feu

Firey bouquets at a French farmer's market

feu (feuh) noun, masculine
  1. fire
  2. late (deceased)

Listen to French: hear Jean-Marc pronounce the French word "feu" in this quote: Download feu.mp3 Download feu.wav

Celui qui peut dire de quel feu il brûle, ne brûle que d'un petit feu.
He who can say from which fire he burns, burns only from a little fire. --Petrarch
         
Scoot around this spring with this miniature electric motorcycle! Scaled-down European-styled scooter with powerful electric motor.
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A message to my husband:  Next time, please don't set the vineyard on fire until I've had my first cup of coffee for the day.

I awoke to the crackling sound of rain hitting the aluminum gouttière* just above our second-story window. Looking out the fenêtre,* I saw a Mediterranean sky as my eyes took in one great infusion of primary blue. No clouds, no rain, just the ping, ping, ping and POP! of
crackling...

Fire! I swung open the bedroom windows and stepped out onto the demi-balcon,* where the heat of the flames struck my skin. I reached for the iron garde-corps,* its paint peeling away like the groggy layers of consciousness before my bed-heavy brain.

My eyes followed the train of fumée.* At its source, I saw my husband... fanning the fire! (...to be continued...)


............................References................................
la gouttière (f) = gutter; la fenêtre (f) = window; le balcon (m) = balcony; le garde-corps (m) = handrail; la fumée (f) = smoke

Term & Expressions:
  jouer avec le feu = to play with fire
  mettre le feu à quelque chose = to set fire to something
  prendre feu = to catch fire
  il n'y a pas le feu = there's no hurry (in doing something)
  tout feu tout flamme = heart and soul
  feux d'artifice = fireworks

.......................Francophile Must-Haves..................
In books: Murder in the Rue De Paradis. "Cara Black books are good companions... Fine characters, good suspense, but, best of all, they are transcendentally, seductively, irresistibly French..." --Alan Furst

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly -- an Academy Award nominated film based on the French memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Culinary Lavender Flowers - imported from the Provence. From the seller: "Lavender is the hot new ingredient. It has been used for years in European cooking and now Americans are discovering lavender's wonderful taste profile. It enhances dishes from soups to desserts. Lemonade, crème brûlée, vanilla ice cream are just a few desserts that are raised another notch with the addition of lavender."

Words in a French Life: build your French vocabulary in bite-sized morceaux. 100 short chapters salt-n-peppered in French, spiced up in English and spiked here and there with flame-resistant Frenglish.