J-1 et ce sera la fin ... de l'année 2006!

Et oui J-1 avant l'évènement le plus important de l'année: le réveillon de la Saint Sylvestre!

Je ne sais même pas qui c'est Saint Sylvestre et je m'en moque bien, il a du souffrir le martyr comme beaucoup d'autres saints ... quelle horreur!

Encore 24h pour profiter de l'année qui s'en va ... tellement vite ...quand j'y pense j'ai l'impression de rentrer tout juste de vacances d'été ... et bien non, l'été c'était il y a 4 mois déjà!

2007 est déjà là prêt à frapper à la porte et à entrer dans nos maisons. Avec la nouvelle année c'est aussi le temps des bonnes résolutions ... une année cela passe si vite que l'on n'a pas le temps de tout faire donc on se dit toujours qu'on le fera l'an prochain!

Petit vocabulaire local que j'aimerais ajouter à votre dictionnaire de la langue française, enfin de la langue telle qu'on la cause par cheu nous en Berry! Hier chez la boulangère une dame répondait à la traditionnelle phrase "passez de bonnes fêtes!" avec cette expression "on va tâcher". Et oui "tâcher de faire" c'est typique en Berry ... on tâche de bien se porter, on tâche de rentrer à l'heure, on tâche de faire vite .... on va tâcher bien des choses en 2007 ... pour ma part je vais tâcher de partager avec vous la richesse de notre langue quelle soit parisienne, bon chic bon genre, bobo, branchée, pas branchée, causée, chantée ...

Bref tâchez mes amis du Yorkshire de passer une excellente année 2007!

Sylvia

Les francais ,'Strike' beaucoup??

Follow this link to an interview that I made back in October 2005.


Pierre
Joyeux Noel et bonne année!
All the best for Cristmas and New Year

And another

And more

More drawings

Some interesting drawings from Ronnie

Accents in France.

Really, a French accent doesn’t exist in France but, rather a great deal of accents according to the different regions. We can consider there are two “families”:
- In the south just under the Limoges-Grenoble line, the accent is said to be the “accent du midi” (southern accent)
- Above this line, people from the south of France say “accent pointu” (northern French accent). I don’t know why!

Of course within these two families there are differences according to the place in these regions, the people who speak and if they live in a town or in the country.

The southern accent is a ‘sing-song accent’ where people say all the vowels in the words distinctly, often stressing them. This accent is more or less harsh if you are in certain areas and in the area of Narbonne, for example, a lot of people roll the rs. If you are not accustomed to this accent, it is difficult to understand, sometimes even for French people! Between Bordeaux and Marseille there are differences but it is almost the same way of speaking.

Above the line, people living in Alsace have a strong accent very close to the German accent. In the other areas there are differences. For example, we can recognise people living in the north of the Alps, Brittany, and in the area of Lille… Of course, in the country, accents are more stressed and sometimes melted into a provincial dialect.

In France, some people say that it is in the area of Tours that people have the best French accent (the purest accent). I don’t know why we say that! On the contrary, in the south of France people say they have the loveliest accent. I think it is a question of taste.
For a foreigner, the accents add difficulties to learning the language, but French people have the same difficulties with the English language! It would be interesting to have diction courses on both sides of the channel taking this data into account.

The different French accents tend to be softened probably because of TV where we don’t normally hear strong accents, the journalists and artists…mainly speak with the ‘Tours’ accent.
Claude

How the wine is produced

I know that many English people drink wine but I don’t know if they know how it is produced. Before drinking wine, there is a lot of work to be carried out. The technique depends on the variety of wine: red, white or rosé.

1. Red wine:

After picking red or black grapes (not white), the grains are crushed a little so that the juice can flow out naturally. In order to do this, the grapes are passed through two revolving, fluted rollers each spinning in the opposite direction. The grapes and the juice are then put in big, open barrels and stay there for around fifteen days allowing the mixture to ferment. (We sometimes say that it boils!) With the modern technique, the barrels are vats and the fermentation is temperature-controlled by adapted devices (cooling or heating). This sometimes makes the wine better.
Then, the grapes are removed from the big barrel and put into a wine press and all the juice is extracted. After that, the wine is put into smaller wooden barrels so as to allow the suspended particles to settle at the bottom and the wine to take on a little bit of the taste of wood (important parameter).
After some weeks the wine is removed from the top of the barrel, which allow the particles (we say sometimes the mud) to be removed. The wine is put back into the barrel and stays like this for a few months. Then the bottles are filled with this marvellous drink! And the best is to leave the wine in a cellar for a few years before drinking it.
In industrial processes, the wine is not put in barrels but stays in big vats before bottling. Sometimes, wood shavings are put in the vat to add a taste of wood. It is forbidden in France!

2. White wine:

In this case, after picking the white grapes, the grapes are directly pressed and only the juice is put in big barrels or vats so that fermentation takes place. After that, we find almost the same process as for the red wine.

3. Rosé wine:

The process is the same as white wine, but using red or black grapes.

Other processes exist for example for Champagne, sparkling wine, wine obtained with late grape-picking…but they are specific products.

Claude.