Le mot du jour : “Jour de neige”As we have enjoyed a lovely day of snow (“jour de neige”) yesterday, I thought I would make today a little list of words related to the snow đ The first one to know is obviously “la neige” (the snow). The snow itself is made of snowflakes that …
Author archives: Anne
Ătre bien/mal lunĂ©-e
Le mot du jour : “Ătre bien/mal lunĂ©-eLet’s stay with the moon this week with this expression : “ĂȘtre bien lunĂ©-e” (to be in a good mood) or “ĂȘtre mal lunĂ©-e” (to be in a bad mood) This is an old expression, going back to the times where people thought that the moon had a …
Ătre dans la lune
Le mot du jour : “ĂȘtre dans la lune” “Ătre dans la lune” (to be on the moon) means “to have your head in the clouds”, to be a daydreamer. Each time you are distracted, when your mind leaves that Zoom’s meeting and go somewhere nicer, you are “dans la lune”. The moon has long …
La carte de voeux
Le mot du jour : “la carte de vĆux”Traditions around Christmas in France are slightly different from the British ones, and one of the things we don’t do in France is the Christmas card. Instead, from the first of January we send “des cartes de voeux” (good wishes cards) where we write all the good …
Le réveillon
Le mot du jour : Le RĂ©veillonToday, we are between two “RĂ©veillons” : the Christmas one and the New Year’s Eve one. So what is a “rĂ©veillon”? Le rĂ©veillon is the evening before Christmas and before New Year’s day. The word comes from “rĂ©veil” (waking) because you have to stay awake very late. We also …
La bûche de Noël
Le mot du jour : “La bĂ»che de NoĂ«l”Quite depressing news again today, so let’s talk about a cheerful subject : la bĂ»che de NoĂ«l or Yule Log.La bĂ»che de NoĂ«l is the traditional Christmas dessert in France, and I think in a lot of French speaking countries. The tradition since the pagan times had …
Le moulin Ă paroles
Le mot du jour : “Un moulin Ă paroles”I was on the phone the other day with a lovely lady trying to sell me water filters, and she kept talking and talking in a steady flow of words, and I thought to myself : “Quel moulin Ă paroles ! “Un “Moulin Ă paroles” (“A word …
Le vasistas
Le mot du jour : “Le vasistas”Today, I am going to show you how, in France, we can be very good at misusing other people’s languages.Here is the story :In Germany in the 18th century, houses used to have a small window above the door, and when you knocked, they would ask you through that …
SĂ©cher les cours
Le mot du jour : “sĂ©cher les cours” “SĂ©cher les cours” translates by ” to dry the lessons” and means to skip school without a good reason. It is (relatively) modern slang and is still in use amongst young people today, although I am sure they created plenty of new words to express their desire …
Sauter du coq Ă l’Ăąne
Le mot du jour : “Sauter du coq Ă l’Ăąne”Well, no food today, but farm animals đ “Sauter du coq Ă l’Ăąne” means “to jump from rooster to donkey” and is used when someone makes a jump in the conversation, going from one subject to another abruptly. Ex : “On parlait du temps quand il …