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

The Woman In The Fifth

You'd only have to spend a short amount of time with me to find I'm totally book obsessed and have been all my life.  My blog wouldn't be truly mine unless I told you what I was reading.  And, nine times out of ten, I'll rave about the book and put it on my list to be read again in two years time.
But not this time.
Lesson learned:  Just because a book is set in Paris, and the writer has won awards, it doesn't mean the book will be good!  I was totally into it.  Man leaves America in a hurry, and, bit by bit we find out why.  He gets a strange job and lives in a sleazy apartment, but I'm good with it.  And then, by the time it's too late, the whole point of the story is revealed and, frankly, "Nooooooooo!"  is what you get from me.  But fortunately by then there were only a few chapters to go, and I was prepared to wade on, hoping right up to the last minute that the author would change his mind, but no.
And so I will never read this book again.  But it did bring a flavour of Paris into my life for a while and I'm grateful for that.  People buy this book in their droves in France, apparently.  Well they're welcome to it.  At least mine was a library book and didn't cost me any money.  Thank goodness for that!
Back soon
Jane x