Living in France : 'On' or 'nous'

On va au cinéma ?In spoken French, we often use “On” instead of “Nous”. For instance, we are going to say “On va au cinéma” instead of “Nous allons au cinéma”. It makes things more colloquial.

The young will mainly use “On” when the older generation will use “Vous”. In a professional context, you can use either “Nous” or “On” depending on whom you are talking to: “On” with your colleagues, if you wish to show closeness and “Nous” if you wish to sound more formal and polite.

From Isabelle : Intransit's French Language Tutor
www.french-in-paris.com
06 65 24 64 74

Living in France : Pétanque Ladies and Gentlemen, will you shoot or point ?

On May 3rd 2007, We'll have a pétanque contest organised in Paris at the Invalides.
Summer is here before time and that why we assumed Horn's Club's members would be delighted to put their flips-flops on and take part in this event. With such a weather, one can almost hear the grasshoppers and smell the fragrance of olive trees.

Have you already tried Pétanque ? For those who don't know, it's a very popular game from southern France. Leave Parisian stress behind, the only effort you'll need to make on May 3rd will be to throw the pétanque ball and hold the pastis glass to your lips. For more info, please log on to http://www.horns-club.com/ and register online for the event.

As a result of my « southern mood », I started musing on the web in search for seasonal anecdotes. And I realised that some among you (at least expats) have probably never heard about even the most famous southern France traditions. So here is a couple of webpages I found about provencal traditions and folklore, from the well-known sport, la Pétanque, to regional expressions and vocabulary.

Call it a humble tribute to southern France classics...

http://www.petanqueamerica.com/game.html

http://frenchfood.about.com/cs/horsdoeuvres/a/pastis.htm

http://www.lexilogos.com/provencal_langue_dictionnaires.htm (translation of provencal words into French)


Hopefully, you'll find those links inspiring and we'll have a glimpse of you at the event.