Better reading French: improving your understanding of written French

239 Pages·2003·0.75 MB·English

by  Annie Heminway

Better Reading
F R E NC H
A Reader and Guide to Improving Your
Understanding of Written French
Annie Heminway

Better Reading
F RE NC H
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Better Reading
F R E NC H
A Reader and Guide to Improving Your
Understanding of Written French
Annie Heminway
Copyright ©2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of
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DOI: 10.1036/007142511X
Contents
Preface xi
How to use this book xiii
Embrasse-moi
Les petits mots d’amour
A game of love, Valentine’s Day cards, and proverbs about love 3
L’horoscope Horoscopes—Western and Chinese 5
Les petites annonces classées
Looking for love in the classifieds 9
L’amour éternel
A letter from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo 11
La vie romantique
A letter from George Sand to Alfred de Musset 13
L’amour au théâtre
Molière’s pursuit of the perfect expression of love 16
L’amour et les chats Chateaubriand’s love of cats 18
L’amour et le chocolat For the love of chocolate 20
L’adieu A farewell poem by Apollinaire 23
v
vi | Contents
Écris-moi
Les notes Sticky notes, to-do lists, e-mail, a love letter,
a “Dear John” letter, postcards, and a wedding invitation 27
Échanges entre voisins
Correspondence—neighborly and not so neighborly 36
Correspondance administrative A letter to city hall 39
Lettre de cachet An official request 40
Lettres historiques Letters from the battlefield 41
Runes The magic of writing 44
Haïkus Poetry in three lines 46
Poème A prose poem by Frank Smith 47
Nourris-moi
La panoplie du chef A chef’s stock-in-trade 51
Recettes Three recipes, beginning with dessert 53
Portrait de chef Guy Martin of Le Grand Véfour 59
Questions aux chefs
Interviews with three famous Parisian chefs 61
Les critiques culinaires A guide to Parisian restaurants 64
Cuisine et littérature Déjeunerwith Proust 66
Les manières de table Eating do’s and don’ts in the 1800s 67
Le menu A Moroccan restaurant in New York City 69
Enivrez-vous An invitation from Baudelaire 71
Contents | vii
Chante, chante
À la claire fontaine
A seventeenth-century soldier’s lament 75
Le temps des cerises
Politics and love in a nineteenth-century song 77
Les roses blanches Lyrical white roses for maman 79
Carmen Romance in Bizet’s opera 82
Le chant grégorien Centuries-old plainsong 85
L’Olympia Resurrecting a musical theater in Paris 87
Le Musée de la Musique
A museum of musical instruments 89
Interview avec Fabien Anselme
A young songwriter from Lyons 92
Nous n’irons plus au bois
A song based on a nineteenth-century poem 96
Emmène-moi
La France des musées Museums—old and new 99
Les musées ruraux
Bread, bees, and ostriches in the countryside 103
Les musées urbains Fabric and fashion in the city 107
Les maisons d’artistes The artist’s spirit lives on 112
Le Paris des jardins The green space of Paris 117
viii | Contents
Emmène-moi au bout du monde
L’esprit TGV Save time—take the train 123
Dossier pratique No car?No problem. 125
Un voyage d’affaires Doing business in Venice 128
L’Orient-Express
A history of the train of myth and mystique 129
Un tour en montgolfière Up, up, and away 134
Paris bohème A stroll through 1920s Montparnasse 138
Théodore Monod
A scientist and humanitarian whose passion was the desert 140
Alexandra David-Néel Pages from an explorer’s journal 143
Le vent dans le nez
A poem by Jean-Pierre Devant de Martin 146
Fais-moi explorer
Les inventions
Hot-air balloons, garbage cans, Braille, and robots 149
L’euro Technology in your pocket 154
Les vitraux Craftsmanship in the restoration of stained glass 157
Marie Curie, une pionnière du prix Nobel au
Panthéon The first woman to join the nation’s “great men” 160
Médecins Sans Frontières Relieving the world’s suffering 164
Adolphe Sax The highs and lows of an inventor’s life 167