French Blog

La Fête des Rois

Chanda — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:14:23 +0000

Today is the Epiphany (l’Epiphanie). It is a Christian holiday that celebrates the time when the three wise men followed the north star to Bethlehem where they found baby Jesus and gifted him with gold (de l’or), myrrah (de la myrrhe) and incense (de l’encens). One of the traditions in France on this day is to have a galette des rois (wise men cake or 3 Magi bread). The galette dates back to the 14th century and was traditionally divided into enough portions for all the people present plus one more for the first poor person that passed by. Nowadays, the first portion is usually reserved for the youngest person in the family. A white or black bean (fève) is hidden in the cake and the one who finds it is crowned the king and can choose his queen for the day or vice versa. Most homemade cakes have a dry bean hidden inside, but the bakeries now insert plastic ones. In the past, beans made out of porcelain, earthenware and even precious metals have been placed inside the cakes. There is even a museum in Blain, France which showcases all types of these collector’s items. In the south, they often have a couronne en brioche (brioche in the form of a crown) instead.

Post from: French Blog

French Byki for iPhone: Addictive and Stylish

Evan Quinlan — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:30:55 +0000

It’s amazing how different it was designing Byki French for the iPhone, as opposed to designing a desktop or Web browser application. There’s not much screen space, even on the iPhone, but users of the device still expect a magnificent experience from the applications they download. We had to cram a lot of features into a very small package. But… we did it, and the response from users has been overwhelmingly positive!

There are a lot of great iPhone apps out there, but just think… instead of the usual turn-off-the-brain gaming session, you could spend 10 minutes increasing your French vocabulary. Just like its computer-based counterparts, Byki for iPhone uses research-backed memory-locking techniques designed for adults learning second languages. All 3 modes, Preview It, Recognize It, and Produce It, are active, plus there’s an excellent new Quiz mode for those of us who have a penchant for testing ourselves.

Some of the things that make Byki a killer iPhone application:

It’s just $9.99, and you get access to over 75 premium Byki lists in your language
3 learning modes plus the new quiz mode
SlowSound technology to slow down audio playback of words and phrases
Search your wordbank using the iPhone keyboard, turning iByki into a portable phrasebook
Fast to use—jump into learning within seconds
It’s very pretty, and we’ve added all the trademark iPhone touch-sensitive functionality you’d expect from a slick new application!

Try it out, and if you like it, leave a comment on the iTunes store and let the rest of the world know there’s a premium language-learning application out there. Plus, keep your eye out for more languages!

Visit Transparent Language on the Apple App Store

Post from: French Blog

Ready For Some Grape Picking To Ring In The New Year?

Chanda — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:42:20 +0000

In the small, charming village of Viella, France in the Midi-Pyrénées, you can spend your New Year’s Eve with the fun-filled Vendages et Réveillon du Pacherenc de la Saint-Sylvestre by participating in some early morning wine tasting around 10 AM, playing traditional games, visiting an exhibition by local artists, joining the noontime farmers’ dinner, observing demonstrations at the vineyards in the afternoon, attending an evening mass where priests bless the grapes and the locals dress up in costumes depicting the harvest, then having a gourmet meal at night with plenty of dancing afterwards. Finally, you can go on a torchlight procession to the vineyards where hot wine is enjoyed by all and Pacherenc grapes are picked at the stroke of midnight. These grapes are obviously very over-ripe and this over-ripeness produces an exotic, spicy, honey-flavored liqueur. The wine that is made with these grapes will be bottled and labeled with the designation “Harvested on January 1st”.

The grape harvest marks the culmination of the wine grower’s year of hard work. What better way to end the year and begin a new one than to celebrate what you have accomplished!
You can read the official program in French here.

Post from: French Blog

Happy Islamic New Year!

Chanda — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:39:23 +0000

Okay, so I’m a bit late with my greeting….
The second Islamic New Year to fall in 2008 on the Gregorian calendar (it also fell on the 10th of January) was yesterday the 29th of December although it actually began at sunset on the 28th and the entire New Year month will last for 29 days. Since Muslims make up a very large percentage of la Francophonie (the French-speaking world) as there are approximately 5 million Muslims living in France, over 150,000 in Switzerland and around 400,000 in Belgium and French is either an official or administrative language along with Arabic and other languages in many countries of Africa, the Carribean and the Middle East, I thought it was fitting to wish all my best to the Islamic world from this blog.
“Al-Hijra” as it’s called in Arabic is celebrated on the first day of the month of Muharram (the first month) on the Islamic calendar. It marks the beginning of Hijra which occurred in 622CE when the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina and created the first real Islamic community with social, political and economic independence. It is more of a cultural event as it is a time of meditation rather than a huge celebration, but it is acknowledged and honored throughout the Muslim world. It is a quiet time when Muslims gather in mosques for special prayers and readings and reflect upon the passing of time and their own mortality. Muharram is one of the four months during which it is forbidden to wage war or fight. I think it is beautiful and admirable that peace is “officialized” in that way.
The next Islamic New Year will fall on the 18th of December on the Gregorian calendar as the Islamic calendar is lunar rather than solar-based.

Post from: French Blog

Oh, ce conducteur du dimanche conduit trop lentement!

Chanda — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:02:09 +0000

Today I came across this expression ‘conducteur du dimanche‘ which is the same in French as English…the ‘Sunday driver’ and I began thinking back to my time living in the outskirts of Paris and how I loved to take the car on Sunday or go with a friend on a Sunday on a drive to Versailles or Saint-Germain-en-Laye or another such history-filled place and just stroll around. One of my very favorites was Fountainebleau. I’m not sure if this is because the royal grounds are so very charming or because I was always on the lookout for Charlotte or Caroline of Monaco as supposedly that is where they reside most of the year (at least at the time) and where the children went to school. In any case, it always seemed as we had our coffee at a café in the town center or walked up to the gates of the residence that you could really feel the history there despite all the people walking about in their very modern and fashionable clothes.

For some, Fountainebleau, which is located about 34.5 miles to the southeast of Paris and is home to one of the largest royal châteaux (castles) in France, evokes the palace. Others quickly think of the dense woods and yet others, of the horse competitions. It is a remarkable place really and one where you can quickly become lost in thoughts of being invited to a great royal hunt or a glamorous royal ball.
The Castle was lived in by all French Queens, Kings, Emperors and Empresses from François I to Napoleon III. The state apartments are open daily to the public except on Tuesdays. On certain days, there are tours of the small apartments which house the Napoleon I museum. The five main courtyards, gardens and parks are open every day and I recommend taking a horse-drawn carriage ride around them. Despite the somewhat kitschy commentary, the feeling you get is quite majestic. Click here for some panoramic views of Fountainebleau.

Post from: French Blog

Still Looking for Ideas for Your Christmas Menu?

Chanda — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:54:42 +0000

Why not add some French flair to your holiday dinner? Some very traditional French Christmas choices include dinde de Noël (Christmas turkey) which is prepared in a variety of interesting ways, chapon (capon) and any dish with foie gras including tatin pommes foie gras.

Here is a recipe for Tatin Pommes Foie Gras from the Marmiton website.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
3 or 4 apples
10 ½ ounces of raw foie gras
1 puff pastry
butter
caster sugar
2 cups of sweet white wine
cream

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Peel the apples and slice them. Brown them on low heat in butter with a little bit of caster sugar.
Arrange them in a rosette in a cake pan.
Deglaze the frying pan with half of the wine and pour it into a saucepan. (Deglazing means that after you remove the foie gras, you add the wine to the hot pan. Scrape up all the brown bits. The wine helps lift them from the bottom of the pan and stir until it has all been lifted from the bottom of the frying pan. The wine will continue to reduce until you have only a small amount left.) Set aside.
Quickly fry the sliced foie gras on both sides.
Salt and pepper and place the slices on the apples.
Deglaze the frying pan again with the rest of the wine and add it to the saucepan.
Place the pastry puff on top of the foie gras and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the wine in order to reduce the sauce. Add the cream and bind.
Remove the foie gras pastry from the mold upside down.
Serve accompanied by the sauce.

Joyeux Noël!

Post from: French Blog

French Christmas Carols and their English Equivalents

Chanda — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:07:55 +0000

As promised, here are the French Christmas carols again and their English equivalents or translations…

Vive le vent Jingle Bells
Douce nuit Silent Night
Le divin enfant He is Born, the Holy Child
Noël blanc White Christmas
Rodolphe Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer
Venez divin Messie O Come, Devine Messiah
Viens, peuple fidèle O Come All Ye Faithful
Mon beau sapin O Christmas Tree
Au royaume du bonhomme hiver Winter Wonderland
Aujourd’hui le roi des cieux The First Noel
L’enfant au tambour Little Drummer Boy
Les anges dans nos campagnes Angels We Have Heard on High
Falalalala Deck the Halls
Maman embrasse le Père-Noël I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Post from: French Blog

French Christmas Carols

Chanda — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:07:53 +0000

Well, the holiday season is here in many parts of the world. Although France is home to many different world religions, it is predominantly Roman Catholic (85% according to WikiAnswers). So, everything to do with the Christmas season can be found in France as well as Québec. Thus, this month I will write a few different articles about Noël. And to start it all off, I’m going to give you some titles of French Christmas carols and see if you can figure out what their English equivalents or translations are…

Vive le vent
Douce nuit
Le divin enfant
Noël blanc
Rodolphe
Venez divin Messie
Viens, peuple fidèle
Mon beau sapin
Au royaume du bonhomme hiver
Aujourd’hui le roi des cieux
L’enfant au tambour
Les anges dans nos campagnes
Falalalala
Maman embrasse le Père-Noël

So, write a comment if you know any of them and I’ll provide the answers in an article in a couple of days.
Bonne chance!

Post from: French Blog

Animate Nouns and Gender

Chanda — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:50:11 +0000

We could say that there are six different types of nouns: animate nouns (people, animals), inanimate nouns (things, ideas), proper nouns (such as cities and names), common nouns (such as avenue, liberté), simple nouns (such as fourchette, papier, ami) and compound nouns (such as croque-monsieur, boîte aux lettres). Today, we’re going to talk about animate nouns and gender. Gender?? Yes, that infamous grammar point that often makes foreign languages seem oh so foreign to English speakers. As you will see, there’s not much you can do but memorize the gender for each noun.

That said, the general rule is that you add an -e to the written form of the masculine animate noun. If that means you have two e’s at the end of the word, then you must put an acute accent mark on the first one or you may have to double the consonant before adding the final -e. For example:

un employé - une employée (an employee)
un étudiant - une étudiante (a student)

There are also many nouns that end in -e in the masculine form and you don’t change them at all in the feminine form…you just have to pay attention to the article in order to determine the person or animal’s gender.

For example:
un artiste - une artiste (an artist)
un collègue - une collègue (a colleague)
un enfant - une enfant (a child)
un touriste - une touriste (a tourist)
un secrétaire - une secrétaire (a secretary)
un aide - une aide (an assistant)
un ministre - une ministre (a minister)

Many times, the prononciation of the word does not change at all. However, there are some cases, as when the -e is added after a -d, -t, -ois, -ais, -er, -ier and you have to pronounce that final consonant that isn’t pronounced in the masculine form. Also, you many have to add a grave accent mark. Here are some examples:

un marchand - une marchande (a shopkeeper)
un avocat - une avocate (a lawyer)
un bourgeois - une bourgeoise (a middle-class person)
un Anglais - une Anglaise (an Englishman/Englishwoman)
un boulanger - une boulangère (a breadmaker)
un boucher - une bouchère (a butcher)
un infirmier - une infirmière (a nurse)
un chat - une chatte (a cat)
un martyr - une martyre (a martyr)

In the feminine form, final n’s are sometimes doubled and always pronounced when adding the -e to -(i)en or -on. For example:
un chien - une chienne (a dog)
un lion - une lionne (a lion)
un Européen - une Européenne (a European)
un espion - une espionne (a spy)

Other times, final n’s are not doubled, but still pronounced when adding the -e to -in, -ain, -an as for example:
un cousin - une cousine (a cousin)
un Mexicain - une Mexicaine (a Mexican)
un Persan - une Persane (a Persian)
**But an exception where you do in fact double the n is un paysan - une paysanne (a peasant).

And with some nouns, the whole final syllable is modified when making them feminine which includes a pronunciation change. This happens when the final syllable for the masculine noun ends in -eur, -f, and sometimes -e. Here are some examples:
un menteur - une menteuse (a liar)
un directeur - une directrice (a director)
un conducteur - une conductrice (a driver)
un acteur - une actrice (an actor - an actress)
un danseur - une danseuse (a dancer)
un veuf - une veuve (a widower - a widow)
un fugitif - une fugitive (a fugitive)
un tigre - une tigresse (a tiger)
un hôte - une hôtesse (a host - a hostess)
un maître - une maîtresse (a master - a mistress or a teacher)
un dieu - une déesse (a god - a goddess)
un âne - une ânesse (a donkey)

Some feminine versions of animate nouns are completely different as is the case with :
un homme - une femme (a man - a woman)
un oncle - une tante (an uncle - an aunt)
un neveu - une nièce (a nephew - a niece)
un cheval - une jument (a horse - a mare)
un frère - une sœur (a brother - a sister)
un père - une mère (a father - a mother)
un taureau - une vache (a bull - a cow)
un cochon - une truie (a hog - a sow)

Some animate nouns either have no masculine version or no feminine version. In other words, regardless of whether or not the person or animal is male or female, there is only one gender you can use for that noun in French. Here are just a few examples:
un auteur (an author)
un amateur (an amateur)
un compositeur (a composer)
un architecte (an architect)
un chef (a chef)
un chirurgien (a surgeon)
un écrivain (a writer)
un ingénieur (an engineer)
un témoin (a witness)
un juge (a judge)
un magistrat (a magistrate)
un médecin (a doctor)
un sculpteur (a sculptor)
une victime (a victim)
une souris (a mouse)
une grenouille (a frog)

In these cases, if you wish to specify the gender, then you can add femme or homme before the noun. For example, un homme victime, une femme auteur.

Finally, there are animate nouns that have the very same stem for both genders, but different endings, such as:
un compagnon - une compagne (a companion)
un héros - une héroïne (a hero - a heroine)
un serviteur - une servante (a servant)

En résumé :

Masculine Feminine

-i	-ie
-é	-ée
-u	-ue
-l	-le
-d	-de
-t	-te
-ois	-oise
-ais	-aise
-er	-ère
-ier	ière
-(i)en	-(i)enne
-on	-onne
-in	-ine
-ain	-aine
-an	-ane
-teur	-teuse
-teur	-trice
-eur	-euse
-f	-ve
-e	-esse

Post from: French Blog

The Biggest Rock Star You’ve Never Heard Of

Chanda — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:00:13 +0000

Quite possibly the highest-paid French singer (8.75 million euros in 2006 according to Figaro), Johnny Hallyday was born Jean Philippe Léo Smet in Paris on June 15, 1943, to Hugette and Léon Smet. As a small child, he lived for four years in Great Britain with his paternal aunt, a dancer and silent film actress. Years later, his cousin Desta met an American artist by the name of Lemoine (Lee) Ketcham and they performed all over Europe under the stage name Les Hallyday. Johnny traveled with them for a time, then went to boarding school in Germany and learned to play violin and took guitar, dance, voice and drama lessons. At the age of nine, he began performing on stage.

On March 14, 1960, he released his first single “Laissez les filles” after being discovered by Jacques Wolfsohm, the artistic director for Vogue records. Later that year, he went on his first tour as the opening act for singer Sacha Distel. His first album Hello Johnny was also released in 1961.

He is considered by some to be the French equivalent of Elvis Presley, perhaps because Elvis was one of his idols as a young boy and as he started his rock and roll career. In February 1962, he performed for Jackie Kennedy and he was introduced to the United States public when he went on tour throughout the country that year after releasing the album recorded in Nashville entitled Johnny Sings American Rocking Hits. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan show alongside American singing star Connie Francis on July 1st. Despite these early successes in America and the fact that he owns a home in LA and spends a great deal of time in the US, he remains rather unknown outside his native country.

In France, he attracts huge crowds as he is considered to be a top stage performer (most recently, 500,000 for his 2000 performance 100% Johnny: Live à la Tour d’Eiffel which also attracted 9.5 million television viewers), but he is also widely known for his high-profile romances and love affairs having married and divorced several times.

Some Johnny facts:
500 songs recorded
400 tours
45 albums (18 of them platinum)
100 million records sold
15 million people have attended his concerts
28 movies

At the age of 64, Johnny Hallyday retired from the stage in 2007.

His official website is: http://www.johnnyhallyday.com/

And here’s a video of the song he released in 2008 entitled Si mon coeur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0veZ2Z9XU

Post from: French Blog