Photo Duet: Chill

Last 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"

In the waters of the Atlantic so it's "chilly chillin"

A Le Mans, France en août, 2002. Photo composé par KK.

chill - verbe transitif

mettre au frais make cold (food, wine)

vin blanc frais chilled white wine

frapper make cold (champagne)

glacer make cold (glass, person)

être glacé jusqu'aux os/jusqu'à la moelle

to be chilled to the bone/to the marrow

chill - verbe intransitif

se refroidir

rafraîchir chill out

chill - noun

la fraîchuer, la froideur coldness

il fait assez frais; un peu froid there's a chill in the air

son observation a jeté un froid dans l'assemblée

his remark cast a chill over the meeting

j'ai senti une certaine froideur dans son accueil

I sensed a certain chill in his welcome

chill out - verb intransitif

décompresser (familier)

du calme! chill out!

-- much, much more (definitions, audio for pronunciation, conjugation information) at www.larousse.com

Photo Duet: Warped

That 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 a mother was a good one. This seems a great idea to me!

Quand je serai grande...

21 octobre 2010 - Nord-Pas-de-Calais

p_ff: This poster at a roadside bus stop catches my eye and I would see the poster again a few times in town. I have to wonder- is this poster really speaking to little girls playing with dolls?

"Quand je serai grande, j'allaiterai mon bébé" When I grow up, I will breast-feed my baby

déformé warped

se déformer literally to become warped

figuratively (mind, humour) tordu

(personality, sexuality) perverti

(account, judgement, view) faussé

-from wordreference.com/concise oxford-hachette French Dictionary ©2005 Oxford University Press

www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com

Photo Duet: Burgundy

Burgundy 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 window. Colmar, septembre 2010. kk

La Bourgogne (proper noun); en Bourgogne

Burgundy (region in France); in Burgundy

le bourgogne

Red wine from the French region of Burgundy

(le) bordeaux

refers to the color: a deep purplish red

noun (masc) and adjective

-via wordreference.com but actually an entry from the Concise Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary © 2005 Oxford University Press

Photo Duet: Daybreak

Before 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 "night lights" spotlighting architectural features of the hotel still aglow. In the German Imperial District (city was ruled by Germany from 1871-1918) on our side of the Avenue Foch, from a fourth floor terrace: I was still enjoying the calm that is usually associated with the break of dawn.

Fain-lès-Montbard, Juin 2008

kk: An early morning peek through fogged windows at the rolling green lawn of the Château De Malaisy near Dijon suggests we are the only guests at this 17th century mansion turned hotel. June is still pre-tourist season in much of France, and the peace and quiet suits us just fine.

daybreak = die Morgendämmerung = l'aube (f), la pointe (f) du jour

-from the "Leo" online dictionary German to French (and English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Russian)

dict.leo.org

Photo Duet: Chaud

For 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 located in south-western France, about 100 miles north of Toulouse. You can't miss it: the town is partly built into a cliff. And the shield bug? It's actually a popular bug as well, originally from the Mediterranean and now commonly found in Central Europe, Southern Europe, Asia Minor and the Middle East. (p_ff)

Bas: Tafraout, Le Maroc. Mars 2008.

Mud-plastered, mud-brick high rise dwellings bake in the afternoon sun south of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The German tour group and I shoot snaps of crumbling windowns, peeling paint, black veil enschrouded women, and dozens of children. Teen boys chat us up and offer email addresses in the hope that one day they make the contact that gets them out into the modern world. Charmant, romantique, et triste... (kk)

www.tafraout.info

chaud, adjectif (adj): Il fait chaud aujourd'hui.

It's a warm day today

chaleureux, adj: Ils ont réservé un accueil chaleureux à Lucky Luke.

They gave Lucky Luke a warm reception.

chauffer, verbe transitif (vt) : Il s'est mis près de la cheminée pour se chauffer les mains.

He stood by the fireplace to warm his hands.

(faire) réchauffer, vt: Je vais faire réchauffer la soupe.

I'll warm the soup up.

se réchauffer, verbe intransitif: La pièce a enfin commencé à se réchauffer.

The room began to warm up at last.

-This and more from: Dictionnaire de Lucky Luke illustré; Editeur Fleurus

Ailleurs, this week's theme at the Anu Garg's English Word a Day website: Wordsmith.org is terms from French!

Photo duet: La Rue

La 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 Prévert once lived. It's not the captive chair that makes this street of the medieval, fortified town exceptional nor is it that artists and painters and international stars might have once walked upon it. For me, what makes it exceptional is that it's quiet and empty. Saint Paul de Vence reportedly attracts over 2.5 million tourists every year- and those streets are narrow! To me, Saint Paul de Vence is like one of the most charming outdoor malls you'll ever encounter- and it's "real". If I don't think of it that way, I am overwhelmed and a little saddened by the commercialism. (petit_foufou)

droite - a street in a wine village near Strasbourg (probably Riquewihr), late Spring 2007

I'm not a big fan of busy urban cityscapes. This is more my version of a pleasant street. I spent a pleasant hour or so noshing on flammkuchen and watching a stork in its nest atop one of the old timber-framed houses. Then I marched off the beer calories in the climb up to the local castle ruin. (kk)

The photographic vocabulary list goes on... (see tag photo friday) so here's an example phrase with the plural of today's photo theme:

"Courir les rues" means to run along the street. It's also the name of a French chanson swing band. Here's a visual and auditory introduction of "courir les rues", the band, with Parisian street scenes.

If you want to join the weekly photo-taking fun: www.PhotoFriday.com

Au Revoir au Maroc (guest post)

Au Revoir au Maroc
-a guest post from Karen Kindler

The short line to the outbound Moroccan passport control booth stalled as I arrived. An official pointed a balding German with raised voice and arms to the outside of the security barrier. Case closed. Go. The tourist went.

"Was ist los?" What's up? I asked the couple in front of me.

No immigration form.

Immigration form?! You need one leaving?!

I glanced back toward the security point and the rapidly growing line where the exasperated German squeezed out to look for whatever office had the required forms.

I stayed put. They can't mean me. Then it was my turn. They meant me.

I raised my eyebrows – not my voice – in helplessness. He raised his arm; his head began to drop in dismissal.

"Mais, vous n'avez pas de …?" I asked, pointing to a stack of cards on the edge of his desk. He blinked, huffed, then shuffled through the stack I pointed to … and found a blank form.

"Which flight are you on?" he asked in French. Then came another grunt, a raised finger, and instructions to complete the form where I stood, then break back in line when I was finished.

Now, I'm not a cute little girl with ample bronzed cleavage or someone with a name and position. Middle-aged, rumpled after days on a cross-country bus, and puffy with allergies that had kicked in again on the drive through the oases, it wasn't my physical charm that got me by.

It was a handful of French 101 words that caught his attention. They opened a door that English and German wouldn't have.

"Je suis americaine …" I had frequently confessed to questions during the week-long tour of the back roads of Morocco, at first unsure of the reception that revelation would bring in a Moslem country.

"Los Angeles!" or "Chicago!" greeted me.

"Mais non … Florida," I responded. Smiles, chitchat, invitations followed.

I spoke my simple French a hundred times that week. It got me directions and e-mail addresses, and allowed for unique glimpses into the lives of local people. It warmed them to me. I could feel it.

And the Germans in my tour group – most of whom had been to the States and could communicate in basic English – were thrilled to stick to German with me. They sought me out. I spoke their language. I could be trusted. And I could ask the local people questions for them, intercede with the bus driver, and order mint tea without a pound of sugar in it.

There is power in cleavage and money – short-lived and perhaps insincere (though I have neither in ample supply to really be able to judge) – but, a common language offered with a smile (even a puffy one) creates a bond beyond sex and profit – at least the opportunity for one. It can overcome religious, cultural, and political differences, and, even – sometimes – an overworked bureaucrat's first impulse to send a hapless foreigner to the back of the line.
Cool! N'est-ce pas?!


Read more of Karen's travel adventures in Stars and Stripes:
Vacation Club Deal leads to French Spa Weekend
A Month in a French Coastal Town Shows Total Immersion Has It's Benefits
Mallorcan Memories
On Top of the World

and more about her experiences in Morocco in Zaji magazine blog
Pursuit of Happiness
Mustafa and the Simply Bazaar - A Thrill Ride
A Sad Camel, A Failed Seduction and My Wish for World Peace


La photo: Karen Kindler