BOOK: BRINGING UP BÉBÉ, OR HOW THE FRENCH RAISE THEIR KIDS

It’s been more than a year now that Pamela Druckerman’s book about French parenting, Bringing Up Bébé, One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting was published and made people talk about it. So after having tackled on the blog several topics I like, I decided it was high time I read this book.

I’m always a little suspicious towards those best sellers as I dread that they won’t do more than exploit a few French stereotypes, and you know how funny then annoying it is to hear someone repeat/ask stuff about your country that come from where the hell.

Simply put: I liked it a lot. I was hooked after a few pages, it’s fluid, it’s fun and you learn many things about France and the mentality of the French middle class as she precises many times.

FREE FRENCH AUDIO BOOKS – IMPROVE YOUR FRENCH LISTENING AND PRONUNCIATION

A wonderful find is the website of the French association Des Livres à Lire et à Entendre, an association which aims at enabling blind and partially-sighted people to enjoy audio literature for free. All genres are represented, a great number of writers (not only French) and works are offered for download as MP3 files.

It is a great opportunity for French people to make discoveries, and it’s also great if you are studying French and want to improve your French listening comprehension and pronunciation, as well as your knowledge of French literature.

BOOK: Lettre à D. Story of a Love – a book that’ll make you cry

To read Lettre à D., you will only need one hour, but you can plan a 15 min break during which you’ll be busy trying to find a tissue, blowing your nose, getting rid of those tears and calming down.

Letter to D. is a love letter, a letter written by André Gorz, French journalist/thinker disciple of Sartre (originally named Gerhart Hirsch, Austrian Jew), to Dorine, his wife. He expresses his love, his gratitude, his surprise at the idea of having found her, having lived with her, object of her good care, her devotion, delighted by her tact, her witt and her intelligence.

READ FASHION MAGAZINE JALOUSE ONLINE

Fashion magazines lovers, this post is for you! There is this French fashion magazine that I really like, called Jalouse. Guess what, I discovered by chance a few weeks ago that you can check out their past issues on the archive website of the editing house. They don’t seem to be so efficient in uploading their latest issues but still, you have all their archives online since their beginning in 1997… Is that cool or is that cool?? Got for you some great shots of this year’s already published issues. Jalouse online HERE!

PROUST’S LITTLE MADELEINE AND RATATOUILLE

Lately, I stumbled upon the word « Proustian ». In French,”proustien” simply refers to Proust, French writer of the late 19th-early 20th century; we talk about a « style proustien », «atmosphère proustienne », « personnage proustien » maybe.

1. The meaning of “proustian”

But in English, the term is much more interesting than that as it has more meanings than in French :

1. A kind of reverie, recollection or memory triggered by something in the present.

2. Writing in a way that many might think long-winded, indulgent, even a little rambling… but which would more charitably be seen as the kind of writing which is unhurried and patient, that has time for details and digressions, and that is characteristic of a more relaxed and literate era.

3. It can be used perjoratively, to convey negative connotations of being arty, highbrow, supposely intellectual but actually rather tedious, e.g. ‘He bored us all to tears, wittering on in his usual Proustian way…’

THE BEST ONLINE FRENCH DICTIONARY

If you are studying French, the best online French dictionary is the TLFi, Trésor de la langue française informatisé. Long title that sounds ridiculously grandiose, particularly when considering their very 1.0/non friendly interface, but true goldmine nonetheless. 

It was recommended by one of my literature teachers, who appearently is something in the literary milieu, so you can really rely on the quality of its content.

One of the main interests of this dictionary is the huge amount of examples that they give to illustrate the meaning of each word in context. But the examples are not random, they are all quotes from masterpieces of French literature. It’s even interesting to use the TLF as a quote dictionary.

May it be of a precious help during your French journey!

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FREE FRENCH AUDIO BOOKS – IMPROVE YOUR FRENCH LISTENING AND PRONUNCIATION

MOVIE NIGHT: La Reine Margot/Queen Margot (1994) – French movie you should watch

I love these covers!

Beautiful movie with the amazing Isabelle Adjani, my favourite actress. She’s so dramatic in this movie, when she whirls around in her dress and shouts her despair – she gives me goosebumps.

The movie was released in 1994, and is based on a novel of the same title by Alexandre Dumas, published in 1845. Dumas is also the author of The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask or the Count of Monte Cristo, if you’ve already read those books or seen movie adaptions and you liked them, you will like La Reine Margot.

The atmosphere: Dark, under pressure, passionate.

Guys, I have some good news: watch La Reine Margot/ watch Queen Margot in streaming in ok quality, subtitled in English!

BOOK: LE CONFIDENT / THE CONFIDENT – a heartbreaking love story

Found the above illustration HERE.

{NO SPOILERS}

A friend of mine lent me several books to read last month but none of them was by far as good as the first one she lent me, The Confident. I even bought two copies after that, one that I kept for myself, one that I offered to my friend Alice. Then, since I couldn’t help myself from talking about it to everyone, I discovered that my good friend Adé, had read it, loved it, and also offered it to other people.

I must say the first thing I pay attention to when I read is the writing. When I open and start reading a new book, I instantly start to relax and to breath better if it is well written. The Confident is written with great simplicity. The tone is natural, flowy, soft.