Looking forward to this.
Cercle français de Belfast. Annual Dinner 2025
Sevrage ? Withdrawal symptoms?
Feeling withdrawal symptoms after the Paris Olympics?
I'm feeling them too. So I went in search of this old purchase. An Astérix published in 1968 to coincide with the Mexico City Olympics.
Good fun!
Bonne fête nationale 2024
Liber tie, Égali tie, Fraterni tie
It's the day for it! Bonne fête nationale !
Idiomatic wine labels
Browsing the wine section at my local supermarket, I suddenly stopped as I found it interesting to come across these bottles with French idioms on their labels.
Varietals / Grape Varieties
More about their meanings below, meantime the varietal names, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are by now so well known to wine consumers that they need no further explanation.
If it were a competition varietals would win among local consumers. In many establishments that's all that is offered. However, most of the wine in France is bottled with regional or estate names and may not immediately recommend themselves to those who select their wine according to grape variety - Chablis, for example is a Chardonnay.
We're getting there but it may take a while longer until outlets and the wine consuming public develop greater confidence with LaBel(le)France And that's why these labels are such a good idea. They create a splash of fun with the language and promote that much-needed familiarity.
So what do the idioms on the labels mean?
Tout un fromage
This is the whole cheese. A big cheese. It implies something strong and prominent.
Froid de canard
When the weather is very cold the French have an expression that runs "Il fait un froid de canard". Literally, Duck Cold! That seems a pretty good choice for a Sauvignon Blanc.
Avoir la pêche
Literally to have the peach implies to be in really good form, to be in high spirits. I wonder does it also refer to the taste characteristics of this Chardonnay. Only one way to find out!
Maybe time to get some of these in for La Fête Nationale on the 14th.
Remember those other wine-related expressions though! You know the ones that relate to good health. These ones:
Attention à l'abus d'alcool and Consommer avec modération !
Santé !
Françoise HARDY - 12 juin 2024
Françoise HARDY has left us at the age of 80. Time then to revisit her reflective 2018 album, Personne d'Autre. The sleeve notes record: "Pour des tas de raisons raisonnables, je n'envisageais pas de refaire un album". So pleased that she did make it thanks to conversations between her and producer Erick BENZI.
The last track of the album, Un mal qui fait du bien was co-written in September 2017 with Thierry STREMLER. The final couplet roughly translates as "I stop there, I hold back; neither last word nor final word..." It says: "j'arrête là, je me retiens ; ni dernier mot ni mot de la fin..."
Green lemon moments
It was a green lemon moment.
It happened when translating citron vert for a menu I was working on.
It would be nice to say that my rendition was due to pressure of time or working late at night but no, from a French language perspective, it was a basic school day error. The translation should of course have been lime. I realised and self-corrected my mistake for a later version but the original menu had already been circulated.
You can guess: Blush and red now added to the colour palette of lemon, green and lime.
However:
The interesting thing is that green lemons do exist and they are not limes. Although lemons and limes are from the same plant family they are not the same fruit. In fact, some supermarkets recently had to compensate for shortages of lemons - you know the yellow ones - by selling green lemons. Now they are the same fruit at different stages of ripeness, with the green ones having some days extra shelf life. They are not limes.
This sets me to wondering if the restaurant whose menu I had translated really wanted to use green lemon and not lime. And I think all of this would be lost in translation.
But:
Citron vert in French still means lime and for a Francophone the tartness of that vocabulary error still lingered in the mouth.
So I decided on an action plan. And that's to squeeze several minutes a day into recovering and brushing up my French. I have developed a tiny habit of finding 5 or 10 minutes a day to really focus on the language. Often I get caught up in an article or listening to an item and 20 to 30 minutes could pass but the basic commitment is to finding that 5/10 daily.
And that simple habit is bearing fruit. From green to yellow it's ripening nicely.
More:
Here's an article from Yummy that I found interesting: What's the Difference: Green Lemon v Lime
Do you have your own "green lemon" moment? Or a daily habit for retaining and improving your French? I would love to hear.
Étagères - bookshelves
We recently took a mid-week break in one of our more prestigious hotels and among the facilities I spotted on arrival was a small library space but with expansive shelves.
Books! Forget about the spa; a reading nook is my pamper place. Getting absorbed in a book is something that I really enjoy and what a delight it was to find these volumes from the Masterpiece Library of Short Stories.
Check out the Masterpiece Library at AbeBooks.
Naturally I picked the one marked FRENCH Volumes 3 and 4.
Look at the contents page in the second photo above. Wouldn't you be tempted to spend an hour or two? Well, I was and that's just what I did.
It was time well spent.
What a labour of love it must have been for editor Sir JA Hammerton and his board of eminent critics under the auspices of The Educational Book Company to compile these volumes of stories across countries and time periods. The books, dating from the early twentieth century, naturally show signs of age, wear and tear but those stories are timeless.
Some hospitality outlets display books as decoration and may even have bought them in by the metre to fill shelf space. I have even seen books cut in half vertically to better fit a narrow space! Not these ones. With comfortable armchairs, sofas and lighting these books were meant to be browsed, lifted down and read.
But hotel stays end and the books must stay. Still, those stories need reading and so I went in search of copies online, finding them in all their varying conditions of wear and price ranges.
Check out the Masterpiece Library at AbeBooks.
I did, and a copy of those short stories Volumes 3 and 4 is heading my way.
I have space on a shelf and a comfortable chair.
Bonne lecture !
Claude Monet : The Immersive Experience
I've only been to a couple of such exhibitions in which the work of artists is projected onto walls, ceilings and screens to the accompaniment of musical soundscapes.
As it was nearing the end of its run in Belfast at the Carlisle Memorial Church we decided to make a day of it and visit The Claude Monet Immersive Experience.
Although not as extensive as an experience we viewed in Paris at the Atelier des Lumières we very much appreciated the scale and depth of this one and its venue - an old church at Carlisle Circus in Belfast. It was just right and care had been taken to present material in fine detail.
Monet's art was set in context through several information boards, again that music bathing us in sound. A walk through a set with the bridge and the artist's home at Giverny; books on top of a table as if they had just recently been read and set down. Details.
We moved on through into the body of the church taking a seat in one of the many deckchairs around the walls. Immersive, yes that's the word. Immersed in colour, movement and sound.
The show itself focussed in on the tiny details of the works of art - we could see the brush strokes in close up high definition. Wonderful.
On the way out there was the inevitable merchandise but it was good quality and yes we bought a couple of souvenir items.
A memorable visit. Hope that the organisers - FeverUp - bring more events like this. We'll be there.
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen
Not long to go to a talk with my daughter, Rachel on the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. It's for the Cercle français de Belfast and will cover Edgar DEGAS' sculptural masterpiece and Camille LAURENS' book of the same name published by Les Fugitives press. Oh, and Théophile GAUTIER gets plenty of attention too thanks to his short treatise on Le RAT - the name given to the young dancers at the Paris Opéra.
One of those "little rats" is the subject of the talk, Marie Geneviève van GOETHEM. She was born in 1865 and grew up to be our Little Dancer and model for Degas.
Check out the Cercle here and the book at Les Fugitives available here.
It's fascinating and well worth a read.
Maybe see you there?
Chez Max - Alliance Française Dublin
Now that was a substantial and great value lunch. Moules frites and a Moroccan stew.
The mussels were enough for two - a huge portion.
Très bon rapport qualité-prix.
Next time you are in Dublin give yourself a treat and visit Chez Max at the Alliance in Kildare Street. It's like being in France for an afternoon.
Check it out here.
Feet up for the Fête Nationale
Marking the occasion of France's National Day - La Fête Nationale - by putting my feet up.
There's all sorts of marching going on along the Champs Elysées and it would be nice to be there but nice too to be at home, shoes off self, showing off socks!
Bonne Fête Nationale !
Au revoir France Magazine
Later it was published monthly and still managed to retain its freshness with new and interesting articles. While sometimes some features would recur they always had a different angle or approach.
Back then the magazine had competitions and I was lucky there on a couple of occasions winning some lovely French-themed books. But my special win was a return Motorail package with ferry crossings between any two rail stations. I opted for Calais to Nice return!
Eventually decades of issues built up and I decided on recycling and give aways. I have held on to several significant issues: The 150th offering and the homage to Paris edition following tragic events there.
FranceMag as it was affectionately known has now been absorbed within the France Media group's France Today. It too is a superb offering and what I particularly like is the online information that forms a key part of the subscription package. It is published six times a year but so far no sign of slipcases!
Au revoir France ! You were the next best thing to being there!
For more information on the France Today subscription packages, click here.
Coin-cidence
It was nice to come across an old box of French coins - francs and centimes - in use before the country moved to the Euro in early 2002. For some reason, call it coincidental, I decided to check on how many francs there were to the Euro back then and I discovered that the conversion rate was €1: 6,55 francs.
I also discovered that the old French coinage ceased to be legal tender on 17 February 2002 when the Euro became the official currency.
A coin-cidental twentieth anniversary.
Stay@home with the Beaujolais Crus
I have been toying for a long time with this idea:
Taking a stay@home wine tour through the Beaujolais Crus.
I like Beaujolais and find it an excellent food friendly wine. It's made with the Gamay grape and there are ten distinct classifications. Over the next weeks and months I aim to taste each of them. Some have been favourites down the years and some are old friends with whom to get reacquainted.
Above is an acrostic and below a set of clues. If you would like to join me on this stay@home journey then use the clues to work out the name of the cru and then look out for tasting notes in future posts on this blog.
Here are the clues:
1. Starting to get foggy in France. (8)
2. A flower field? (7)
3. A windmill in France. (6,1,4)
4. This one on the side. (4,2,8)
5. Includes a girl's name or a boy's with an extra letter. (8)
6. Others have left too. (6)
7. Ends in Russian currency. (11)
8. Like oak at the beginning. (6)
9. A French girl's name slightly mixed up. (6)
10. Valentine loves this one. (5,5)
We won't be tasting in this order as much will depend upon availability but in any case I hope you'll join me and share your impressions.
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
 |
"They called us the Inseparables"
Lasting friendships that were formed in early childhood are a fascination for me. What is it that brings individuals together, keeps them together and makes them inseparable? And for me, as an avid Francophile, add to that the “mystery” of why a novel by French writer Simone de Beauvoir should come to light years after the celebrated author’s death then I’m hooked.
I had first learned of this book having spotted it on NetGalley, a site that sends pre-publication copies in eformat and sure enough I applied to read it and was duly sent a copy.
Of course I had been much aware of Simone de Beauvoir, her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre but I had been more used to reading about her rather than her work. I am so sorry that I didn't start sooner because I just loved this book.
I was grateful for the introduction by Deborah Levy who rightly pointed out that her foreword contained spoilers. I decided to stay with that however as it helped provide context and has prompted me to read some of de Beauvoir’s other works. Then on to the novel itself, translated from the French by Lauren Elkin, only confirming the intention to read more. The text was accompanied by helpful footnotes explaining this or that term or historical background. And what about that mystery? The afterword, written by Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, explains how the work was found among de Beauvoir’s papers and came to publication. The afterword includes photographs of the people aliased in the book and some facsimiles of the original handwritten draft.
So in this small volume we get the story, the literary legacy and social context of the work. That impressed me and I liked it very much.
The book recounts the story of two young women, Sylvie and Andrée, who meet in primary school at a very young age. We learn from the opening dedication For Zaza that the story was inspired by the relationship between the young Simone in whose name Sylvie speaks and Elisabeth ‘Zaza’ Lacoin represented by Andrée. The two become friends and rail against the prevailing orthodoxies of the time; they discuss God, religion, philosophy and then ultimately face a final reckoning.
I was captivated by the language in the book. Yes there were all those discussions but they were essential to a sense of movement in the text; a dramatic tension drawing us to an anticipated but nonetheless abrupt conclusion that still leaves a sense of inseparability.
Looking back over the text, there are several places where I have highlighted phrases and sections that stopped me short and made me think. I love it when a book does that. I have had a longterm aversion to writing on books and one of the advantages of an ebook is the facility to highlight text and make notes, all of which can be easily removed. Anyway back to those highlights: This one for example stood out. Sylvie/Simone is describing one of the adults and writes “His silky hair and Christian virtue feminised him and lowered him in my estimation.” That from a central figure in Feminism? And from the socially engaged woman describing their respective freedoms, Sylvie writes that she ‘had often envied Andrée her independence, but suddenly she seemed much less free than I was’. A sense of foreboding comes in a section where there is a description of a sculpted wooden clock, ‘which held...all the darkness of time’. Foreboding reprised when ‘Andrée placed the violin in its little coffin’ after practising her music during which,’she seemed to be listening prayerfully to the voice of the instrument on her shoulder’. There are many such examples, skilfully inserted throughout the text.
Having read the ebook version I made two decisions. First, I felt that the book was one that I would definitely like to reread and therefore wanted a physical copy to keep on my bookshelf. I have done just that and am glad for it is a well made book, hardback and with dust jacket. An advantage of a physical book of course is that it can be presented as a gift. The ebook came with compliments of NetGalley, this physical one which has just arrived? Well that's a gift to myself.
And the second decision? Resolutions for the New Year really: to read the orignal in French and to read more of Simone de Beauvoir.
I have a feeling this author's works, new to me, will rapidly become inseparable.
More:
The Inseparables - The newly discovered novel from Simone de Beauvoir
Published 2 September 2021 by Vintage.
Translated from the French by Lauren Elkin
with an introduction by Deborah Levy and
an afterword by Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir
ISBN: 978-1784877002
Also check out NetGalley to find this and other titles.
A Sunday in Ville d'Avray
I very much enjoyed A Sunday in Ville d'Avray by Dominique Barbéris and found it an atmospheric read. The story unfolds in an area close to Paris where I once stayed and I felt transported back to that time and place. That's one sure way to get involved in a story - to have a sense of sharing a part of it.
At the time of reading the nights were on the turn with the new season bringing earlier dark evenings. The book matched the weather and this was perfect autumnal reading with descriptions of "sodden leaves macerated in heaps" forecasting the outdoor reality.
I picked up my copy by chance at a favourite bookstore where the owner seeing my intended purchase asked me to wait a moment as he had some bookplates signed by the author. He returned a short while later with the plate and positioned it on the title page for me.
Brilliant, I'm grateful to the author and the bookseller for their little acts of sharing.
I'm even more invested in the book now.
More
A Sunday in Ville d'Avray by Dominique Barbéris
Translated from the French by John Cullen
Published August 2021
Daunt Books Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-911547-96-9
New CfB programme
Le Cercle français de Belfast has just published its new season programme for 2021-2022. Some events will be streamed, others held in place when health restrictions permit and some will be in both formats thanks to live streaming. Participation in Cercle events has widened considerably over lockdown as many new members from further afield than Belfast have been able to join in its virtual presentations.
For more details see https://www.cerclefrancaisdebelfast.org/p/programme.html
Inscription à :
Commentaires (Atom)