To A Dear Friend...

Bonjour!

Par où commencer? Chacun d'entre nous en Angleterre est choqué et consterné par ce qui est arrivé à Paris vendredi soir.  Je me suis réveillée à une heure du matin et j'ai décidé de regarder sur facebook.  J'ai vu les commentaires sur les attaques à Paris et je me demandais ce qui se passait donc je mets les informations à la télévision. Je ne pourrais pas croire ce que je voyais. Tant de gens qui sortaient juste pour s'amuser un vendredi soir étaient morts ou blessés.  Les gens de toutes nations. 
J'étais sous le choc et j'ai pleuré pendant que je regardais.  Je suis en état de choc depuis.
Avant d'aller au lit la nuit de vendredi nous parlions d'aller à Paris pour Noël.  Quand on considère, nous étions là il y a seulement un mois et étions pas loin d'où ces atrocités ont eu lieu.  Ma belle ville.
Nous avons eu une minute de silence hier à 11h et nous avons prié pour votre nation merveilleuse dans l'église le dimanche.

J'espère seulement que les mêmes personnes qui portaient un coquelicot dans leur revers le 11 novembre auront le courage de faire en sorte que ce qui est arrivé le 13 novembre ne se reproduise jamais.
Je suis désolée d'apprendre que tu as été malade et que le maladie de chron est mauvais.  Ma cliente a la maladie aussi, donc je comprends ce qu'il est.  Je suis coeliaque qui fonctionne dans le sens inverse de la maladie de chron.  Je ne peux pas manger de blé, d'orge ou de seigle.  Parfois, cela rend la vie très compliquée.  Je mange beaucoup de riz et de pommes de terre!
Je lis un livre en français en ce moment et je suis très heureuse d'être en mesure de le faire. 

Il s'appelle L'Allée du sycomore par John Grisham.  J'adore ses livres. J'en ai lu plusieurs.

Il est toujours avocat comme le personnage principal. J'ai acheté ce livre à la Gare du Nord.
Je vais penser à toi ce soir quand l'Angleterre joue contre la France à Wembley.  Je crois que le stade sera allumé en bleu, blanc rouge.
FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR!
Prends grand soin de toi. Écris bientôt.
Amitiés et bises.
Jane

A Letter To A Friend

Coucou!

Comment ca va?  

Oui, j’ai regardé tout le rugby, sauf le match l’Irlande contre la France en marche lorsque nous étions à Paris.  Je vivais en Afrique du Sud pendant deux ans quand j’avais une vingtaine d’années où je suis tombée amoureuse du rugby qui ne m’a jamais quitté.  J’était très déçue que l’Angleterre est partie du tournoi si tôt, surtout que nous étions le pays hôte.  Quelle honte!

La situation est améliorée pour ma cliente enfin.  Je lui rendais visite toutes les deux heures. Les infirmières sont allées à sa maison pour l’équiper un cathéter.  Maintenant, je peux aller à sa maison quatre fois par jour au lieu de six fois.  Cela veut dire que je peux aller à la piscine ou faire du shopping, donc je suis beaucoup plus heureuse maintenant.  

Dimanche soir nous sommes allés voir le nouveau film de James Bond au cinéma, qui s’applle Spectre.  L’as-tu vu?  Il est, à mon avis, absolument génial du début à la fin.  Je pense que Daniel Craig joue le rôle principal très bien.  

Mon mari doit travailler chaque week-end entre maintenant et Noël donc je fais les courses de Noël par moi-même. Nous avons six petits-enfants, donc il ya beaucoup à faire. Je ne conduis pas, donc je dois aller en ville en bus et transporter tout le dos, qui est un travail très difficile.

Je suis impatient de passer un week-end à la maison de ma sœur à la fin de novembre. Elle habite sur la côte sud. Nous ne nous sommes pas vues depuis quatre ans. Elle est venue nous rendre visite quand nous avons vécu à la ferme, mais pas depuis que nous avons déménagé au village. Je suppose que quand on parle au téléphone et écrit sur facebook, il est facile de se sentir comme on s’est vu l'autre, et le temps passe très vite!

 Je suis impatient d'entendre toutes vos nouvelles bientôt.

Amitiés

Jane

A Sunday in Paris? Don't Mind if I Do!

Hello all!  It's Sunday, it's warm and I'm in Paris.
Got up quite late for once, and had a nice breakfast.  My first croissant here.  The first one is always the best one, isn't it?
We leapt on the metro and bimbled along to the Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement.  This is in the Latin Quarter and I'd really planned to go here another day, but actually it worked out really well.
I've been dying to see this building (pardon the pun, just realised) as so many famous people have been interred here.  But as usual, because it's french, the architecture itself is pretty stunning, too.  Look:

Statue of Voltaire

We also saw Marie Curie (Sklodowska) and her husband, Pierre, as well as Alexandre Dumas and Louis Braille (which was, oddly enough, written in Braille!) 

I was absolutely thrilled to see this on the wall:

I was no idea it was here.  I have a copy of le Petit Prince in French and English.  So lovely.

We turned into another corridor in the crypt and were suddenly met with an inscription, which I believe is called The Just (don't mind at all if I'm wrong, just leave me a comment and let me know please) which honours all those french people who aided or hid Jews during the war.  Obviously it's in French, and as I read it out to John in English I could barely get through it without a lump coming to my throat.  John actually turned away before I'd finished reading it and I thought, 'he's not interested,' but actually it was because he'd got his hankie out.  So sad.

During these blog posts I'm going to stick to the facts about where we're going and what we're seeing, but there will be posts afterwards where I can go into more detail on certain things, and this will be one of the topics I'll elaborate on.

Had lunch in a nearby café.  I had an enormous galette, with an egg in the middle.  It was so filling I could hardly move afterwards.

The Luxembourg Gardens weren't very far away, so we decided to go and explore.  It was really warm and sunny actually, which was lovely.

People really were sitting around having picnics, reading, drinking coffee and playing with boats on the pond.  This really is a beautiful place.

Who wouldn't want to sit here on a Sunday afternoon, soaking up the sunshine?

There are pony rides here, tennis courts and a lovely café.  I so wish I could live here and I'd come here all the time.

John and I love exploring when we go on holiday.  We followed the map and soon found the beautiful church of St Sulpice.

Bear in mind that we've been to Paris before, so on this trip we aren't planning on going up the Eiffel Tower, inside Notre Dame or the Louvre as we did all that last time.  Just Google those if you want to have a look.  I really wanted to see as much as possible that we'd never seen before, and this is definitely the sort of thing I had in mind.

Another beautiful church.

After this we went to the church we'd planned to worship in today.  I was nervous as we approached as I wasn't sure what it would be like, but it was brilliant.  Lots of Americans, Chines and Japanese, and many others, all worshipping God together. 

The website is here:  http://trinityparis.com/  

 It was an english speaking church but one of the worship songs was in French, though.  I had that amazing feeling again, that only comes from worshipping God in a foreign language when your brain understands the words - surreal! I love the realisation that I am part of something massive. I took notes of the sermon, which started off in english but ended up in french.  Okay then...

We set off for Notre Dame afterwards but never made it.  Got side-tracked by the Place de la Sorbonne and then found a side-street full of cafés and restaurants.  We looked at all the prices and found a three course meal for 10 euros, which seems like a bargain to me.  I had moules marinière (because you have to, at least once, don't you?), l'escalope de dinde and mousse au chocolat.  Gorgeous.

It was lovely in there while the owner was there, but once he left and the other waiter took over, he was being horrible to the other waiters, it was quite strange.  John drank cidre.  He says it's part of his five-a-day.  Who knew?

I'm going to bed now, because I'm very tired indeed!

More tomorrow folks!

Jane x

Off To Paris... Again!

For the last few days I've actually been feeling sick with excitement!  You know the feeling you get in the build up to Christmas?  Like that... only worse!
Just a side note that I normally pack my suitcase a week before we leave.  How else do you get time to make sure you've got everything you need?  You might need to wash and iron something, right?  John, on the other hand, likes to pack at the very last minute, so the washing machine was hard at work at midnight before we were due to leave.  You have to ask yourself sometimes, don't you?!

We jumped in the taxi and sped to our local station and got on the train to London.  We had a fair wait there so went into Le Pain Quotidien on St Pancras Station.  We checked in for our trip on the Eurostar, which takes a bit of time, I didn't realise it was the same as going through an airport check-in.
We'd decided to go on the Eurostar because I hate flying, and all I want to say about the train is that it's absolutely awesome.  It was so relaxing and easy, I would definitely do it again and would highly recommend it to anyone.  I did have a moment of wondering if I'd like actually going through the tunnel, but to be honest, I was absorbed in a magazine and didn't even realise we'd done it when suddenly John said, "We're in France!" and that was it.
I'd checked before on how to get to our hotel from Gare du Nord and it didn't take long at all.  Our hotel is a bit of a disappointment, the room is very small (and the walls are very thin!)  There isn't even a bath, only a shower.  Hmmm.  We're also in the 20th arrondissement, which is a bit far out of things, but I don't mind.
We dumped all our stuff (tiny wardrobe, so I am living out of my suitcase!) and decided to go out.  Last time we came to Paris (two years ago) I know I was ill, but we were so tired when we arrived we fell asleep for two hours, so it was lovely to hit the ground running.
I did a lot of research before this trip and have made a massive list of things I want to see.  I thought, to save walking too much, the best thing to do would be to make a list of every single thing I want to do, then group everything into arrondissements so we get to see as much as possible without too much time on the metro or walking (I'm not averse to walking, but I'd rather be walking around inside a museum, not the outside).
After a lengthy discussion, we decided to jump on the metro and get off at Les Halles and go to St Eustache and look around.  It looks like this:

We were actually very fortunate as there was a special service going on.  The singing was amazing.  This is such a beautiful old church, and we've never been here before.

This is outside, and the main reason why I wanted to go:

 I just love it.  I could quite happily sit here (with a coffee!) and stare at it for hours.  How sad am I?  The other thing is, if you look up St Eustache in the guide books, it shows loads of grass in front of it, whereas in reality it is still surrounded by the building works for Les Halles station, just like it was when we came in 2003.  Les Halles will look fabulous when it's done though.

Notre Dame Cathedral isn't far from here, so we decided to take a walk.  We'd actually come on a mission to buy a Chat Noir umbrella and we found one practically straight away, for 13euros, so we were really pleased.
Off out to find somewhere for dinner now.
Back tomorrow 
Jane xx

Rentrer/Revenir/Retourner

This has been bugging me for a while because the words seem pretty interchangeable when you read them in French.  Yesterday, Pascal Dherve made a brilliant video explaining the difference, so I took some notes.  You can see the video here



Thank you so much Pascal, your videos are amazing, I learn something every time I watch one.  If you're serious about improving your french, I can't recommend this site enough.  Pascal also has a facebook page.


Back soon
Amitiès
Jane 

Questions

So now I have two french tutors, which is marvellous, but it's keeping me on my toes.  They are both quite different.  Sally is a bit too far away to come and give me lessons now so I post work for her to mark, which she is absolutely brilliant at.  We also skype once a month, which makes me really nervous, because I just want to talk.  I get so nervous I get tempted to cancel it, but I'm usually as high as a kite afterwards and we don't stop rambling.  Here are the questions I want her to ask me this week:

La lecture

1.  Qu’est-ce que tu aimes lire?

2.  Qui est ton auteur préféré?

3.  Quels magazines est-ce que tu lis?

4.  Tu as un livre préféré?

5.  Tu achètes des livres ou des magazines?

La radio

1.  Quelle station préfères-tu?

2.  Tu écoutes souvent la radio?

3.  Quand est-ce que tu écoutes la radio?

4.  Quelles sortes d’émissions écoutes-tu?

5.  Tu as un animateur/une animatrice préféré(e)?

Là où j’habite

1.  Tu habites en ville ou à la campagne?

2.  C’est loin de la ville?

3.  Il y a des magasins près de chez toi?

4.  Tu préfères la ville ou la campagne?  Pourquoi?

5.  Tu habites dans une maison ou un appartement?

6.  Il y a combien de pièces?

7.  Tu as un jardin?

8.  Tu aimes ta maison?  Pourquoi?

9.  Décris les chambres.  Tu l’aimes?  Pourquoi?

Once I've had the skype session I'll put some answers in.  Can you answer all the above questions?  They're from my brilliant GCSE book.

My other french teacher, Gillian, lives very close by.  I go to her once every two weeks and we just talk and talk, nearly all in french, and I love it.  I am going to practise some 'restaurant french' with her soon as we are going to Paris again in October (so excited I don't know where to put myself!)

Must dash, off to see a client!

Jane xx

Restaurant Review

I was so excited last week to see a restaurant on the Paris Insights blog.  This is where we had dinner one evening on our very first trip to Paris.  I didn't take any photos at the time, and have regretted it ever since, as I'd really like to go back there. It was June then, and we were seated in a window, but all the windows open, so you are straight out onto the street, which gives it a lovely atmosphere.
 So here we are, as an aide memoire pour moi:

http://terranera.fr/

18 rue des Fosses Saint Jacques, 75005 Paris, France

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d5267551-Reviews-Terra_Nera-Paris_Ile_de_France.html


Back soon
Jane x

Starting a penfriend letter

Chere Francoise,

Je m’appelle Jane Orson et j’ai 48 ans.  J’ai reçu votre email et j’aimerais beaucoup vous écrire.  Desolé j’ai été si lent à repondre.  Je suis mariée avec 4 enfants et 6 petites enfants.  

Je travaille comme aide soignante dans une maison de repos pour 10 gens.

Nous vivions dans une ferme.  Nous avons démenagé il y a 3 ans.  Maintenant nous habitons dans un grand village.  Le village a du caractère.  C’est très agréable.  Se trouve entré Nottingham et Loughborough.  Nottingham est celebre pour Robin de Bois!

J’habite dans une maison de plain-pied.  J’aime ma maison parce que c’est confortable et bien décoré.  Elle n’est pas grande, mais autour de la maison nous avons un petit jardin avec une pelouse devant.  Nous n’avons pas de cave, mais nous avons un garage a côté de la maison.

S’il vous plaît corriger mes erreurs.

Amitiés

Jane xx

Visit to Nice Part 1

Hello all!
We finally arrived back on Saturday evening from what turned out to be the most awesome week away I think I've ever had.
All the way through writing these blog posts I'm going to be asking myself which I now prefer, Paris or Nice.  I'll let you know my decision at the end.

I've got to tell you first of all that I HATE TURBULENCE!!  The pilot said we would encounter a little on taking off from Gatwick.  That's the same as when a doctor says you're going to find 'this injection a little uncomfortable,' isn't it?  What they mean is, it's going to be flipping agony!
I gripped the arm of the chair and I gripped John's leg, poor man.  I listened to my music on my Kindle, which did take my mind off things a bit.  Note to self: listening to 'Skyfall' on a plane really isn't a good idea!
But eventually it was over and we were there.  We were met by sunshine and palm trees.  Who could ask for more, really?
I had my first French conversation there and then as we had to buy bus tickets from the ticket office (and yet on the way back you can buy them on the bus, how strange).  Anyway, tickets bought, and we set off once the bus turned up.  But this is the bit that puts me off buses abroad, as I don't think it's obvious where to get off like it is with trains.
We decided to get off at Gambetta Promenade though, and found the Hotel Negresco.  You can't really miss it to be honest.

Our apartment was just down the road from here but it took a bit of wandering up and down to work it out at first.
Finally found it and then had the saga of opening the gates.  It was quite late by now and a woman appeared on a balcony above and I explained we were renting one of the apartments for a week and she told us how to get in.  Then we opened the main door, and then, across the hallway, the actual door to our apartment.  Finally, we were inside.
It took a while to get used to the apartment as all the shutters were down and there are no curtains and no carpets.  It took a while to realise how lovely it was.
We set off to try and find something to eat.  All the supermarkets were closed so we went to a little Italian restaurant and had a pizza each (all ordered by me, obviously!)  Finally had artichokes and have decided I don't like them!
Time for bed, so tired.
Jane x

Nice Too

Woken up this morning and I am thrilled and delighted and mega excited to a) be in France, but more importantly b) in this amazingly beautiful part of France.
This is how it was:
John left the keys in the door all night and having struggled to get in, we now found it impossible to get out!  Neither of us brought a mobile phone.  And let's be honest, who would we have phoned anyway?
After much persuasion, John finally managed to unlock the door and I packed away my panic and claustrophobia and we set off to find the church and get some breakfast.
We walked up Rue Gambetta and found Passage Gregoire but we were quite early so we stopped off at a café on the other side of the road for a quick coffee.  Having supped said beverage it was quite clearly now time to cross the road.  Except... now the Nice marathon had started and the first of 9000 people were running up the road.  I don't think, "Excuse-moi!" would cut it somehow.
But time dragged on.  Every so often there were little gaps in the groups of runners, so we decided to chance it.  John got across pretty niftily but I got half washed up the road like a piece of flotsam and was suddenly a participant in the Nice marathon, until I leaped onto the pavement on the other side!  Phew!
And so we walked down quite a rough looking side street and into the Victoire Church.  It turned out to be pretty awesome.  It was all tiled and really cool.  We sang some songs in French.  It really messes with your head because some of the songs we knew in English, but suddenly were only capable of singing them in French even though our brains knew perfectly well what we were singing in English.  I don't know how to explain it.  Right brain was going, "Pull yourself together woman," and left brain was going, "LOLOLOLOL!"
Then a beautiful moment when we greeted one another.  There was lots of kissing, but this beautiful woman came up to me and said, "Ma soeur!" and kissed me and I thought, 'Yes we are sisters because we both love the same God and even though I'm in another country God loves you and He loves me and it's amazing, isn't it?' and I was trying not to cry.
More singing and then a sermon relayed to us in English through headphones, which was awesome.  I did look at the Bibles but they were so expensive.  Maybe one day.

Then we decided to go for a walk through an area called The Promenade du Paillon.  It's beautiful and fun and imaginative.

I am blown away by the architecture.
It's like how I imagine Cuba or something from Love In The Time of Cholera!

And then I finally came face to face with Apollo.  So pleased to have found this.

 Strolled home and bought our first bread from a boulangerie but then went into a supermarket to buy essentials like tea bags and milk.
More tomorrow.
Jane xx

Nice Again

Sent John out this morning to buy bread and he actually came back with... bread!  This is astonishing for him in English, let alone in a foreign language!
Decided today (Monday) was the day to walk round the Colline du Chateau.  Didn't want to break it to John that there actually wasn't a chateau at the top!
We strolled through the Cours Saleya, taking in the sights, the smells and the voices.  It took a while to grasp the accent, but it's because of the massive Italian influence.  Once I'd got used to it, it was fine.  There was an antiques/brocante market going on.  Some very interesting stuff, lots of very catholic ornaments and interesting paintings. 

Carried on and went under an arch onto a very narrow street.  Further on there was a war memorial

and then, having walked past the lift and the stairs, we began the climb upwards.
It wasn't that strenuous, and it was well worth it.

We passed a beautiful cemetery but John wouldn't let me go in.  French cemetaries are always quite stunning compared to English ones, aren't they?

The view from the top is awesome.

And so is this.

It was a day for getting wet, really.

Stood up after this and the back of my coat was soaking wet!

 

 

So all in all a fantastic day.  Of course we got sunburned.  Nothing says, 'Brit on holiday' like a bright red nose, does it?!

More tomorrow.

Jane xx



Venir de - to have just done something

My husband is very good at maths and I am (usually!) very good at English.  We talked about how very often in maths you are given a rule, the teacher demonstrates that the rule works (take long division for example) the pupil goes away and tries some exercises to prove the rule works, then you apply the rule for the rest of your maths life.
But isn't learning a language just like that?  You get given a rule (how and when to use que or qui for example).  You do loads of exercises so you realise you can trust the rule and it won't let you down, then you go off into your chosen language knowing you can apply that rule and it will always be correct.

So here is today's rule!

Venir de:  The French do not say, "I have just (done something)." ;  they say, "I come from (doing something)" 

Here's the rule that never fails:

present tense of venir + de + the infinitive of the next verb

You'll come across this a lot, especially at GCSE level.

Here are some examples.

I have just arrived = je viens d’arriver.






1. Je viens de voir le film.
I have just seen the film.

2.  Il vient de terminer son travail.
He has just finished his work.

3.  Je viens de terminer mon travail.
I have just finished my work.

4.  Ils viennent d’acheter la maison.
They have just bought the house.

I hope you find this useful and notice it in your reading and writing.
Back soon
Jane

d'un air - with an air of

Hello everyone
I keep coming across the above phrase and it seems to work with adverbs.  Have a look at what I mean:

Je dois commencer à sortir plus souvent, décida-t-elle d’un air résolu.
I must start going out more, she decided resolutely.

"Non, pas vraiment,“ répondit Marie d’un air indigné.
No, not really, replied Marie indignantly.

"Yvonne," répondit-elle d’un air boudeur...’
"Yvonne," she replied glumly.

Also,
"Where do you live?" he asks.
"215 Rue des Martyrs," dit-elle d'une voix rageuse.
.... she said with a voice of rage.

"Merci," dit-il d'un ton taquin.
"Thank you," he said in a teasing tone.

"Je le savais!" dit-il d'un air méprisant.
"I knew it!" he said nastily.

Hope you find these examples helpful.
Jane xx

How dare you?!

Bonjour!

Here are a few phrases you might find useful:

"Oh mon Dieu, comment ose-t-elle m'acheter quelque chose comme ça, ce toupet!“
Oh my  God, how dare she buy me something like that, the cheek!"

Tu parles trop, pensa-t-il mais il n’osa pas le dire tout haut...’
You talk too much, he thinks, but he dare not say it out loud.

Elle l’aurait conamné à une longue souffrance s’il avait osé le faire à l’intérieur.
She would have threatened him with violence if he had dared to do it in the house.

Je n'ose pas me promener dans ce quartier -
 I don't dare walk in this neighborhood

Comment osez-vous ! - How dare you!

	Present		Future		Imperfect		Present participle
j'	ose		oserai		osais		osant
tu	oses		oseras		osais
il	ose		osera		osait		Passé composé
nous	osons		oserons		osions		Auxiliary verb	avoir
vous	osez		oserez		osiez		Past participle	osé
ils	osent		oseront		osaient
	Subjunctive		Conditional		Passé simple		Imperfect subjunctive
j'	ose		oserais		osai		osasse
tu	oses		oserais		osas		osasses
il	ose		oserait		osa		osât
nous	osions		oserions		osâmes		osassions
vous	osiez		oseriez		osâtes		osassiez
ils	osent		oseraient		osèrent		osassent
	Imperative
(tu)	ose				Verb conjugation pattern Oser is a regular -ER verb
(nous)	osons

Hope you find these useful.
Bises
Jane

Au lieu de - instead of

Bonjour!

On my reading travels I come across lots of phrases that I realise are really useful.  Here are some ways of saying 'instead of':

Parfois, vous voudrez peut-être dire que vous voulez une chose à la place d'un autre. Voici quelques exemples:

"Alors je vais prendre une omelette nature avec une salade au lieu des frites."

J’ai payé seulement dix euros au lieu de vingt euros.

Mais:

Est-ce qu’il y aurait la possibilité de remplacer l’escalope de dinde par du coq au vin?

Look out for more examples in your reading.
Bises
Jane

Nice is Nice!

Hello all!
After much searching and discussing, we are going to Nice for a holiday in April.  I am so excited!
We are staying in an appartment. 
I have been reading all about it in a lovely blog by Margo Letz called The Curious Rambler.  It's really made me even more excited about going.  Margo has been very kind and emailed me details of good local restaurants and food shops, which I'm sure will come in handy.  Next I need to know what the weather will be like as I haven't got a clue what to wear (typical woman!)




Why wouldn't you want to go here?!

Then, my pastor's wife came to see me yesterday and over coffee I told her about our impending trip and she said she was sure that Kenneth Copeland Ministries have a church out there.  So this morning I decided to Google it and sure enough there are two churches.  One of them gives you headphones so you can have the service relayed to you in English.  So guess where we'll be going Sunday morning?!

The only thing I need to sort out now is my camera, which has refused to upload my photos this morning.  The wonders of modern technology!
Back soon
Jane xx

Story Time: Ourson

I read lots of books in French, probably more than I do in English at the moment.  I only mean those books for French learners, that often have an English translation alongside.  I'll try to show you them if I can.
But today I just wanted to show you the cutest thing.  It is such a thrill to be able to read it, look:

First of all, why is this significant?  It's because our surname is Orson.  When John was at school and did heraldry as a project, the teacher looked up his surname and the nearest she could come up with in Latin was Ourson, meaning 'bear'.  His symbol was 'a bear rampant,' like this



What I love as well is that we called Tessa 'Tessa Bear' so she'd have been Tessa Ourson, which is our surname, so we were more right than we realised!
More of the book, which is very sweet, quirky and funny:

The illustrations are lovely and there are lots of little details for people to notice. 

This page says, 'Deux grands yeux jaunes le fixent.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" demande Chat.
"C'est mon crayon magique," répond Ourson.
“Alors dessine-moi quelque chose à manger,“ dit Chat.

I think there are some others in the series,, so I'll have to have a look.
À bientôt
Jane xx

A New Beginning

Hello all!

As of today I've decided to start writing little snippets every day in French, but there's so much of it I decided to backdate it into February.  It's going to be a mix up of bits about my life, books I read, books I'm working through and vocabulary and phrases I really want to remember.


This is going to be quite hard work because I have to check what I want to say on Google Translate, then type it onto the most awesome programme I've just found called http://french.typeit.org/ where I can type what I want and put the accents in, then I can cut it and paste it directly onto here.  The plan is to write more and more in French.  If you've stumbled across this site because you speak French, please don't hesitate to leave a comment so I can correct what I've said.  I'll be checking back regularly though, so I can keep things updated, so even if you've read a post once before, later on it may be different as my vocabulary and understanding improves.Thanks for looking in today.  If you like what you've seen you can leave a comment, email me at jane.orson@btinternet.com or come and find me on facebook.Thanks for lookingJane xx

Que and qui ... and then some!

Bonjour!
Ne vous en faites pas!
I found this really difficult at first, and I teach English as a foreign language, so I understood the grammar.

Let me explain.  I'm talking about (cue posh word...) Relative Pronouns.  But if I'd put that as the title of today's post you'd have switched off tout de suite, wouldn't you? 

I'm going to talk about the relative pronouns

qui : who, which, that (subject)  and
que: whom, which, that (object)

Because sometimes it's the little words that are the most important!

Here we are:

L'automobiliste qui parle français.
The motorist who speaks french.

La voiture qui est en panne.
The car which has broken down.

But:

Le camion que vous avez réparé.
The lorry which you repaired.

I'm just going to give you a simple rule, in case you struggle with things like who is the subject and who is the object.

If, in English the verb comes immediately after 'who', 'which' or 'that' then use qui.
But if, again in English, not the french sentence yet, there is another word between 'who', 'which', 'that' and the verb (the doing word) then use que.
The above rule works every time and is really simple once you get used to it.

However, I have a treat for you (and me!) today, as I've found the most awesome video that explains it much better than I can.  As you watch it, with the examples he gives, check back with the rule above and all will (hopefully!) become clear.

Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYZZR3S7sZw&list=PL2AKGdFj6mUekxfeHnTGhXYX3ibYH6H4n

Ammusez-vous!


Thanks for dropping in today.
More soon, I'm sure
Jane xx

Useful Phrases: s'ammuser

Hello all!
I've really struggled to grasp this verb and I don't know why.  It isn't just because it's a reflexive verb either, I just couldn't find any examples of how to use it in a sentence and that's when I struggle.  It turned out it was sitting in my verb tables book all the time!

Par exemple:

Je m'amuse beaucoup au bord de la mer.     (So we can see straight away that it's a reflexive verb).
I enjoyed myself very much at the seaside.

Nous nous amusons.
We enjoy ourselves.

Elle ne c'est pas amusée
She hasn't enjoyed herself.

Les gens s'amusent beaucoup.

Je me suis bien amuse
  I enjoyed myself.                                       Just going to remind myself that reflexive
                                                                     verbs take être in the perfect tense.

Hope these examples have been useful to you.
Jane xx