October the 1st

We read an article about the Buttered cat paradox, a common joke based on the tongue-in-cheek combination of two adages :

• Cats always land on their feet.
• Buttered toast always lands buttered side down.

This cartoon illustration has been created by Greg Williams in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation. It has been uploaded as part of the WikiWorld WikiProject.

Vocabulary

• tongue-in-cheek = jokingly
• a tongue twister = Les chaussettes de l’archiduchesse...
• to be tongue-tied = not allowed to talk about something or somebody ; to be se nervours about something or someone one is rendered speechless.
• a state of hovering = floating, gliding in the air ; to be in a state of indecision.

We read the programme about the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela (in French) which will take place in Cestas next week.

We introduced ourselves to the newcomers, using our written sentences from last week and the first person « I... »

The exchange with British guests from Kent has lasted since 1993, for twenty years. It has been taking place every other year since. C. kept in touch with her British friend Sue, even though she no longer attended French classes.

We looked at the photo of the plane-trees in the banks of the Canal-du-Midi : the trees in the foreground were cut down, not those in the background. I. said that elm trees in the Jardins du Palais Royal were recently cut down as well.

• Skills = talents, compétences.
• A reviewer = correcteur (sens)
• Proof-reading = corriger (orthographe...)
• Bouillon de culture : a culture cauldron (Pamela, thank you)
• quotations from : fertile breeding grounds, culture medium, nutrient broth, hotbed of culture (terreau en horticulture ; but hotbed of corruption or intrigue), seed-bed, mixing bowl ; a verb : to spark off ; to fester is the opposite.
• Literacy thrives in a mutually supportive community of learners : Une communauté d’apprenantes et d’apprenants qui se soutiennent mutuellement est un bouillon de culture pour la littératie.
• Littératie : Selon l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques (OCDE), la littératie est « l’aptitude à comprendre et à utiliser l’information écrite dans la vie courante, à la maison, au travail et dans la collectivité en vue d’atteindre des buts personnels et d’étendre ses connaissances et ses capacités. » (dans le rapport publié le 14 juin 2000 : La littératie à l’ère de l’information).

Pamela is N’s English neighbour in her painting class in Cestas.
We welcomed a young newcomer in Cestas, C. who practiced her English in Sheffield for several months.
A. is a teacher in Pessac for Basque traditional dances.
M-C. will be away for some time to visit her family in the States. We told her we would be glad to receive mails.
A. spoke about her three week hiking adventure in the Cévennes.

Map source : Bowman, James Cloyd, ed. (1918). An Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey by Stevenson http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Annotated_%27Travels_with_a_Donkey_in_the_C%C3%A9vennes%27/Map

A drawing by Walter Crane, Frontpiece from the first edition of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879). Walter Crane (1845–1915) was an English artist and book illustrator considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Memorial Stevenson path, Le Bouchet Saint-Nicolas, Cevennes (Fr), by Havang(nl)