Frecossais Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 How about, "If you must splutter, please do it into your handkerchief and not your petticoat"?ORShe waved her handkerchief then began to splutter with emotion as HMS Petticoat sailed majestically into view.PS I've now asked my French students in England to come up with 3 French words that they like the sound of. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 22, 2011 Author Share Posted December 22, 2011 Do let us know on here, won't you?When you think of it, "petticoat" is such an old-fashioned word, isn't it? I suppose it must have meant something like little coat or small garment to wear underneath.Do people even wear "slips" these days, I wonder?Some of the tight-fitting clothes that now seem de rigueur for overweight women would not permit of much else, nevermind a petticoat underneath? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 When growing up I used to wear an Underskirt, and I always imagined a petticoat to be made of netting, like those big frilly ones of the '50s.Remember that photo of Diana (before she was a princess) wearing a long skirt without a petticoat that showed her legs through the skirt?I still have 2 underskirts that I wear in summer with cotton dresses or skirts. Wouldn't want to show off my thighs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 Now, I'll confess to something ridiculous.I still have in the dark recesses of a wardrobe somewhere a prom-style dress with a stiff, net underskirt.Now I've been on this low-carb, low booze diet, I bet I can still get in it comfortably! Whether I'd want to or not is, however, another matter![:$] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted December 24, 2011 Share Posted December 24, 2011 Well I think you must be a saint if you are still on the diet, but well done for your self control.I'm with Idun, treats all round!Have a very happy Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 24, 2011 Author Share Posted December 24, 2011 You too, Frecoss ,and a Happy Hogmanay or whatever the traditional greeting should be!More fun with words next year?[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Aren't words fascinating? I'd asked my group to find some interesting looking French words, put them in a sentence and let us guess their meaning. During a hilarious session they came up with: "degarni" (that should be e acute but can't do accents here). It means bald, and doesn't that make sense? Garni means garnish, yes? So degarni is ungarnished or..... bald. We had some words I knew that had just tickled their fancy, like mi-bas, malheureusement, impermeable, but the piece de resistance was by one woman who managed to get three unfamiliar words into the one sentence. Here goes:La cantatrice etait desolee quand elle a trouve un bijourneau, donc elle a decide de se faire operer par un chirurgien esthetique.We had to look them up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 I think she meant to say a "bigorneau".[:)]When I stopped in etretat for a few days I went everyday at lowtide to collect them.There is a secret tunnel, tunnel des rois, which accesses a a rocky cliff face to the east of the seaside resort.Access forbidden...if you know what I mean.http://wallace.morkitu.org/photo.php?photo=1000&start=0http://wallace.morkitu.org/thumbnail.php?album=44http://tice27.ac-rouen.fr/webmuseum/reponses/reponse_mai2007/damville.pdfnot far from le havre...worth a visit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 I'm glad we've now moved on to things to do with nature.After my recent experience with getting rid of mice, we were talking at my French class about what fouine, paresseux, etc were in English.Now, I'd always thought that loir is a dormouse but the teacher said that loirs were black and white in colour. Well, even I know that dormice are not black and white but a sort of brown[I]I brought up the saying "dormir comme un loir" because I thought that dormice slept a lot.Grr.....in no time at all, people were talking about sloths (paresseux, I suppose) and stone martens and pine martens and goodness knows what other savage beasts that could enter houses, sleep under the roof tiles, dance on your ceilings, etc.One thing was, I thought paresseux (se) just meant lazy and had no idea it could be an animal as well. No jokes about lazy people sleeping through the winter like hibernating animals and not getting up till midday, please!If anybody knows what the differences are about between these loirs and fouines and anything else that are small, sauvage, furry and destructive, I'd be quite interested to know.Except, I DO know the difference between a weasel and a stoat because I learnt that at school:A weasel is weasily wecognised but a stoat is stoatally different.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 And talking of animals, tomorrow sunday the 15th is a very very special day. The two pandas will be arriving at Roissy in a very very special Panda Express from where they will go in a very very special convoi accompanied by the Republican Guards on their motos.The convoi will head to a very very special village called St Aignan for a civic reception, before continuing to Beauval.If you ever get any where near St Aignan then visit Beauval, one of the top zoos in the world; it really is very very exceptional.http://www.zoobeauval.com/zoo/les_pandas_arrivent/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Un loir is a dormouse, Sweet; here's a link to a sweet picture of a loir: http://ecologie.nature.free.fr/pages/mammiferes/loir.htmSort of greyish here - and those eyes!I hadn't heard of paresseux - but it must be sloth; sloth is paresse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 The loir is edible, Sweets, and was a delicacy in Roman times and later, and is still so in some small parts of Italy, I believe.They are delightful little creatures which will chatter and squeak at you if you manage to shine a torch on them when they are climbing your outside walls to go to their beds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 And PAA+nda landing imminent.Oh! St Aignan is in the département de loir & cher; named after the river and the enormous population of loirs; the tastiest loirs come from thereabouts.Reminder: the president of frAA+nce and cAA+rlita will make a stAA+te visit to the pAA+ndas on 27th janvier.http://www.itele.fr/video/deux-pandas-en-route-vers-la-france Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Loirs, pandas, now I feel like an expert and only need the Readers Digest to confirm my mastery of these things!But, what about fouines, what are those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I think it's the one that's weasily wecognised. [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 On doit fouiner.[:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frecossais Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 [quote user="Frecossais"]La cantatrice etait desolee quand elle a trouve un bijourneau, donc elle a decide de se faire operer par un chirurgien esthetique.[/quote]PPP, I have just finished laughing at your correction of my bijourneau. You are right of course, no such word. My pupil thought it meant wrinkle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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