Children's Word of the Day - Spoon

Kids, when you use a spoon, point to it and say, "une cuillère"

French Film For People Who Don't Like Subtitles

Irma La Douce is a 1963 comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.

The film version of Irma La Douce (which means "Irma the Sweet") tells the story of Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon), an honest policeman who finds a street full of prostitutes in a popular area in Paris. After reporting the ladies to the police inspector, who has been aware of those prostitutes but lets them off by accepting bribes, he fires Nestor. Drowning his sorrows at the local bar, Chez Moustache, Nestor becomes close friends with Irma La Dolce (Shirley MacLaine), a popular prostitute. After Irma dumps her pimp boyfriend, Nestor moves in with her, and he soon finds himself as Irma's new pimp.

Although it was filmed on a Hollywood set, it does take place in Paris, and is a fun film to enjoy.

Special Phrase of the Day -Happy Valentine's Day

And along with that remember to say, "Je t'aime" (zheh tehm) -I Love You

Children's Word of the Day - Raisons

Kids when you see some raisons, say "des raisins sec"

Camille - French Singer

Camille Dalmais, better known as Camille (born in 1978 in Paris, France), is a French singer,songwriter and occasional actress.

Camille was born and raised in Paris, France. As a teenager she studied ballet and developed an interest in bossa nova music and American stage musicals. She attended the prestigiousLycée Henri-IV where she obtained an arts degree. Thanks to her mother being an English teacher, she grew up learning to speak English fluently. She performed her first original song "Un Homme Déserté" at the age of sixteen while attending a wedding. In the early 2000s, while performing at jazz clubs in Paris, Camille made her acting début in the film Les Morsures de l'Aube (by Antoine de Caunes; with Asia Argento and Guillaume Canet). She also contributed to the song "La Vie la Nuit" in its soundtrack.

Answer To Yesterday's Guess Who

Marion Cotillard (born September 30, 1975) is a French actress who has appeared in almost forty films and television since 1993.

Born into an acting family, Cotillard started on the stage as a child and during her teens progressed from roles in television to cinema. By the end of the 1990s she had achieved notability as a French cinema actress in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) and Taxi (1998), and was seen by a wider audience in such films as Big Fish(2003) and A Very Long Engagement (2004), for which she received a César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007) brought international acclaim, and multiple awards including a BAFTA, a César Award, and a Golden Globe. With this film, she became the first actress to win an Academy Award for a French language performance.

Cotillard has expressed interest in environmental causes, and has served as a spokesperson forGreenpeace. She is currently the companion of actor/director Guillaume Canet.

Children's Phrase of the Day - Butter

Kids, when you see some butter, point to it and say "du beurre"

Guess Who

Gues who this famous french person is.

Answer will be posted tomorrow.

Children's Word of the Day -Scissors

Kids, when you see some scissors, point to them and say "les ciseaux"

Pierre Corneille -French Playright

Pierre Corneille (June 6, 1606 – October 1, 1684) was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth Century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. He has been called “the founder of French tragedy” and produced plays for nearly forty years.

Le Cid is the famous tragicomedy written by Pierre Corneille and published in 1636. It is based on the legend of El Cid.

The play followed Corneille's first true tragedy, Médée, produced in 1635. An enormous popular success, Corneille's Le Cid was the subject of a heated polemic over the norms of dramatic practice known as the Querelle du Cid. Cardinal Richelieu's Académie Française acknowledged the play's success, but determined that it was defective, in part because it did not respect the classical unities.

The play focuses on Don Rodrigue and Chimène. Rodrigue's father, Don Diègue, is the old upstart general of medieval Spain and past his prime, whereas Chimène's father is the successful current general, Comte de Gormas. Rodrigue and Chimène love each other, but any chance ofmarriage is brutally disturbed when Chimène's father insults Rodrigue's father. Torn between his love for Chimène and his duty to avenge his father's honour, Rodrigue chooses the latter and faces the general in a duel in which Comte Gormas is killed. Without denying her love, Chimène asks the King for Rodrigue's head.

When the Moors attack, Rodrigue gets the chance to redeem himself in the eye of the nation, and, more importantly, gets a chance to win back Chimène with honour still satisfied. His victories on the battlefield win him the renown of the people, the title of "the Cid," and the gratitude of the King.

Chimène then approaches the King to request that one of his knights duel with Rodrigue for her sake, with the goal of bringing her Rodrigue's head. Although Chimène dislikes her champion, she agrees to marry whoever is the victor of the duel to the death. The King agrees to the duel unhappily (he does not want to risk losing Rodrigue).

Rodrigue speaks to Chimène privately, saying that he will not defend himself against what is symbolically "her" hand. She finally persuades him to do his best, because if he wins, they will marry.

After the duel, Chimène's champion, carrying a bloody sword, comes to where she is waiting. Chimène assumes the worst without giving him the chance to speak. Going before the king, she finally feels free to confess her love for Rodrigue because she believes him to be dead. The champion then explains that Rodrigue disarmed him (the champion) and granted him mercy. After the duel, Rodrigue returned straight to the king, leaving the champion to bring Rodrigue's sword to Chimène.

Although they love each other, Chimène and Rodrigue are reluctant to marry because of their history, but the king says that although it seemed impossible at first, circumstances have proven that they were meant to be together. Still, he realizes they need time to adapt. Chimène will set the date for the wedding, up to a year in advance. Meanwhile, Rodrigue, known as the Cid, will conduct a war against the Moors in their own territory.

Children's Word of the Day - Envelope

Kids, when you see an envelope, point to it and say "une enveloppe"

Benoît Lecomte - French Long Distance Swimmer

Benoît Lecomte (born 1967) is a French long distance nageur who was the first homme to swim across the Atlantic Ocean without a kick board in 1998. Benoit did this to raise argent for cancer research as a tribute to his father. During his 3,716 mile journey in 73 days, he was followed by a support bateau that had an electromagnetic field for 25 feet to ward off sharks. He did, however, still encounter sea turtles, dolphins, and jellyfish.

The amazing feat took him 72 days, with 6-8 hours spent swimming chaque jour in sessions of about two hours' length. He was accompanied by associates in a boat, where he could rest and eat between each swimming period. The swim extended from Hyannis, Massachusetts to Quiberon, Brittany, France. He stopped for 1 week in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. He achieved the goal in 72 days.

Lecomte's swim averaged 51.6 miles a day, at 8 hours a day this is about 9 minutes 18 seconds per mile.

nageur (nah zhoor) -swimmer             homme (ohm) -man              argent (ahr zhan) -money

bateau (bah toh) -boat               chaque jour (shahk zhoor) -each day

Children's Word of the Day -A Watch

Kids, when you see a watch, point to it and say "une montre"

Amédée Ozenfant -French Cubist Painter

Amédée Ozenfant (15 April 1886 – 4 May 1966) was a French cubist painter.

He was born into a bourgeois family in Saint-Quentin, Aisne and was educated at Dominican

colleges in Saint-Sébastien. After completing his education he returned to Saint-Quentin and began painting in watercolour and pastels.

In 1904 he attended a drawing course run by Jules-Alexandre Patrouillard Degrave at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin Quentin Delatour in Saint-Quentin. In 1905 he travelled to Paris, where he studied the decorative arts

Children's Word of the Day - Frying Pan

Kids, when you see a frying pan, say "une poêle"

Jacques Tati - French Filmaker

Jacques Tati (October 9 1907–November 5 1982) was a noted French comedic filmmaker. He was born Jacques Tatischeff, the son of Russian father Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff and Dutchmother Marcelle Claire Van Hoof, in Le Pecq, Yvelines, and died in Paris.

After a career as a professional rugby player, Tati found success as a mime in French music halls. In the late 1930s Tati recorded some of his early supporting cameos on film with some success and thus began his career as a filmmaker. One of his short films, L'École Des Facteurs (The School for Postmen) provided material for his first feature, Jour de fête. His films have little audible dialogue, but instead are built around elaborate, tightly-choreographed visual gags and carefully integrated sound effects. In all but his very last film, Tati plays the lead character, who - with the exception of his first and last films - is the gauche and socially inept Monsieur Hulot. With his trademark raincoat, umbrella and pipe, Hulot is among the most memorable comic characters in cinema. There exist several recurrent themes in Tati's comedic work, most notably in Mon Oncle, Playtime and Trafic: they include Western society's obsession with material goods, particularly American-style consumerism, the pressure-cooker environment of modern society, the superficiality of relationships among France's various social classes, and the cold and often impractical nature of space-age technology and design.

Peter Mayle - Novels of France

Must Read Books - The Novels Of Peter Mayle

A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle

This is a wonderfully written book that anyone who is thinking of moving or visiting France should read. It is the author's chronicle of how he chucked he normal life & moved to the south of France with his wife. He describes month by month of the things he encountered owning a cottage in France, the french people, shopkeepers, and the locals he met with everyday. A must read for anyone who loves France.

Be sure to rent the dvd of the PBS series version of the book, it also was very enjoyable, and a good way of hearing french spoken, as the husband doesn't speak much, so he is constantly trying to communicate with the french locals.

Also good books by Mayle about France:

Toujours Provence

Chasing Cézanne

Hotel Pastis

A Good Year

Must See French Film - Le Poulos

French new wave icon Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as Silien, a poker-faced crook who may or may not have squealed on newly sprung gangster Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) in this ice-cool noir from the great Jean-Pierre Melville. Fedoras, trench coats, dark alleys and jazz pervade this intricate crime drama, which features a virtuoso eight-minute interrogation scene -- done in a single take -- that was a highlight of Melville's remarkable career.

Book to Read - "Ghosthunter: A Journey through Haunted France "

Sir Simon Marsden is the kind of man you'd want around a campfire—his deep and resonant voice conveys the perfect combination of gallantry and intrigue that makes a good ghost story get under your skin. And what ghost stories he has! In pursuit of his lifelong passion, he has traversed the globe capturing images of the supernatural in his signature, atmosphere-charged photographs. His latest work documents fifty haunted sites in France, from the burial place of Paris's finest in the Père Lachaise cemetery, to the Sun King's Château de Versailles, and from the eerie abbey of the Mont St. Michel to the châteaux that dot the harsh landscape of the Pyrenees. France is rich in lore surrounding the Knights Templar, and Marsden has featured their stories prominently in this collection of indelible images.

Each mysterious site has a tale behind it that is brought to life not only by Marsden's spectacular photography but also by his narrative that is worthy of a suspense novel. The personal experiences of this spellbinding storyteller will inspire fellow ghosthunters and convince the staunchest skeptic to reconsider the supernatural world. 

Renaud - French Singer

Renaud Séchan, known as Renaud, born in Paris on May 11, 1952, is a popular French singer.

His early work is characterized by a volatile temperament, innovative use of French, and edgy, dark, left-wing social and political themes. Raised in an educated milieu, the son of an intellectual, Renaud adopted the looks and attitude of working-class youth in the 1970s, and reflected this in his lyrics. A recurrent theme is his disgust for the average French people with petit-bourgeois preoccupations and right-wing leanings. His music focuses on the disparity between classes, the abuse of political power, overbearing authority and disgust for the military, with rare glimpses of tenderness for his fellow humans, the planet earth, and art. His song Miss Maggie praised the kindness of women with the markedly ironic exception of Margaret Thatcher.

Renaud's later work is distinguished by "softer" subjects such as his wife (later ex-wife) Dominique, his daughter Lolita and his friends, as well as the late comedian and singer Coluche for whom he wrote the tribute "Putain de camion" ("Bloody Lorry") after Coluche's death in a road accident. He has also ventured into regional music and language, such as the language of Marseille in La Belle de Mai, the north withRenaud cante el' nord and even Corsican polyphonics in "Lolito lolita". After a dry spell marked by an addiction to alcohol, he made a comeback hit with his album "Boucan d'enfer" in 2002. He also tackled current issues by drawing a parallel between a victim of the 9-11 attacks in New York and an Afghan girl, both victims of a war they don't understand "Manhattan-Kaboul" (in duo with Axelle Red).

Several of his songs can be classified as long-lasting hits in France, including the sea tale "Dès que le vent soufflera", the irreverent "Laisse béton", the ballad "Morgane de toi" and the nostalgic "Mistral gagnant". With the possible exception of franglais recording of It is not because you are, his work is almost unknown outside the French-speaking world.