tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-215955692024-03-07T07:05:37.570+01:00C'est intéressantle petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-58721425366702852402011-07-31T15:57:00.006+02:002011-07-31T16:20:30.868+02:00Amuse bouche and beyondAlso known as "amuse gueule" and normally never seen on a menu- it's a great way to start a French meal. An amuse bouche is a complimentary tasty tidbit from the chef that precedes the first course. For me it's always a pleasant surprise that leaves me and my appetite grateful but anticipating the meal with greater impatience. Mangeons!The amuse bouche (pictured above) is a frothy melon creation le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-74450987979374649042011-05-21T19:22:00.009+02:002011-05-21T19:41:29.928+02:00Les parapluies des CherbourgI picked up this film accidentally and almost put it back on the racks after I read that it was a musical. For all my love of Nouvelle Vague, the director Jacques Demy unfortunately did not ring a bell. Fortunately, I decided to borrow the movie from my local library and watched it. The film started with a beautiful shot of the seaside town of Cherbourg (now known as Cherbourg-Octeville), le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-20313394746740543072011-05-12T03:08:00.000+02:002011-05-13T22:30:29.272+02:00Free online Food Photography course: May 13-15, 2011A good French meal is a feast for the eyes and a discriminating palate. I've gotten into the habit of taking photographs of my French meals as a nice remembrance of what I ate and where I've been. With every French meal I have I strive to learn more about French cuisine and the art of photography.This weekend there's a chance to learn about Food Photography from a professional: photojournalist le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-27160730398575447752011-05-03T15:11:00.005+02:002011-05-04T14:39:40.167+02:00Eric et été: Le rayon vertAs I make my way through my "recommencer" alphabet - I'm lingering on "E": In this case Eric Rohmer of cinematic Nouvelle Vague fame and été of sun & fun fame. The prizewinning film Le rayon vert, or Summer as it's known in the United States was released in 1986 as part of the series "Comedies et Proverbs" directed by Rohmer. If you aren't a fan of either Eric Rohmer or Nouvelle Vague then le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-47174621777729189782011-04-05T11:04:00.007+02:002011-04-05T11:40:43.501+02:00"French is the language that turns dirt into romance."Anu Garg starts his "A Word a Day" e-mail with this quote from Stephen King and then goes on to give the definition of the now English word "soubrette" which was borrowed from the French. It has one meaning in French, a maid, but two additional uses in English: a flirtatious young woman or a soprano in a supporting role in a comic opera. He is devoting this week to featuring five words used inle petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-81586094848413612972010-12-09T18:27:00.005+01:002010-12-09T18:34:33.688+01:00Photo Duet: ChillLast day of this week's Photo Friday Theme: Chill. Stepping out for a few quick errands today and "brrrr" - the weather in my corner of the world is in line with the theme.I'm racing to get the photos (three in one) posted but wait- chill! Or rather du calme!gauche Chill in the air, on the trees, on the rooftops... A Taninges, France en fevrier 2009. Photo p_ff. droite "Chillin under the gun" Inle petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-80631102387936481782010-11-28T00:58:00.004+01:002010-11-28T01:06:56.660+01:00E is for EquipierAnother French film and hâllo again to Sandra Bonnaire. I'm not obsessed with Sandra Bonnaire but I think someone at my local library might be. In fact, I'd seen this DVD with Sandra Bonnaire on a bicycle with a warm smile many times before. I would consider watching the movie but in the end, I had always passed it up because of the lighthouse pictured in the background. It seemed to me that it le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-82727970555687570442010-10-31T13:56:00.007+01:002010-10-31T14:09:07.917+01:00...des histoires pour s'endormirAs I've failed at attaining and improving French grammar through osmosis, I've decided to accept the inevitability of learning French grammar. So I'm back to doing some self-study and homework "by the book". This week started out with a bit of grammar ("de") and I've delved a little deeper. What I've come up with is that uses and rules of "de" and "des" feel very innumerable to me at the moment le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-25157312208990506482010-10-25T19:00:00.004+02:002010-10-25T19:11:25.664+02:00D is for "de"My learning French is supposed to be fun so I avoided grammar as much as I could. I thought I could absorb the rules and intuitively construct sentences correctly through weekly conversations with my French teacher, listening to some podcasts, watching videos and movies and reading. What I've learned in the past twelve weeks though is that there is only so much I can learn without learning le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-12646058303074965092010-10-21T23:41:00.005+02:002010-10-21T23:52:48.995+02:00Photo Duet: WarpedThat KK and Petit Foufou happen to have children featured in this week's "Warped" theme of Photofriday.com is totally coincidental. KK chose her picture without seeing mine- and indeed, I took my picture earlier today without seeing hers. Medieval Day Care - Octobre 2004 - Cathar Region, Languedoc (Queribus castle ruin inserted into the background) kk: Image portrays why my decision not to be ale petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-2965905189173952972010-10-10T00:08:00.008+02:002010-10-10T12:52:48.583+02:00Photo Duet: BurgundyBurgundy is a place, a wine and a color. For this week's Photofriday assignment, kk and I both go for bordeaux instead of the the place or wine: La Bourgogne and le bourgogne, respectively. gauche - Pink to Burgundy Dans un bureau de poste quelque part en le Lot, un département de la région Midi-Pyrénées. Mai, 2009 p_ff droite - Mother and Child Molded plastic chairs as seen in a shop le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-25750087188212543442010-09-25T18:07:00.005+02:002010-09-25T18:19:45.690+02:00C partie duex: chefs-d'oeuvre, Centre Pompidou-MetzQu'est-ce qu'un chef-d'oeuvre? Well that's the question upon which the inaugural exhibition of the recently opened Centre Pompidou-Metz is trying to answer. There's a lot to see: over 700 works of art are on display. I was pleased encounter some of my favorites art objects, discover work I wasn't familiar with from favorite artists as well as see something totally new to me. It is an le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-24218043589195196832010-09-20T16:34:00.008+02:002010-09-20T17:11:56.637+02:00C est pour Claude Chabrol, cérémonie et chocolatC est pour (partie une): Claude Chabrol, cérémonie et chocolatWhat a mouthful. Where to start?If it's about the nouvelle vague then Chabrol. If you're hard-core about your devotion to French New Wave cinema, then you know that Paris-born director Claude Chabrol's film Le beau Serge (1958) is credited with starting the movement. I was totally unaware of that before today. My introduction to le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-31694490681493910792010-09-16T01:50:00.006+02:002010-10-10T00:24:56.459+02:00Photo Duet: DaybreakBefore this week's photofriday.com theme changes- the photo duo strikes again. Metz, Septembre 2010 p_ff: Yes, I snoozed through the official start of daybreak at 7:07 am last Sunday in France. I must admit, je n'ai jamais été une personne matinale. Still, morning person or not, I managed to catch some traces of daybreak: a vestige of warm sunrise colors in the clouds, the empty streets, the "le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-16019683250884355932010-09-10T23:50:00.004+02:002010-09-11T00:11:16.259+02:00Continuons: B - partie deuxB est pour Boudu sauvé des eauxAt first I was going to just write about the film Boudu starring Gerard Depardieu that was released in 2005. Until I found out that it was actually a remake. And not even the first. In fact, in 1986, Nick Nolte starred in American director Paul Mazursky's version: Down and Out in Beverly Hills. I tracked down the original and the director is no less than the son of le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-27373439012180485882010-09-04T17:10:00.007+02:002010-09-04T17:40:41.914+02:00Continouns: B - partie une --> Belle de JourB is for Belle de Jour I'd heard of this movie many years before I watched it just a few days ago. I didn't know much about it except that it was French, starred Catherine Deneuve and was about a housewife turned prostitute. On my previous visits to the local library I had decided against renting it out even though it was directed by famous and critically acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Luis le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-7683293220103166322010-08-30T15:44:00.007+02:002010-10-10T00:24:56.459+02:00Photo Duet: ChaudFor this week's photo duet - en fait, for all future photo duets: a photo taken/chosen by theme that relates to a Francophone country. Haut: Punaise arlequin à Rocamadour, France. Mai 2009. A striped shield bug basking in the sun of Rocamadour. Rocamadour was a popular destination for medieval pilgrims, more recently it's been reported to attract more than 1 million visitors a year. It's le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-85974129780079259982010-08-24T23:01:00.020+02:002010-10-10T00:24:56.460+02:00Photo duet: La RueLa Rue est le theme de cette semaine sur Photo Friday and it's the theme of my photo duet with "KK" with one other criteria: our photo must be related to France. We dug into our archive and selected our photos independently et voilá:gauche- a street in Saint Paul de Vence, June 2008 An exceptionally empty street in Saint Paul de Vence where painters like Marc Chagall and writers like Jacques le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-45218725646759287372010-08-17T23:01:00.007+02:002010-08-24T23:54:44.472+02:00Restarting at AThe theme of recommencer continues... A is for ailleurs/elsewhere"Mon père continue à conduire en regardant droit devant lui, ma mère est déjà ailleurs." The mot of note from this week's French lesson is ailleurs and is from a children's book that I'm reading peu à peu with my French teacher. When I've finished the book, I'll divulge the the title, author and illustrator. A is for le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-82012396440337859932010-08-06T19:04:00.008+02:002011-05-03T15:19:32.448+02:00I DoI did take a break from French lessons, but as evidenced by the past posts- not from chocolat. I'm back now and restarting my efforts to go beyond the level of debutante and reach intermédiare: j'ai recommencé à prendre des leçons de français et à regarder des films en français. I'm back to weekly lessons albeit sans devoirs. I'd love to view French movies in lieu of the weekly homework so I le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-5206787568322999442010-05-03T14:24:00.009+02:002010-05-03T14:44:24.124+02:00Bite-sizedMy fellow francophiles, it does look like I'm gaining more knowledge about chocolates made by companies located in French-speaking countries more than the French language itself. Admittedly my tongue has been more busy with chocolate than French conjugations. On my most recent trip to New York to visit my favorite nephew – fellow francophile and chocolate lover – we both could not resist le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-81991189034350314862009-12-23T20:37:00.008+01:002010-01-29T12:54:52.683+01:00Furanza!November- you wonder what happened to me? I was on vacation, but getting my fill of French. So there I am in Tokyo and it seems to me that every pâtisserie is French- or at least has a French name: Bon Dessert, St. Germain, La Pêche-Blanc... There are ALOT of pâtisseries that also double as a café. On the other hand when I walk into cafés and ask for the menu- it's not uncommon to see the le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-14438133121812330942009-10-29T17:54:00.009+01:002009-10-29T18:09:57.190+01:00"Come and get them!"Always on the look out for tasty chocolate even when I should actually be looking out for Balkavas or Kataefi. I am in Greece after all. In Athens, against the backdrop of the Acropolis, I spot a chocolaterie: Leonidas. Aha, I thought, time to check out Greek chocolate. I'm in the middle of picking out an assortment to fill a little golden box when I notice "Fresh Belgian Chocolates" written le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-18400598268587833652009-10-10T21:24:00.015+02:002009-12-23T20:37:42.793+01:00Michel CluizelJ'aime le chocolat mais je ne suis pas hanté par lui. Still, in almost every article or the one book (see how cursory my knowledge is) I've read about chocolate the French chocolatier Michel Cluizel is mentioned as producing one of the best chocolates in the world.Today, my tastebuds know why: Grand Noir, 85% cocoa.I didn't go to Paris to get the chocolate. I got it in Frankfurt at:Bitter &le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21595569.post-84686090198827877452009-08-25T12:31:00.009+02:002009-08-26T13:53:10.075+02:00Pour les intellectuelsIn the late 1980's there was an anti-drug television and poster campaign that was all over America: This is Your Brain on Drugs. Vous rappelez-vous? It involves an egg and a frying pan. A man shows us an egg and says "This is your brain". He shows us the frying pan and says "This is drugs". He cracks open the egg and drops it into the very hot frying pan and says "This is your brain on drugs. le petit foufouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13005940972927406902noreply@blogger.com0