Saturday, March 22, 2008

Ooh! LALA!

I have been watching French films. With subtitles,even. I took French in high school and even went to Paris back in the seventies and before that I loved French poodles in elementary school. People like me are called francophiles. It means we like French stuff.
I love croissants. Not the kind you get around here. They are okay but I have never had one like the one I got from a street vendor in Paris. It was as big as my head! It was flaky but not in a crispy way. The outside had crunch and the inside was soft as a feather. It had melted butter on it and I had a big mug(really big about 6 inches across) of cafe au lait with it. I will never forget that experience.
A couple of weeks ago I bought an instructional CD of conversational French. I thought I would brush up on my skills. Knowing how to say the book is on the table doesn't get you very far if you are going to watch French films. Isn't that funny? I still remember how to say the book is on the table from the seventh grade!! Oh, how our minds work. Anyway, I listened to the CD and was pretty happy that I could remember a lot of the phrases. The ones I couldn't remember sounded about as familiar as Japanese! I guess I have a lot of work to do before I am fluent.
Anyway, back to the movies. The first one I watched was about a student who went to live in Barcelona with students from other European countries. They all spoke different languages but some spoke two or three. It was mostly in French and Spanish with a little English so I just amused myself by trying to notice when it was French. I did pretty good.
The second one was a romance about a young girl, a pianist, a rich old man and his son. It was about being true to oneself. It was set in Paris and it was fun to see the city again. It wasn't just at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre but just on the streets that I still recall to this day.
Anyway, I am going to try to watch more French films and brush up on my language skills but til then........
Au Revoir, mes cheries!!

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