Current features, travel adventures, and whatever interesting stuff I find on the net or in life.
Last week I subscribed to the Éco-forfait WWF illimité, a new option from French publisher Relay that allows you to download as many of their 400 French magazines as you can read, plus donates a euro a month of your 18-euro subscription to the World Wildlife Fund. I downloaded over 20 magazines on news, culture, food, wine… it’s fantastic. For info, see the bottom-left corner of the Relay site.
This movie has broken all French box office records, and with good reason – it’s hilarious, fun, and heart-warming. If you get a chance to see it, don’t miss. I can’t imagine having to watch it with subtitles though, as an important part of the story and dialogue has to do with the French dialect spoken in the north of France.
I read that Will Smith (among others) wants to do a remake. The French article said it would be Bienvenue chez les Blacks, so I’m guessing the English title would be something like Welcome to Harlem. Of course, these are very early days, but it sounds great – I can’t wait to see it!
Even if you don’t speak French, this is kind of fun. See how well you know how to use French terms like déjà vu, carte blanche, and je ne sais quoi in English with this quiz: French terms in English
Good-bye 2007 (does anyone else notice that could read Good-bye to 007 [double oh seven]? Is this a sign of James Bond’s future?) and hello 2008. It was a good year – I spent more than half of it in Costa Rica. But this year will be even better, as I’ll spend the majority of it in France. I hope you too will have some long-cherished dreams come true.
Here’s some reading material and ideas for New Year’s Resolutions for you:
New Year’s in France
French New Year’s Resolutions
Veggie Table New Year’s Resolutions
I finally finished a huge, far too time-consuming project: a sort of calendar of the history of French-speaking countries, with holidays and celebrations, famous people’s birthdays and deaths, and other events and milestones in the world of francophonie. I’d had the project in mind for a long time, and I knew it would take a lot of work, but the reality was far worse than I’d imagined. Still, it’s done and I think it’s a fairly cool feature – I hope you do too: Today in Francophone History
So the big news in the French press is about the word bravitude used by presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal. Critics are comparing it to Bushisms like “misunderestimate,” but Ms. Royal says that it wasn’t a mistake – she coined the word because the word bravoure just wasn’t strong enough for the Chinese proverb she was translating. It’s an interesting question – what’s the difference between using a word that doesn’t exist because you don’t know any better and using one that doesn’t exist, but (maybe) should?
As part of an initiative to encourage British tourism in Paris, French gestures have been “revealed,” for what you would think was the first time ever (learn more). It seems practically every online newspaper has an article about this “guide to understanding Parisians,” and I can only laugh when I check the publication date on my photo gallery of French gestures: February 2001. Not to mention the fact that I have a lot more than 8.
Calling all French lovers – you have to read The Story of French. I can’t imagine the kind of dedication it must take to write such an informative and interesting book, but I’m definitely grateful to the people that did it. It’s a reference book on my favorite subject that reads more like a novel – I enjoyed it immensely.
The Story of French review
It turns out I probably don’t have strep throat since I have developed laryngitis, and the two do not normally go together. Laryngitis is a funny thing – my voice was scratchy on Friday, completely gone yesterday, and is very hoarse today – which I guess means it’s getting better, but I still feel awful. Here are some interesting things I’ve discovered about laryngitis:
Time to drink my 4,391st cup of tea.
Ségolène Royal won the Socialist party nomination yesterday, making her an official candidate for the French presidential elections, the first round of which will be held in April. If elected, Ms. Royal would be the first female French president.
La Guinguette: Ségolène Royal – Présidente ?
The Age: Populist “Sego” gets Royal assent from France’s left
