Kids, when you see a scarecrow, point to it and say, "un épouvantail"
Kids, when you see a bow and arrow, say, "un arc et flèche"
Kids, when you see a tree branch, point to it and say, "une branche"
An article I read today:
PARIS (Reuters) – True to their reputation as leisure-loving gourmets, the French spend more time sleeping and eating than anyone else among the world's wealthy nations, according to a study published Monday.
The average French person sleeps almost nine hours every night, more than an hour longer than the average Japanese and Korean, who sleep the least in a recent survey.
Despite their siesta habit, Spaniards rank only third in the poll after Americans, who sleep more than 8.5 hours.
And while more and more French people grab a bite at fast-food chains these days or wolf down a sandwich at their desk, they still spend more than two hours a day eating.
That means their meals are twice as long as those of the average Mexican, who dedicates just over an hour a day to food, the OECD's "Society at a Glance" report on work, health and leisure in Asia, Europe and North and South America found.
Kids, when you see a whale at the aquarium or whale watching, say "une baleine"
Babar the Elephant is a very popular French children's fictional character who first appeared in Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff in 1931 and enjoyed immediate success. An English language version, entitledThe Story of Babar, appeared in 1933 in Britain and also in the United States. The book is based on a tale that Brunhoff's wife, Cecile, had invented for their children. It tells of a young elephant called Babar who leaves the jungle, visits a big city, and returns to bring the benefits of civilization to his fellow elephants. Then he comes back and becomes king of the kingdom. He then has children and teaches them valuable lessons.
Jean de Brunhoff published six more stories before his premature death in 1937 at the age of 37. His sonLaurent de Brunhoff was also a talented writer and illustrator, and from 1946 onwards he carried on the series with Babar et Le Coquin d'Arthur and many more.
Simon made her screen debut in Le Chanteur inconnu (The Unknown Singer, 1931), and quickly established herself as one of the country's most successful film actresses. After seeing her in the 1934 film Lac Aux Dames (USA title: Ladies' Lake), Darryl F. Zanuck brought her toHollywood in 1936 with a widespread publicity campaign.
However her films for 20th Century Fox were only moderately successful. Among others, she was cast in the Janet Gaynor role in a remake of the beloved silent classic Seventh Heaven, which co-starred James Stewart and flopped. She also appeared as an eager child/woman in Ladies in Love, which starred Gaynor, Constance Bennett, and Loretta Young, a heavyweight lineup in which Simon's role left her little chance to compete effectively. Simon returned, dissatisfied, to France. There she appeared in the film La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) in 1938.
With the outbreak of World War II she returned to Hollywood and RKO Studios where she achieved her greatest successes in English language cinema with The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), and thehorror films Cat People (1942) and The Curse of the Cat People (1944).
These films, however, did not lead to greater success and she languished in mediocre films until the end of the war.
She returned to France to act, and appeared in La Ronde (Roundabout, 1950). Her film roles were few after this and she made her final film appearance in 1973.
She died in Paris, France on 22 February 2005, aged 94, from natural causes. The BBC mistakenly reported her age as 93,[1] by using the wrong year of birth (1911). A few days later, French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres issued a statement in which he extolled Simon's "charm, her irresistible smile. . . With Simone Simon's passing, we have lost one of the most seductive and most brilliant stars of the French cinema of the first half of the 20th century
