Le mot du jour : Un froid de canard
“Un froid de canard” (literally a duck’s cold) describes the kind of weather we had this morning, with frost all over the garden.
It seems this turn of phrase comes from the hunters. Duck hunting season is in winter, and the hunters having to wait patiently in the freezing cold for one to appear started to call that kind of weather “un froid de canard” Et voilà !
Now I’m really looking forward to “une chaleur estivale” (summer heat) 🙂
Le mot du jour : tomber dans les pommes
Tomber dans les pommes (litterally “to fall in the apples”) actually means “to faint”.
I was reminded of that common expression the other day when my kids
were reminiscing an old joke that all French primary school students
know. Here goes :
“Quel est le
sport le plus fruité ? C’est la boxe, parce que tu te prends une pêche
en pleine poire et tu tombes dans les pommes !”
Translation : “What sport is the most fruity? It’s boxing because you get a peach on your pear and fall in the apples (You get hit in your face and faint)”
As you can see, we use lots of fruits in French language 😊
Le mot du jour : La galette des Rois
La galette des Rois (the
Wise Men cake) is more than a cake, it’s a tradition. The 6th of January
is the day where the Catholic Church celebrates the three Wise Men
offering gifts to the infant Jesus.
From this day and all of
January, French people are going to eat this particular cake. At the
heart of the frangipane is hidden a “fève” (litteraly broad bean, but
today it is a little figurine) and the people who get the fève wear a
paper crown and are supposed to buy or make the next cake. You eat it at work or in your family too.
In the South-West where I am from, “la galette des Rois” is a brioche decorated with glaced cherries.
Bonne année ! Happy New Year!
Le mot du jour : sapin de Noël
Un sapin de Noël is a Christmas tree, “Noël” being the word for Christmas, and “sapin” being a pine tree.
The tradition to hang decorations in a tree is said to come from the emperor Charlemagne hanging pagans in the forests between France and Germany at the beginning of the IXth century…
Thankfully nowadays, our “sapins de Noël” are much more cheerful 😊
Le mot du jour : se casser les dents sur…
Se casser les dents sur quelque chose (to break your own teeth on something) is used when you meet an obstacle that you fail to overcome. The English equivalent could be “to be brought up short by something”
You would say for example : “Je me suis cassée les dents sur ce problème de maths !” (I failed to solve this maths problem)
We started this conversation last week talking about the protests in France. As the strikes are still going strong today, a French person could be thinking “Hmm, le président va se casser les dents sur sa réforme !” Only time will tell 😉
(And I’m not going to put a picture of a broken tooth, because that is too painfull to watch!)
Le mot du jour : la grève
“La grève” is the strike, a true staple of the French way of life.
The word comes from the name of a square in Paris called Place de la
Grève, where unemployed people in the 17th and 18th century would gather
to look for jobs opportunities, so at the time “faire la grève” meant
looking for work.
In the 19th, the meaning changed to the one we
know today : stopping your activity to express a disagreement about your
conditions of work.
This Thursday, a big “grève” is going to start in France as the government is changing the rules of the pensions’ system.
More than one government “s’est cassé les dents” on that subject and that is going to be our word for next week. Stay tuned 🙂
Le mot du jour : baguette
“Une baguette” is a well known type of bread, but it is so much more!
First of all, “une baguette” is a stick, the kind you can find in the woods (it gave its name to the bread).
When it is “une baguette magique” then it’s a wand and if it’s not magic then it’s the wand used by conductors in concert.
We also use “les baguettes” to play the drums or to eat Chinese food as it’s our word for chopsticks!
As you can see, a very useful word to know!
Le mot du jour : Faire du lèche-vitrine
“Faire du lèche-vitrine” means to go window shopping.
It’s a very common expression and everybody uses it without really thinking about it.
When you look closely at the French words though, they literally mean “to lick the windows”, which is gross when you think about it 😝
So next time you go into town, imagine all these poor French people drooling in front of the shops, it will help you remember these words 😄
Le mot du jour : Jour férié
Un jour férié is a public holiday.
There are quite a few in France, for various reasons but mostly to celebrate an historic or religious event.
So today in France, like every 11th of November, people won’t go to work, most of the shops will be closed, and celebrations will be organised in every town and village to remember the 1 400 000 men from France and its colonies who died during the First World War.
The symbolic flower is not “le coquelicot” (poppy) but “le bleuet” (cornflower), like the colour of the French army uniform.
Le mot du jour : Feu d’artifice
Un feu d’artifice is a firework (literally “artificial fire).
Unlike in the UK, a firework in France is a summer affair. Each town would organise a firework on the night of the 14th of July (Bastille day), to celebrate the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789.
Bigger towns with bigger budgets have the best fireworks so it is quite common for small villages to have their own firework on the night of the 13th and then go and enjoy the bigger ones on the next evening 🙂
Wishing you all some beautiful fireworks this week!
