Mistral
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Posts posted by Mistral
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SB you're a brave woman serving something containing jelly to French people over the age of 11 (in my experience under 11 they love it because it is sweet, wobbly, brightly coloured. Over 11 they hate it for the same reasons) Most the French people I know can't actually cook desserts or cakes or they only have one standard recipe that they do every time. Of course it is a bit limiting if you only ever make cold desserts. I still haven't managed to convert my French entourage to hot puddings unless it's a fruit crumble. Most French recipe books say to serve it tied or cold but the other day I served a hot apple crumble (made with mixed spice too) and the bowl was scraped clean.
My sister in law and mother in law (in fact the whole family) make charlotte. It seems to be boudoirs soaked in something (probably fruit syrup) and the put in a "jelly mold" then you fill the rest with a cream and fruit mix and leave to marinate. The you turn it out and hope it doesn't disintegrate. Depending on how it's made it can be light and refreshing or sweet and soggy.
My pupils used to go about how they didn't like "English pudding" and it took me a while to work out that they were talking about a specific dish which is made with bits of old cakes all mixed together with raisins in. It's a bit like not very nice (or tasty) bread pudding. They didn't realise that every dessert can be a pudding.
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For ages, there have been campaigns to get people to limit themselve to two glasses of alcohol before driving (un verre, ça passe; deux ça casse ....) BUT nobody really mentions what size these glasses are supposed to be. I know of people who complain if they are caught over the limit that they can't be because they only had two glasses of wine (which they poured themselves) with their meal.
Add to this the strong belief that beer (and sometimes cider) don't count as alcohol.
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Yes, there's TVA on them and some law (loi Lang I think) means that they can't be sold at less than 5% their original price so you don't get such good deals on them.
Quite agree about the punctuation in the dialogues. Not clear at all.
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Ha!! We don't get M6 down here without a satellite dish so we miss all those wonderful reruns of little house on the prairie.
(can't find a smug smilie)I really miss the Minikeums, children's TV hasn't been the same since they went. The husband would say it went downhill after Casimir
We're Fred & Jamy fans here too, the husband even uses them in class. I miss Blue Peter, Art attack etc for the quality but it's quite a relief not to have a child come into the kitchen saying "I need four washing up bottles, a sheet of sticky backed plastic, three loo rolls, and a cornflakes box.... actually there are 3 of us so we'll need....."
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And what about when they split a novel into two and you have to pay twice? For one Tom Clancy novel I thought I had missed a book because my husband had two with the same name but tome 1 and tome 2, but no, it was the same book suite au prochaine tome....
Re, Da vinci, I've got used to that just as I've had to learn to talk about Bet-ov for Beethoven and vangogg for Van gogh. I used to work in a collège Van Gogh (in Arles of course) and I could never get people to understand where I worked.
Don't shoot too many people with the hoover
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They're allowed to give homework, just not written homework. So the consigne is "check you know how to write.... "or " prepare to be able to write...." Crafty
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I was shocked to hear that up to the age of 5 children are made to have an afternoon nap! My youngest hasn't slept during the day for 2 years and i can't see her doing it now.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most maternelles have a "sieste" time for the younger ones, i.e. 2/3 year olds but if they don't generally sleep then they are usually put together with others who don't nap either until the rest are awake. The school day is long here, so it gives them a break at that age. I have friends with children who never sleep at home but sleep at school because they follow the others.
Each of my children (the same age as yours) stayed at the childminder's for the afternoon in petite section and then stayed at school in moyenne and grande, they never had a nap in those classes although I think it was possible for the gros dormeurs
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MMM, sorry I wasn't very clear, I'll try to be clearer this time.
1. You're quite right, as a French national, I don't need a CdS. It's just that I only became French a couple of months ago, until then I was a foreigner so I had a CdS. My CdS is technically no longer valid and apparently I'm supposed to give it up at the mairie (they didn't seem at all interested) But I'm hanging on to it until I have the French ID. Wierd thing (well I found it so, I haven't got any previous experience on getting a new nationality) but you have to have an official French birth certificate, I mean not your UK one translated into French but a real French one. To get it I have to prove I am French (send photocopies of the whole file) I was told very clearly that without a French birth certificate they couldn't start processing my ID application.
2. This is a quote from the vosdroits site "Vous pouvez vous faire établir une carte d'identité si vous êtes de nationalité française." The whole of the text is here. It's probably the best site to get information on any French administrative question. http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F1341.html?n=Papiers&l=N21&n=Carte%20nationale%20d%26%23x27%3Bidentit%E9&l=N358
Maybe what your husband was told is that with so many years of residency, you can become French and therefore have an ID. A lot of French people think it happens automatically. For example people know that by marrying a French person you can get French nationality after a certain time but they don't realise that you still have to ask for it. A lot of people just assumed that I would be sent the ID in the post without doing anything about it (I wish )
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My question is, if I insist on having it changed, will I HAVE to go to the Prefecture or can I insist that my Mairie does it?
I wouldn't try it, to be honest. When I moved from one dept to another, I went to get the address changed and they made me go through the whole process again, all the paperwork, everything It took the same amount of time as the original one, I had to pay a second time and in the end it only lasted until the moment the old one would have run out. I don't know how much of that was really necessary but I didn't really feel like fighting with the "bureau des étrangers" in marseilles
Has anyone applied for a proper French Identity card? We're thinking of doing this, as I now have no ID with my current address on it.
I'm in the process of doing this but I'm having to wait for Nantes to send me my French birth certificate before I can give them back the form. All the rest of the family have theirs, they're much quicker, cheaper and easier than CdS, but, of course you need to be French to have a French ID card.
Remember, when the authorities ask for proof of residency, they ask for an EDF bill not the CdS or ID. Most French people don't bother changing the address on their ID's
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I only included 6 as I felt Christmas and Good Friday are religious days and likewise did not include them in the French total.
Did you take off ascension, 15 august and 1 november from the French count as well? They're religious days too.
I suppose some years are better than others it just depends which day of the week they fall on.
So true, this school year is a particularly bad one. I know teachers who work out what day 1st and 8th May will fall on before sorting out their timetable for the following year.
I also think the standard English tradition of them mostly being on a Monday making them all into a pont feries means we can make the most of them. But there again having a day off mid week is a nice idea too.
The French like having them on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they can take the monday or Friday off and have a really long weekend. I suppose it is all down to conditioning and what you are used to.
I once worked out how many official holidays there were in both countries (just the number not what days) and found to my surprise that France only has one or two more.
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Traditionally you send new year's card (which is great because you've got the whole of January to do it and it doesn't get mixed up in the christmas shopping) and it's usually the mignonette style card which I personally don't find very attractive
I have started seeing christmas cards in some shops in the last few years, not sure but I think I saw them in IKEA and Casa last year and of course la poste generally sells the UNICEF ones. Most of them are either multilingual or in English. I've got a stock I bought in the UK and I'm using up.
On the other hand, most french people are delighted to receive christmas cards from British friends.
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Very confusing that with telephones mobile in French means cordless, and portable is French for mobile phone
Portable is also used for a laptop computer which is why I a bit confused when a fellow prof told me all pupils and staff were being lent free portables, I couldn't see the educational use of a mobile phone. Not sure of the educational use of a laptop either but it does mean I can read the forums in class (not that I would of course....)
Just spent a frustrating lesson trying to explain (again) that you cant just say foot, basket, volley for the sports you have to add "ball"
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Sorry, must have mixed you with someone else
You can still pass the message on to your délégués, you should have a list of who they are for your class. The conseils will starting soon. We're coming to the end of our first week- but we always start very early. Just one tonight, so I'll be home before the kids go to bed.
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I've been wondering if there isn't a more reliable means of transmitting such information, but I suppose not. There's no assembly or similar gathering, and they only see the form teacher twice a week. I guess it's just French - il faut se débrouiller!
Not at all Any information like that can always stuck into their carnet de liaison/correspondance. I'm always getting surveillants coming into my class and asking me to distribute little slips of paper about parents meetings or no cantine or whatever. I've never seen a strike warning being given out (that wouldn't be a good idea, it could encourage parents to think that the whole school will be closed, when only a few teachers may be absent) but for things like no buses, they could certainly do it if they know in advance.
Aren't you a délégué des parents this year? Maybe you could suggest it at the next conseil de classe.
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SB, have you ever watched les zinzins de l'espace in French (I think it's called "home to rent" in English?) all the, how to say this, "slightly rustic" characters speak with a distinctly rural (I'd put it at top of provance) accent.
Otherwise, you only get regional accents if the film/programme is very deliberately regional. Every summer there is always la fiction de l'été and it's always down south somewhere with the accents (but not to strong we don't want to upset the Parisians ) I have tried to avoid the new soap on Fr3 plus belle la vie, but since it's in Marseille (quartier Mistral if I remember right, fame at last!) I imagine they're allowed to have accents.
Fr3 has Fr3 mediterranée with at least one programme in provencal and the news (don't know the frequency) There was a whole film in provencal a few weeks back (at midnight)
Margaret; the first time I lived in France, it was in Carcassonne. I went there with a normal, flat, "learnt French in a British school" accent and came back pronouncing the final 'e' on words and talking about peng, veng et bourseng. Years of living with a frenchman who doesn't have much accent of anywhere, have taken the edge off but it makes people laugh.
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There's a website that tries to keep up with strikes, I think it was set up in the big strikes 2 years ago. http://www.greves.org/pages/home.php I have a feeling it is more about transport than schools.
Bus strikes aren't linked to school or the ed nat, the school buses are generally private companies who are contracted by the schools or buses from the conseil general. I imagine yesterday's had more to do with the routier manifestations yesterday. I don't think we had them in my school.
As Jane said, there's a teacher strike planned for the 7th December, I think it was planned to react to the new projet de loi because the original report looked like being radical, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the projet de loi that's strike-worthy (from what I've read, I may have missed something) So the strike is about the same things as the last couple (suppression de postes) I think it's going to be primary and secondary (no idea for superieur) I'd be surprised if the private sector goes on strike about jobs in the ed nat although they might have done against the projet de loi (since it touches them too)
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Incidentally, what words do you all use for e mail? I've picked up "mel" from somewhere but am told I should strictly speaking refer to "courier
I tried using couriel years ago but nobody understood me so I went back to saying e-mail. I think that couriel comes from canada (from courier électronique) and that the academie française wanted us to use mél. The webmail system in my academie is "à mél ouvert"
One of the chapters in my 3eme book is about internet and there's a question on what e-mail stands for, they always get it right. Then I ask them for the French term. No-one knows. Most older french people talk, about "mail" written mail but pronounced mél.
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Olyme de Gouges. She wrote la Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne and ended up guillotined. She sounds like quite a character
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You mean it's still edible with an inch of blue-green hairy stuff on top?????
You could try serving it up as a form of blue cheese?
My daughter's second favourite meal is lardons, creme fraiche and spaghetti. I use it in most creamy sauces and it's great in curries. I use it in quiches and onion tarte or flamenkuche. In fact I use it wherever I would use double or thick cream in savoury cooking. Down here we get creme friache pizzas as well as the standard tomato based ones from the pizza van.
I don't much like it with fruit or sweet things, I prefer to use marscapone or creme semi epaisse.
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belledoche (mother in law)
mémé
papi
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I haven't thought it through, this is straight off gut feeling, but I think I would use gros when I could replace big with large (large meaning big not large=wide. Oh I'm so clear
) and use grand the rest of the time. Except for people because gros means fat in that situation (although this doesn't necessarily work for animals a gros chien could be a fat dog or a big dog) Gros gives a feeling of all round bignessI'm sure someone can give you better guidelines than that.
I have been driven mad for years by pupils who have been taught that gros=big and now confuse big and fat
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I'm a mauvaise élève I saw my minister was on telly, thought about listening to an hour and a half of him explaining his reform, then I saw that we were going to have Allegre and Ashieri too and decided to watch a DVD instead
Back when the socialists were in government Jack Lang announced that foreign languages were going to be obligatory in primary schools from the next rentrée starting with CM2 and working down until they got to GS, so this is nothing new. Then in came the next minister and said that yes of course it was a good idea but they couldn't make it obligaory because they couldn't find enough qualified teachers in time (or even at all) So since then all primary schools are strongly encouraged to do languages if (big if) they can find someone to teach them. It's more and more common but the budgeting situation means that they have to first of all see if a teacher already employed in the school couldn't do it (as one instit told me "OK I've got a degree in Italian but it was 20 years ago and if I had wanted to be an Italian teacher I would have become one") next on the list are language teachers from the local collège (who have trouble finding the time) and last external teachers. We're lucky that the mairie pays ours.
There is even a curriculum (which isn't very clear and keep going on about the very hungry caterpillar) but quite often whet they did last year with one person is repeated the year after with another and the range is amazing. I have in 6eme this year, pupils who have studied both presents, have got , to be and even the possessive sitting next to kids who know their colours and the days of the week but nothing more.
The echos in the staff room were quite cynical this morning. If they couldn't find the teachers 10 years ago, we're not convinced they are going to find them this time.
The original report actually wanted it to be automatically English in primary and then LV2 from 5eme, but that's been changed probably to appease teachers of other languages.
Other highlights that come to mind; dedoublement ( splitting the class in half) in Terminal language lessons. Good idea but where will they get the staff? Making all pupils take languages in both written and oral forms in the bac, Including a behaviour grade and the computing brevet in the brevet de collèges, doing either Hist:géo or science in the written brevet. These are the ones I picked up. As you can see I'm mostly interested in lanaguages and collège.
Remember; this is only a projet de loi, not the final thing, it has to be voted and applied first (I heard 2006/7) There will have to be loads of talks with the teaching unions etc (which reminds me i think there's a strike planned for 6th Dec (state sector only I imagine) I'll keep you updated
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Have you got any more details (like a link to a newstory?) my husband comes from near there. You never know, it might be a member of his family. (I knew there was something odd about the belle-mère)
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"S'ils en font la demande, il leur est délivré, dans des conditions précisées par décret en Conseil d'Etat, un titre de séjour, sous réserve d'absence de menace pour l'ordre public"
It's article 14 of Law number 2003-1119 of 26 November 2003
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=INTX0300040L
Christmas crush
in The Complete France Post Bag
Posted
Most shops around here were open on Sunday morning. We went to Aix and the whole town was open even in the afternoon.
No way was I doing a christmas shop with all three kids so I nipped off this lunchtime to do it. All the shops I wanted were closed.