Words go around and so did the pig

The party on Saturday night will be outside and a pig has been put on the spit it will take all day to cook.

A light wind blows, and as we drink coffee, we watch some dandelion clocks fly past the pig. The French word for Dandelion is Pissenlit. Now this is strange to me because the English call the flower Dandelion which has its origins in French. Here is a link in French.

And so now I understand that it is the leaf shape that gives the flower its name. A lovely French lady tells me that the name for Dandelion clock is Etoile Vivante, however later MOH tells me that she said Etoile de vent. Well I prefer the first. In the French dictionary the fluffy dandelion clock is aigrettes which is a plume.

Friday

This weeks paper shows a picture of President Sarkozy who made a visit to nearby Laval which is in Mayenne. The government is trying to help get the unemployed back to work. However with the military cutbacks the closing of the 42nd Regiment de Transmissions (Signals) is also a cause for concern. Also an article about the introduction of pinball machines and darts leagues Flechette to help the cafe's and bars who have lost money since the smoking bans where introduced in January.

I went over to Laval in June this year here are a couple of photographs.

Turn the page

After a few tidy up tasks, we pile into a big red van. A trip to the shops. En route we stop and pull up alongside a tractor we are now blocking the road (but around here it is not a big problem) and my friend chats to a farmer, or should I say shouts. There is a party on Saturday and she is inviting him and his family.

We pull into a supermarket car park and have a good laugh, the van has just stalled, my friend felt around the ignition and at first couldnt find the keys and wondered if the keys were at home. After we stop laughing we enter the store order lots of bread, and fill a trolley with several boxes of sparkly wine to make many glasses of Kir. The staff are very helpful. Onwards to the next shop to buy colourful paper covers for tables. Shop number 3 we fill another 3 shopping trolleys, this is to be a great party. The party thrower chats to a man who is waiting for the till to open he needs an euro!!!! He waits patiently and is very jovial.

The party is to celebrate a new start. nouveau commencement. The French word for laugh is here

Tidy Up

Tuesday, time for a tidy up we have had so much rain the garden is needing a little attention. I cut the grass around the veg plot and start to clip the hedge. But then what do I see just inches away from where i have set down the shears on the top of the hedge. We watch him for several minutes and then suddenly he flew away and landed on my bay tree.........wizz....If you like these green chaps click on the pictures.

Monday back to Normal

The village is covered in confetti which was thrown yesterday, it became stuck onto everyone because of the rain. Paper flowered "trees" are dismantled and the quietness of the village returns. People are going back to work after the August holidays and all the publicity is "back to school", September is only around the corner. Even things in the garden have slowed down except for the courgettes....

Fete de les Fleurs

Sunday 24th August, the weather didnt look promising. People are out in the streets dressing trees and window frames and stringing up paper flower decorations and so I remove lots of passion flowers and dress up the metal railings. Some nice people bring me some paper flowers to add to the decoration. The village only has the fete every 10 years so its sad that all their efforts are soaked in the pouring rain.

Saturday Morning

I am hoping that the weather is good for the Comice agricole in the village today, then its the Fete des Fleurs on Sunday. Meanwhile Its Saturday morning and I am listening to music, here is a nice video which I just watched on Virgin Channel on French tv

Not a bad day at all and I really enjoyed looking at the Breton Horses

French TV

Today I am looking at the tv guide that comes with the weekly paper. This tv film caught my eye. Quite a lot of Brits will not or do not watch French tv, it has a bit of a bad reputation, however there are some really excellent programmes and films if you only look hard enough.

TF2 have made a tele film about Louise Michel, there is a huge amount in Wikipedia about her here. She was in and out of prison but kept her mind very active read this about a prison visit I found it very interesting. I think Louise icône révolutionnaire was a bit of a character!. The actress playing the role of Louise is Sylvie Testud. The French use the word comédienne which is very misleading. Don't sit down expecting to watch a comedy!

Tragedy for the families, and the Legion d'honneur

Today Thursday I watched on lunchtime tv the ceremony for the 10 dead French soldiers, killed last week in Afghanistan. There is criticism that the soldats were too young and inexperienced. The ten soldiers are given the Legion d'Honnour.........A link with a write up here on Wikipedia. It was a very sombre and sad affair, I guess that the very nature of war requires young people who are fit to fight for their country and go where the politicians decide to deploy troops. A picture of where part of the ceremony took place here

It is sad for the families but I guess that when you sign up to fight for your country then this has to be accepted that you may die young. The French word for sad is triste.

I wonder what the National flower of France is? Link for Flower. Here is an Iris which flowered in my French garden this year.

Warm up to La Baker

If the weather is a little less than summery and you have the energy then watch this video. This clip is dedicated to my friend Caroline who cannot wait to move abroad to warmer climes!
Here is one of my favorites...old clips are shown on French tv from time to time. What a girl she must have been!

Link to wikipedia here La Baker

Preparing for winter

This week its bedroom tidy week. What am I doing indoors...yeah well it is like autumn outside. The cupboards look tidy but they are a bit like my desk at school it always looked tidy, but underneath was chaos! Bit like my head too! Tidy up time needs to be now because in the winter you need two overcoats to spend much time sorting out upstairs!. Now I just looked up the French word for overcoat and it gave me a word that i have never heard before! I think the word manteau is more common!

I looked at the summer clothes that I haven't worn much, and organised my fleeces for the oncoming cold weather!!. Even the publicity in the post box is full of back to school so it feels like summer is nearly finished, and yet I hadn't noticed summer arrive.

Outside it has been raining again for the umpteenth time this afternoon. This morning however we were lucky to get a walk in the forest with not a drop of rain.

A lot of my photographs in the forest have a nice blue green tinge and that is due to the numerous holly trees around putting that colour into the background.

Monday 18th

I have a problem when the weather is unexpectedly gloomy. I get glum. I find the dark days in the winter can get me down too, but perhaps we are all the same? Anyway today I spent the day sorting through paperwork, and a couple of cupboards upstairs. Sadly that made me feel better. I think that I can use the word arrangement for arranging paperwork.

I fired up a very old laptop and loaded "Talk to me" software, how sad is that? No I was trying to see if my French had improved! I was playing the role of Frank and had to shout my French at the PC several times before I could be heard or understood! Just like real life haaa.

I hope that the weather will be good at the weekend for the Fete de fleurs, it only happens in our village every 10 years!

Here is a picture of musicians at last years Fete in the nearby town.

Another lazy Sunday

Didn't do a great deal, a walk in the forest on the track nearest to our home. Sunday is always the day in the forest when the joggers and veloists get out for some exercise. Very occasionally there are horse riders although they tend not to use this side of the forest very much. Most people will say bonjour that is normal around here. The last time we saw any horse riders was months back when the trees had no leaves, it all looks very different now.

In the afternoon I do some weeding in the garden and spend time on the pc reading various blogs and have a look around the Brittany Friends forum. One of the forum members has a live web cam and I can see their Jack Russel dogs running in and out of their home. Later I prepare the evening meal, well actually all I do is boil some potatoes for a raclette. It proves to be a success and I think will be fun in the winter its like having a heater on the table!

One of the blogs I am starting to follow is The Woolly Shepherd's after reading it the other day I realised I didnt actually know what the word permaculture means!

Hello World!

Saturday morning I like to listen to the music on tv before going out walking, we only took the nearest track today and then we saw off in the distance a small deer.

It was probably a small female, she stopped and starred at us and then after a few minutes took off. The hunting season is starting soon and the hunters with their dogs will try to chase the deer in the forest two days per week until the spring.

Assumption Day

Today is Assumption day which may mean something to you if you are Catholic. At the moment the Dalai Lama is on a visit to France although the President is not meeting him. The French news is full of clips after Alain Bernard gets a gold medal. Alain is from Aubagne.

This morning in the forest I saw again some pretty pink flowers some of the plants are over 5 feet tall. I tried to find out what they might be and found something very similar. Trouble is the something similar is Joe Pye Weed from North America!!!!...Here is Wikipedia's Joe Pye

Thursday at home

A day at home today, the weather forecast was bad so I decide to tackle some indoor jobs. However it is fine first thing so we walk the dog in the forest and as soon as I get out of the car the sun is shining on this tree, and the light is blinding!

The French word briller is to shine.

A little further on we see plenty of mushrooms and some look like red apples.

Wednesday at the Market

A very unfortunate accident happened at my friends house which means that she needs to buy two more chooks. And so off to the market just over the border in Normandy we shall go. It is the best market around here. You can buy just about anything that you need.

I was glad that only two hens were required because I got the idea that the man would have happily put more into the tiny little box! We also walked to the other side of the market and purchased some plants for our vegetable gardens. At this time of year it is very busy and many tourists come to soak up the atmosphere.

The hens are a good buy for 7 euros each and the red cabbage for 3 euros. A good buy is bon marché.

Warm welcome

Tuesday was a walk in the forest with our dog followed by a quick lunch and then a drive to the other side of Rennes. The ringroad is know as a Rocade. Although it is holiday season the roads are still not congested like they are in the UK. An hour to drive there, a meeting for an hour, and an hour to drive back home.

The French word for a trafic jam is a bouchon like a cork in a bottle.

Of course on our return we are guaranteed a warm welcome from our dog (although actually all she wants to do is play ball)!

Friends

Monday was a visit to a special friends house. There were visitors en route to the port and another friend enroute to Normandy. Three young dogs chased around and had lots of fun. Two men tinkered with a tractor. Women prepared a meal and waited for an oven which was on a go slow. Still we all have our off days.

The French word to tinker with a vehicle is bricoler

This is a friendly house and although there is a bell it very rarely needs to be rung.

Lazy Sunday

Rather wet this morning but we managed a walk about 11am. I remembered to take a bag to collect some blackberries.......the french word for blackberry is mure, which sounds just like the word for wall mur. Le Mur also happens to be a favorite programme of mine, which I hope will return to teatime television after the summer holidays.

Decided to start another blog and so spent time fiddling around on the pc, which drove me up the wall!!

New route

Routes forestieres des fermetures.

Just to vary things a bit today, we took a different walk in the forest. Last night when we visited friendsthey showed us an article in the local rag (Chronique republicaine) about the roads in the forest, soon some of the routes may be closed for good to cars. However this will not affect us greatly as we can skirt around the forest park up and take a walk.

News Today

Friday 8th August The news, of course the Olympic games. Beijing 2008 The games open but the contestation grows..not really a suprise eh!

Commerce exterieur deficit colossol.

Doesnt sound good either.

Malgré les ventes d'Airbus the results are mauvais (bad). When asked why there were such bad results. Basically they blame it all on PETROL.

Missing people and paper flowers

Thursday afternoon was a visit to the shops to replenish the food and wine stocks. Thursday is a quiet time to go shopping because it is not market day. However remember that lots of our shops are closed until after lunch, so we have to make a plan and leave home just before 14.00hrs. The roads are quiet too. I have noticed that many of the houses are locked up because the owners are away. Shutters are closed and our village has been very quiet. Less lorries on the roads too.

So I guess that they are all on vacance? or is it congé?........anyway like I said its quiet and the shutters are down.
The village will liven up soon since we are to have the Feté de Fleurs it only happens every TEN years! Some people who have a holiday home here were horrified to hear that the flowers arnt real either...are they kidding!..they have been sticking paper flowers on the floats for months now.

The roses in the picture are real and flowered in my garden this year, pretty eh.

So if you have a Fete in the summer it has to be a festival!...estival

Frapper

Wednesday was a big tidy up in the garden. MOH arrives with a now unwanted mower from my brother, this makes it easier to cut the grass around the veg plots. The French word for tidy is propré but then I spotted this word soigner!!!..

Now you may know that the word for grass is gazon and so I was playing with my new hover mower or tondeuse.

The title of this post is Frapper, however I became very hot while I spruce up my veg plot, and needed a cool drink so I made a nice cool frappe. This is Greek for an iced coffee...but they wouldnt add the ice cream..its not necessaire.

A useful word

Moitié
This word is worth looking at since I have been awake since 5am this morning and so I am half awake, or half asleep. I have a glass of wine which is half empty or half full.

I spent half of the day doing chores in the house and then half of the day in the garden (jardin).
Half of me wants to keep gardening but the other half is saying feed me.

So I will make a half hearted attempt to throw some food together and eat.(don't worry I already fed the dog).
Moitié

Flies

The last couple of weeks I have been driven mad by flies. The French word for fly is mouche . Of course if you are going on holiday you sometimes get there via an aeroplane and fly. A special friend of mine uses those hanging down sticky spiral things..yeuk...Although recently I have even contemplated getting some!..Initially I tried the old fashioned methods of putting mint and herbs around the room and they worked. well for a while.
Here is a song about Zobi..


A bit differnt eh...here is some information about the Band LNV

Soleil

Didnt see any today, that soleil stuff...je suis triste!......it is grey and raining again. Here is a jolly summery song.

Un rayon de soleil
Dort sur tes cheveux longs
Sur nos corps de seigle
Et nous joue du violon

Un rayon de soleil
Sur le sommeil de plomb
Une guitare sèche
Nous ride à la maison

{Refrain: x2}
Un matin suspendu
Aux fleurs de ton jardin
Ma main sur ton p'tit cul
Cherche le chemin

Un rayon de soleil
J'embrasse tes pieds sales
Un disque de Marley
Joue "No woman, no cry"
No woman, no cry

{au Refrain, x2}

Par la fenêtre ouverte
L'air que nous respirons
Ses petites poussières
Si pâles d'émotion

Un rayon de soleil
Sur ton si beau visage
Aux abeilles se mêle
La voix de Bob Dylan

{au Refrain}

Un rayon de soleil
Tu te rhabilles pour de bon
J'te ramène par les tresses
A mon corps de garçon

Rain and Music

The weather is awful this morning so I guess that I am staying in. Bruine!! I am listening to some music on tv

Gloomy weather ............tristesse

News Today

A new European directive to keep the beaches clean, a picture showing a teenager with water to be analysed. The secretary of state presents the new system today.

Lorient have invited a male voice choir from Dowlais in Wales.
Dowlais Male voice choir (ci-contre), tenants d’une tradition bousculée par le jeaune géneration, comme le rappeur Aneirin Karadog lui aussi programmé.

So if I understand correctly the male voice choir are holders of a tradition but are pushed aside by the younger singers for example rappers. Personally I cannot stand rap music.

I havnt been to Lorient yet here is a link about the place and the festival....Lorient