In honor of Bastille Day I would like to share a little French musique:
Merci to one of my favorite “French bloggers”, French Essence, for sharing this lovely chanson.
French Friday – Dreaming of Paris
I just celebrated my 48th birthday and decided that I’m going to start planning for a 50th birthday trip to Paris. This is something I’ve always wanted to do and what better time? I pulled out an old calendar, cut out a picture of the Eiffel Tower and slipped it inside the cover of a 3-ring binder. This is where I will begin collecting pictures, travel articles, helpful hints and inspiration for my trip. I generally don’t like to tear pages from magazines but I’m going to start going through the magazines I’ve collected which have articles about France, cut them out and slip into plastic protector sheets in my “Paris Binder”.
I’m also going to check out what’s involved in getting a passport and get that done before the end of this year. Who knows? We might get a sudden opportunity to travel outside the country even before the Paris trip and it’s always good to be prepared, right?
Of course, I’ve long been saying I want to brush up and review the French I learned in high school and college. I have language CDs for the car and a demo version of the Rosetta Stone program which will give me a start. I also plan to listen to French music CDs and watch a lot of French films.
I took the first step today by designating a binder for the information I will collect. If you have any good suggestions for online articles, French blogs, books, films, music, etc. please do let me know. I suspect this will one of those instances in which the planning is half the fun.
French Friday
New Feature!
Today marks the beginning of what I plan to make a regular feature. I’m calling it “French Friday”. Some of you know that I am a Francophile. I have no idea how it started but for as long as I can remember I’ve loved the sound of the French language and am just totally enamored with all things French. One of my life-long dreams is to take a trip to Paris and I intend to make that happen.
In the meantime, I nurture my love of the French lifestyle in small ways. I read books set in France or about the French lifestyle. I cook some French foods. I watch French films (thank goodness for Netflix because there is a dearth of foreign films in our local video stores!). For several years I’ve been a member of a Yahoo group called “French Chic”. It’s a group of like-minded women sharing their love of the French lifestyle and helping one another to discover ways in which to add some of the French woman’s “je ne sais quois” to our own lives. The motto for the group is:
A French woman consciously designs her life,
and makes daily choices to carry out that design.
I think that sums up much of what appeals to me about the mythic French woman: The notion that she gives thought and care to the design of her life rather than simply allowing life to happen to her.
So what, precisely does that mean? Well, that’s what I’ll be exploring here on “French Fridays”. I have numerous books about the French lifestyle but one of my favorites is “Entre Nous: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl”. Over the next several weeks I’ll be sharing some thoughts from this book. If you are interested in following along, you can purchase a paperback copy for about $10 here. It’s a fun book with lots of suggestions for French books and movies interspersed throughout. If you are at all intrigued with what makes a French woman special, I highly recommend this book.
I have added a “French Inspiration” page to this blog (just under the header) and will be listing books, movies, music, recipes and links to other resources for all things French. If you have favorites you’d like to share, please let me know. And if you, too, are a Francophile and would like to host your own “French Friday” watch for the button and “mr. linky” coming soon. Or as soon as I figure it all out. 😉
Until next time, au revoir!
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