien longtemps et cela a été un franc succès.

Pour ce qui est du Football, la vidéo semble reportée à..."deux mains".

Homework:
Translate Jean-Marc's article. If you feel your translation is correct, then please help us all out by sharing it in the comments box. Merci!

Smokey's infected bumps are receding. The clay cataplasm (that the vet authorized!) is working, along with the antibiotics. Thanks to everyone who wrote in with tips and information. I will be sure to keep you updated on Mr. Smoke's progress. For now, enjoy these photos of our "puppy pleaser" (here with my daughter). As you can see, he is so eager to obey (or simply, to get that treat)!

Our little golden is also full of energy as witnessed by the full-impact welcome I receive each morning, after Smokey lands, four paws and full force, on top of me the moment I enter the cuisine for my much-needed morning coffee. From now on the coffee will have to wait!

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