Speak Easy Puzzles

Why is it called? Part 1: Pastries and desserts

Why is it called … Part 1: PASTRIES and DESSERTS Have you ever asked yourself why something is called by a particular name? Why are croissants, pain aux raisins and pains au chocolats called viennoiseries for example? How do things get named? Here is a short list of French pastries and desserts and how they got their names. We invite readers to add their own favorite pastries and dessert to the comments. Viennoiserie A pastry was created in Vienna in celebration of the end of the Turkish siege of 1683 in the shape of the Turkish crescent (croissant). An Austrian army officer named August Zang and his associate Ernest Schwarzer, a nobleman from Vienna opened the Boulangerie Viennoise at 92 rue de Richelieu in Paris in 1838. They were the first to make the pastries which were to become known as viennoiserie. Ironically even though the French name viennoiserie makes a reference to Vienna which is the origin of the pasrties, in English these baked delights are called Danish pastri…

Why do you call it a canicule?

Word etymologies are great fun. Here's a few pertinent ones.

Canicule

Usually this French word is translated to English as heatwave, but a more picturesque and almost literal translation would be "the dog days of summer". Basically it means that it is very hot, hotter than it usually is. But why this reference both in the French "cani" and English to dogs? What do dogs have to do with heat? It goes back to astronomy. The Dog Star, or Sirius, rises and sets with the sun during the summer. Thus the most sultry time of the year became associated with the Dog Star, called canicula in Latin. The word canicule dates from about 1500, but the Romans and Greeks had already been refering to the dog days and associating them with the star Sirius.

Sirius rises late in the dark, liquid sky; On summer nights, star of stars, Orion's Dog they call it, brightest Of all, but an evil portent, bringing heat And fevers to suffering humanity.

Homer's Illiad Once …

14th of July in Paris: La Marseillaise and where to watch the fireworks

Did you know the French call their national holiday, the 14th of July, NOT Bastille Day?

La Cérémonie

The year's ceremony that will take place at Concorde in lieu of the Military Parade will NOT be open to the public. It will certainly be televised and that is in any case the best way to watch it. There will be hommage to the healthcare workers. The air parade of planes and helicopters seems to be on the schedule also.

La Marseillaise

The French national anthem sung on the 14th of July and many other occasions is La Marseillaise. Following France’s declaration of war on Austria and Prussia, the mayor of Strasbourg, Baron de Dietrich, asked army engineer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle to write a marching song. On the night of April 25th 1792, Rouget de Lisle penned the Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin - War song for the Rhine Army, named in honour of the garrison to which he belonged. The song was meant to inspire t…

Horse puzzles – horse play

Here are 2 horse puzzles, games based on Horses that we put together for the kids next door to whom we were "teaching" English over the garden wall during confinement. I stood up on a ladder to see over the top and they were in their front court. It was pretty funny to see. They enjoyed having some authentic conversation although they had trouble with my "odd" US accent as opposed to the British one they hear in school. It was a welcome distraction for us all. It was tricky to select a "program" as there are 3 girls ages 10 to 17 to entertain and challenge. They have such different levels of English amongst themselves and of course there is the age difference between them and me in terms of knowledge and pop culture. But I figured out that they like to ride horses. So one lesson was centered on horses and their "homework", sent by paper airplane over the wall, was these two puzzles and this nicely done worksheet which includes word searches and lots of horse vocabulary that…

Learn French! Speak Easy puzzle: Grin and bear it!

Speak Easy puzzle: Grin and bear it! Learn French! Enjoy this Speak Easy puzzle of expressions in English with the words BEAR in them. The word Bear refers not to just the animal, it is also a verb meaning to carry a weight (to bear, past tense bore). Then there is the homonym bare an adjective or verb for being naked. See if you can match the English expressions up with their French equivalent. It's a fun way to learn some new idiomatic expressions to enrich your vocabulary. This Speak Easy puzzle comes from volume 1 of a series of three books of 48 puzzles available on : https://store.fusac.fr or at the FUSAC Book Room (a new place you just have to discover!) 42, rue du Chemin Vert, Boulogne, M° Porte de Saint Cloud Hear the story of how John and Lisa encountered a grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park. Bonus Vocabulary Grizzly is a large North American species of bear also known as a silvertip bear. French = Grizzli Grisly means disgusting and bloody, absolutely repulsi…

LOOFE 2020 is out! It’s free, fun and interesting

LOOFE is an annual magazine about life in France. Inside you’ll find short articles about different facettes of France and French society. You’ll find history, books, culture, people, language, photographs and nature explained helpfully with a touch of humor.Think of it as a manual for life in L’Hexagone! (L’Hexagone, incidentally, is one of France’s nicknames due to the nearly hexagonal shape of metropolitan France)

The third edition, which is out for 2020, contains articles called

Small is Good: Les Petits Plaisirs [of France],Laughter in FranceRosa Bonheur, Broad with a BrushPhoto essay Paris is not the Eiffel TowerFood Focus on Pâté en croûteSee Paris and DieThe Senateand of course there is a Culture Quiz, a Speak Easy Puzzle and "In Every French Household"Plus classified ads and advertising of places you should know in Paris

Loofe also introduces the new Bill & Rosa's Book Room at FUSAC. The book Room is a place to Read, wRite and Rel…

Speak Easy Puzzle of Idiomatic expressions: To hit your Stride

Here's a Speak Easy Puzzle with terms that refer to mobility: creep, slither, romp... have fun and hope you make "great strides" in your language skills with some new Idiomatic expressions. Idiomatic expressions are the colorful part of language and it is only in learning a few that you'll start to sound and feel like you speak well.

100+ Speak Easy Puzzles have been compiled into a series of books:

Order the Books - Commander les livres

Easy to mail holiday gifts from France

There's still time!

Here's a few suggestions of easy-to-mail gifts from France that you can share, pack in a suitcase or send home.

90+ Ways You Know You’re Becoming French Find out where to get this fun book

This cute little book that fits in your hand was inspired from the original article 20 Ways You Know You’re Becoming FrenchThe article got such good response from our readers that author Shari Leslie Segall had the great idea to make it into a book. We teamed up with an artist for watercolor illustrations and thought up more than 90+ points that are ways you know you are becoming French. Such as:

would never conceive of a holiday menu without foie gras, oysters and glazed chestnutsask everyone you know about their recent/upcoming vacancesknow who Marianne is Bükk Jewelry

Handmade by Hungarian-in-Paris Judit Halsasz. Elegant handmade earrings and pendants made out of wood veneer, packaged in an elegant gift box. Choice…

Hints and Hindsights: Franglais or Linguistic Stockholm Syndrome

Hints for Newcomers – Hindsights for Old-Timers

Franglais or Linguistic Stockholm Syndrome

by Shari Leslie Segall

Did I just say that? Did I? Wow! Our frequently appearing Hints-and-Hindsights are addressed to expats on a vast continuum ranging from the adventurers who arrived this morning with a backpack; no job; no apartment; no contacts; rudimentary, if any, French; and a healthy share of radiant optimism, to the hardy souls--whose numbers are, sadly, dwindling--who came to fight World War II, married a French demoiselle and never left. While this installment concerns the middle- and long-timers, you newcomers would do well to pay heed, as, whether you want it to or not, this will be your fate before long! Per http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/faq-how-do-we-learn-language, “By the time [a] child enters kindergarten, he or she will have acquired the vast majority of the rules and sounds of [his or her native] language. Af…

Speak Easy

Time to do a Speak Easy puzzle! The Speak Easy Puzzle is available in a collection of 68 puzzles, order on Boutique FUSAC