Kids, when you see an ocean wave, point to it and say "la vague"
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Places To See in Paris - Musée de la Curiosité et de la Magie
Musée de la Curiosité et de la Magie
Who amongst you i brave enough to stick their hand in the mouth of a lion and see if it is an illusion? You can do it here in this easy to miss small museum. Bonafide magicians escort you through the vaulted rooms containing trick mirrors, talking genies, and a history of illusion in general. live magic shows are performed daily.
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Antiques linked to magic, optical illusions, automatons, interactive games for children. Demonstration of magic tricks.
Practical Information
| Access | M° St-Paul (ligne 1) Bus 67, 69, 76, 86, 87 |
| Address | 11, rue Saint-Paul, 75004 |
| City | Paris (France) |
| Phone | 33(0)1 42 72 13 26 |
| Fax | 33(0)1 45 36 01 48 |
| contact@museedelamagie.com | |
| Web site | www.museedelamagie.com |
| Admission | Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 2.00 p.m to 7.00 p.m Closed in July and in August |
| Full rate | 7 € |
| Reduced rate | 5 € |
Alberto Contador - Wins Tour de France
Lance Armstrong’s children were dressed in yellow. He was not.
When the seven-time Tour de France champion returned to the Tour podium Sunday, his family was there. His fans were there. And so was rival and teammate Alberto Contador—wearing the coveted yellow jersey.
Four years after his seventh Tour win, Armstrong capped his return with an impressive third-place finish.
Contador won the Tour for a second time Sunday, and Mark Cavendish of Britain collected his sixth stage win of this year’s Tour in a sprint after the 101.9-mile course ride from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the Champs-Elysees.
Over nearly 3,500 kilometers and 21 stages of racing over three weeks, Contador repelled many challenges in the mountains, excelled in the two time-trials—winning a pivotal race against the clock in the 18th stage—and won the first Alpine stage.
Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, Contador’s biggest rival among title contenders in the mountains, was second overall.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Quick Phrase of the Day - Haven't You Anything Else
Repeat this phrase all day long till you know it by heart.
Vocabulary word of the day:
propre (proh pruh) -clean, neat
l'hotel est très propre
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Children's Word of the Day -Computer
Kids, when you use a computer, say "un ordinateur"
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Marie Laforêt -French Singer & Actress
Her career began accidentally in 1959 when she replaced her sister at the last minute in a French radio talent contest Naissance d'une étoile (birth of a star) and won. Director Louis Malle then cast the young starlet in the film he was shooting at the time, Liberté, a project he finally abandoned, making Laforêt's first appearance on screen opposite actor Alain Delon in René Clément's 1960 drama Plein Soleil.
After this film she became very popular and interpreted many roles in the 1960s. She married director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, who cast her in some of his own works, including La Fille aux Yeux d'Or (The Girl with the Golden Eyes), based on the Balzac story, which would become her nickname.
In her second film, Saint Tropez Blues, accompanied by a young Jacques Higelin at the guitar, she sang the title song and immediately started releasing singles, her first hit being 1963's Les Vendanges de l'Amour. Her songs offered a more mature, poetic, tender alternative to the light, teenage yé-yé tunes charting in France at the time. Her melodies borrowed more from exotic folk music, especially South American and Eastern European, than from contemporary American and British pop acts. Laforêt worked with many important French composers, musicians and lyricists, such as André Popp and Pierre Cour, who provided her with a panoply of colorful, sophisticated orchestral arrangements, featuring dozens of musical instruments and creating a variety of sounds, sometimes almost Medieval,Renaissance or Baroque, other times quite modern and innovative.
At the end of the 1960s, Marie had become a rather distinctive figure in the French pop scene. Her music stood out, perhaps too much for her new label CBS Records, which expected of her more upbeat, simpler songs. She was interested in making more personal records, but finally gave in. Although her most financially successful singles (Viens, Viens, a cover of a British hit, and Il a neigé sur Yesterday, a ballad about the break-up of the Beatles) were released in the 1970s, Marie progressively lost interest in her singing career, moving toGeneva, Switzerland in 1978, where she opened an art gallery and abandoned music more or less altogether.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Panthéon
The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. It is an early example of Neoclassicism, with a façade modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Its architect, Jacques-Germain Soufflot, had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the gothic cathedral with classical principles. Soufflot died before his work was achieved, and his plans were not entirely followed. The transparency he had planned for his masterpiece was not attained. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important architectural achievements of its time and the first great neoclassical monument.
King Louis XV vowed in 1744 that if he recovered from an illness he would replace the ruined church of Sainte-Geneviève with an edifice worthy of the patron saint of Paris. The Marquis of Marigny was entrusted with the work. He had sponsored the architect Soufflot, whom he chose for the construction of the new Église Sainte-Geneviève (today the "Panthéon"), a major work in the neoclassical style. The overall design was that of a Greek cross with massive portico of Corinthian columns. Its ambitious lines called for a vast building 110 meters long by 84 meters wide, and 83 meters high. No less vast was its crypt.
From 1906 to 1922 this was the site of the famous sculpture The Thinker.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Jean-Honoré Fragonard -French Painter
erance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings (not counting drawings and etchings), of which only five are dated. Among his most popular works are genre paintings conveying an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism.
"The Swing"
Quick Phrase of the Day - What Are You Reading?
qu'est-ce que tu lis? (kess keh too lee) -What are you reading?
Repeat this phrase all day long till you know it by heart.
la pluie (lah ploo ee) -the rain
Aimes-tu la pluie? (aim too lah ploo ee) -Do you like the rain?
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Children's Word of the Day- Starfish
Kids, when you see a starfish, say "l’étoile de mer"
Sunday, July 19, 2009
French Film To See -Last Year at Marienbad
L'Année dernière à Marienbad (translated as Last Year in Marienbad in the UK and Last Year at Marienbad in North America) is a 1961 French movie directed by Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff. The screenplay is by Alain Robbe-Grillet. It is great example of surrealism in film.
The film is set at an elite social gathering at un chateau. A man approaches a woman and asks "Didn't we meet at Marienbad last year?" The woman is non-committal and demure. "Didn't you say you would leave votre mari and we would run away together?" he asks. Again, she says "No," but they continue to talk as if they perhaps had indeed made plans. When un deuxième homme, who may be A's husband, approaches, la conversation ends somewhat awkwardly and the characters move on.
As the film progresses, the relationship of the characters and the sequence of events are not made clear. Instead images and events such as the conversation above are repeated several times, but in different places in the chateau and its grounds. Several sequences involve les hommes at the chateau passing the time with various games (such as Nim and target shooting). There are numerous tracking shots of the chateau's corridors, with ambiguous voiceovers.
The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which la vérité and fiction are difficult to distinguish, and the exact temporal and spatial relationship of the events is open to question. The dream-like nature of the film has fascinated and baffled audiences and critics, some hailing it as a masterpiece, others finding it to be incomprehensible.
I personally found it had a creepiness to it, largely in part from the eerie background organ music (reminded me of "Carnival Of Souls"). Many scenes had a salvador dali feel to it.
un chateau (uhn shah toh) -a castle
votre mari (voh truh mah ree) -your husband
la conversation (lah kahn vehr say shee yohn) -the conversation
un deuxième homme (uhn duh zee ehm ohm) -a second man
les hommes (layz ohm) -the men
la vérité (lah vay ree tay) -the truth
Last Year at Marienbad (1961) re-release trailer with subtitles
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Quick Phrase of the Day - We Are Going To Our Favorite Restaurant...
Nous allons à notre restaurant favori ce soir (nooz ah lohn ah noh truh rehss toh rahnt fay vohr ee seh swah) -we are going to our favorite restaurant tonight.
Repeat this phrase al day long till you know it by heart.
Vocabulary word of the day:
patron/patronne (pah trohn) male boss/female boss
il est mon patron (eel ay mohn pah trohn) -he is my boss
elle est ma patronne (ell ay mah pah trohn) -she is my boss
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Children's Word of the Day -Marshmellow
Kids, when you have some marshmellows say "guimauve"
Quick Phrase of the Day -And What Else Is New?
et quoi d'autre de neuf (ay kwah doh truh deh nuhf) -and what else is new?
repeat this phrase all day long til you know it by heart.
vocabulary word of the day:
un dossier (uhn doh see yay) -a report, a file
Où est le dossier (ooh est leh doh see yay) -where is the file?
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Children's Word of the Day - Refrigerator
Kids, when you go to the refrigerator, point to it and say "un frigo"
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Pierre Arditi -French Actor
Pierre Arditi (born 1 December 1944) is an award-winning French film and stage actor. He is the brother of French actress Catherine Arditi.
He has often played romantic, womanizing roles, similar to those played by Marcello Mastroianni.
In 1987 he won a César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Mélo, and in 1994, a César Award for Best Actor for his role in Smoking/No Smoking.
Although his work has primarily been in French film and theater, Arditi is known in the Anglophoneworld as the French voice of Christopher Reeve. Arditi dubbed Christopher Reeve on the French-language version of the three first Superman movies by Richard Donner and Richard Lester (See the French Wikipedia article on Pierre Arditi for more information). Because of the added footage in the DVD Special Edition of Donner's Superman, the movie had to be re-dubbed with a different voice actor, much to the chagrin of the generation of moviegoers who had grown up with the original soundtrack and identified Superman's voice with Arditi's. He also provided the French voice for Reeve in the comedy/whodunit Deathtrap. Finally, he was the voice of the documentary serieUntamed Africa, written and produced by Frederic Lepage.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Quick Phrase of the Day - I Like This Artisit's Work
Repeat this phrase all day long till you know it by heart.
Vocabulary word of the day:
le grenier (leh greh nee ay) -the attic
Ma maison a un grand grenier (mah may zohn ah uhn grahn greh nee ay) -My house has a big attic
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Children's Word of the Day -Bench
Kids, when see a bench, say "un banc"
Monday, July 13, 2009
Quick Phrase of the Day
Okay since it a holiday, we are skipping any lessons today. Everyone (kids too) wish everyone you know "Joyeux Quatorze Juillet" today (July 14th).Regular postings wil continue tomorrow.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Must See French Film - Purple Noon
Purple Noon (French: Plein Soleil, aka Full Sun or Blazing Sun) is a 1960 film directed byRené Clément, based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, and starring Alain Delon in his first major movie.
Purple Noon was lauded by critics and made Delon a star. In 1962, Clément and Paul Gégauff won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Foreign Film Screenplay. It enjoys a loyal cult following even today, with many fans including film director Martin Scorsese.
The movie has been cited as similar to Highsmith's novel in tone, style, and especially in the characterization of Tom Ripley. Out of all the actors who have played Ripley in movie adaptations of books in Highsmith's "Ripliad" series, many critics, including Highsmith herself, have called Delon's characterization the closest to her personal vision of the character: a charismatic sociopath who lies, murders, and manipulates without a shred of remorse.
This is a terrific version of the book, with a better slam bang ending then the American version starring Matt Damon.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Quick Phrase of the Day - This Car Runs Well
Repeat this phrase all day long till you know it by heart.
Vocabulary word of the day:
visage (vee sahz) - face
je ne peux pas voir son visage (zhuh neh poo pah vwahr sohn vee sazh) -I can't see his face
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Children's Word of the Day - Pail
Kids, when you see a pail, point to it and say, "un seau"
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