Practice French with excerpts from "The Loire Valley" in
French, followed by the English translation.
En français:
Le Val De Loire
La Vallée du Grand Fleuve Royal, ainsi pourrait-on appeler
le Val de Loire, région constellée de centaines de demeures
princières qui offrent une profusion d'images issues tout
droit de la Renaissance, une des époques les plus
prestigieuses de l'histoire de France.
Contrairement à la Bretagne ou à la Normandie, véritables
entités géographiques et historiques, le Val de Loire
composé de pays à l'histoire et aux caractères variés, ne
tient son unité qu'à la présence de la Loire, le plus long
fleuve de France avec ses 1.020 km.
La plupart du temps, étalée dans un lit trop grand pour
elle, la Loire coule mollement entre des bancs de sable
doré ou étreint des dizaines d'îlots. Qu'on ne s'y trompe
pas! Sous son apparente indolence, la Loire dissimule un
tempérament de torrent et ses colères surprennent. Des
pluies fortes se déversent-elles dans le Velay où elle
prend sa source, les neiges du Massif Central fondent-elles
rapidement, la Loire s'enfle alors en crue dangereuse.
Les chiffres gravés dans la pierre de maintes piles de
ponts et même de maisons riveraines en témoignent: crues
meurtrières de 1856, 1910 et 1936.
Le plus souvent pourtant, la Loire est d'humeur paresseuse
et maintenant qu'a disparu la pittoresque industrie de
batellerie qui la sillonnait jusqu'au milieu du dix-
neuvième siècle, on serait tenté de l'accuser d'être
inutile si elle ne traçait, de château en palais, un
incomparable itinéraire.
Et surtout, les poètes ne s'y sont pas trompés qui ont
chanté sa couleur changeante, moirée. Les uns l'ont vue
bleutée, d'autres blonde voire jaune quand ce n'est pas
franchement verte; peu importe la nuance, elle compose un
miroir mouvant qui reflète à merveille la lumière du Val de
Loire, cette fine lumière qui enveloppe monuments et
paysages de la transparence d'une aquarelle.
In English:
The Loire Valley
"The Valley of the Great Royal River," as one might call
the Loire Valley, is a region studded with hundreds of
princely residences which offer the visitor a profusion of
sights straight out of the Renaissance, one of the most
prestigious periods in the history of France.
Unlike Brittany or Normandy, which are authentic geographic
and historical entities, the Loire Valley, consisting of
regions with varied history and characters, owes its unity
solely to the presence of the Loire, the longest river in
France: 1,020 kilometers long.
Spreading out in a bed too big for her, the Loire usually
runs gently between golden sandbanks or chokes among tens
of islets. But make no mistake! Under its apparent
lethargy, the Loire conceals a torrential temperament and
its rages can be unexpected. Should heavy rains pour down
on Velay, where it has its source, and snows melt rapidly
in the Massif Central, the Loire can swell to dangerous
flood levels. Numbers engraved on the stones of numerous
bridge piers and even riverside houses attest to killer
floods in 1856, 1910 and 1936.
Most of the time, though, the Loire is in a lazy mood and,
since the loss of the picturesque industry of river traffic
which criss-crossed it until the middle of the nineteenth
century, we might be tempted to accuse it of uselessness if
it didn't trace an incomparable itinerary from one castle
and palace to another.
And, above all, the poets were not mistaken who sang of its
changing, shimmering, color. Some saw it as blue-tinted,
others as light gold, even yellow, when it wasn't
undeniably green; whatever its hue, it is a moving mirror
admirably reflecting the light of the Loire Valley, this
delicate light surrounding buildings and landscapes with
the transparency of a watercolor.
Word of the Day is perfect for improving and enhancing your
language-learning skills. Each day via e-mail, you’ll get a
new word as well as a sample sentence in English and the
language you're learning. Audio files are available
online --- you can hear every word and phrase you learn
pronounced by a native speaker!
Word of the Day is available in Spanish, French, German,
Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, and English (for Spanish
speakers).
Click here to subscribe and start receiving
the Word of the Day in the language(s) of your choice:
With the election season just behind us in the United
States, we thought it a good time to glance at French
politics and meet a man recently ousted from his seat in
the European Parliament: Jean-Marie Le Pen.
French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen recently lost his
seat in the European Parliament after losing a final appeal
over his conviction for assault on a rival female
politician. A final attempt on Friday to ask the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to suspend the ruling
failed when the court rejected the appeal.
European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine announced the
decision. "Mr. Le Pen, I invite you to leave the chamber,
and so that everything happens with dignity... I am
adjourning the session for a quarter of an hour," he said.
Le Pen reacted sharply to the news, saying it was a move to
"shut me up".
Le Pen, whose political career began in Paris in the early
1950s, has been involved in several public incidents
leading to court cases. He has often stoked controversy by
his strident anti-immigrant stance and anti-semitic
comments. He and his party have argued that France is at
risk from the tide of immigrants and that immigrants should
be dispatched back to the countries they came from. He once
described the gas chambers as "a little detail" in the
history of the Second World War.
"This incident will not stop me from continuing my fight,"
said Le Pen, who says he will stand as a candidate in the
next French presidential elections. Le Pen said he would
appeal to the European Court of Justice. He has already
lost his seat in the regional assembly of Provence-Alpes-
Côte d'Azur, but will have served his penalty in time for
presidential elections due in 2002.
Exciting news! According to PC Data, October 2000,
Transparent Language, Inc. has maintained the number one
position in the foreign language software category for the
month of September 2000 and for the entire year to date!
Open the online Help and print the Keyboard Shortcuts topic
to have a handy list of shortcut keys to keep near your
computer. There are shortcuts for many common actions!
For a quick summary and some background information about a
Title, open that Title and choose Help / Author
Introduction.
