pépier

The deep blue port of Marseilles, where we spent the weekend touting Rouge-Bleu wine.

pépier (pay-pyay) verb
  to chirp, to tweet, twitter

...now we know where the words "shhh! not one peep out of you!" come from.

Also: un pépiement = a chirping, twittering

:: Audio File ::
Please welcome my guest speaker, Beatrice, who will pronounce the French words "pépier" and "un pépiement" via a charming southern French accent: Download ppier.mp3 . Download ppier.wav

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Book Signing / Wine Tasting :

Meet me in Paris and New York this month! Click here for details :
http://a-la-recherche-du-vin.typepad.com/rouge_bleu/2008/03/april-visits.html
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This week I am experimenting with Twitter,* a "social messaging utility" (or micro blogging service) where the user, or "tweeterer," *continually* answers one simple question : "What are you doing?"

If you read my recent essay on "forgetfulness," then "tweeting" may seem an obvious solution to this one's attention-deficit disorder. However, the updates (or "tweets," in Twitter lingo) that I'll post are not only for me... but also for those armchair travelers ("twavelers"?) who wish to stay connected to this French life... in real time.

To receive the updates, or "twupdates," here from the wine farm, just go to the right-hand column, half-way down this page, where you'll find my (thrice-weeklydaily) "Twitter Updates".

Not sure if such "tweeting" will add quality (or chaos!) to the French Word-A-Day twog (that's "blog" in Twitterese)... I guess the only way to find out is to "twy".

I leave you now with a short list of famous "tweople" using twitter:
Barack Obama http://twitter.com/BarackObama
Hillary Clinton http://twitter.com/HillaryClinton
William Shatner http://twitter.com/WilliamShatner

Also tweeting are:

Downing Street (The official twitter channel for the Prime Minister's Office based at 10 Downing Street.) http://twitter.com/DowningStreet

CNN http://twitter.com/cnn
The New York http://twitter.com/nytimes

Former Twitterers include :
Dave Letterman http://twitter.com/DavidLetterman as does
Steve Jobs http://twitter.com/SteveJobs

Those yet-to-tweet include our own French President:
http://twitter.com/sarkozy

More French tweets:
  Martin Menu http://twitter.com/MMartin
  Loic Le Meur http://twitter.com/loiclemeur
  French Word-A-Day http://twitter.com/ecrivaine


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PS: As promised, here is the transcript of Friday's French dictation:
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/recipe


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twitter = learn all about it, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter


~~~~~~~~~Shopping~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diorshow Mascara: super volumizing, lengthening, and curling mascara
Mistral soap : a best-seller! Hand-crafted in the heart of Provence, and made according to a three-hundred year old tradition
"Ville de Paris" & "Service des Egouts" written on these replica Paris Cufflinks
Fleur de Sel. Gathered from the salt beds of Camargue, this subtly flavored salt will add burst of flavor to your food.

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Special thanks to Claire Fontaine and Susie Hollands for helping to spread the word regarding our Paris and New York visits!