The other day at work I was confronted with my first real-life quiz de francias.
A French man who spoke no English (seriously, not a lick) came into the bank because he’d lost a Traveler’s check, & he wanted to see if we could assist him in tracking it down. I could understand bits and pieces of what he was saying, but he was obviously distraught and speaking quickly. When it came to responding, I was truly disappointed in myself. I didn’t have the words much less the conjugation skills to communicate with him.
So recently I’ve been trying to integrate not only language skills into my daily routine, but also aspects of French culture in order to keep myself motivated to study.
Par (for) Example: Today Don & I had lunch at our favorite French restaurant, Brasserie Du Vin, and then continued the French themed Saturday by watching Prete-moi ta main (“i do”) a light hearted French comedy starring Charlotte Gainsboroug.
Concluding the day with all things Francais, I thought I’d share some Francophile image inspiration.
French actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg
And her parents, Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg
I plan on illustrating one of these for myself.
Can you imagine waking up to that view?
Doesn't get better than this.
I'd most certainly buy dried lavendar from Provance at the market.
This is what all city streets should look like.
Of course, if I lived in France I'd have a bike with a wine rack.
I am decidedly obsessed with living in France one day, and the cultural fascination helps facilitate my drive to learn the language. Hopefully next time I’m confronted with a translation I’ll be pleasantly surprised but for now a glass du vin serves as the perfect study aid!
You may have seen me post this link before (or maybe you already follow it), but I’m sure you’d love the Hip Paris blog http://hipparis.com/ which is devoted to all things French and beautiful.
I believe the blog is affiliated with a French apartment rental company whose website is addicting in itself– http://haveninparis.com. Dangerously addicting to me :b
It’s great that you’re working on your French language skills! I know you’ve mentioned taking French classes in college–I assume you did that at an intermediate or advanced level? I did French for my 2 required foreign language classes and would have loved to advance further.
I actually found Hip Paris on your blog roll a few weeks ago & I love it! (the blogroll is still a feature I unfortunately can’t figure out for my own blog, there are so many including yours I’d like to share)
I took intermediate French in grad but I’m still pretty slack since I use it so infrequently. It’s such a beautiful language though so it keeps me coming back for more!
Candace! It’s your long lost bestie Alyssa!! I sent you an email via this website but haven’t heard anything from you…please get in touch with me soon, I miss you! xoxo
My BESTIE! I miss you, so glad to hear from you – I just replied to your email & hope to talk to you soon <3