Con Carne

The trouble with languages when you don't have any filtering abilities is they get all mixed up.
During my daily embarrassment where I have no idea what my wife is talking about, she says something that I think I understand, followed by "con" ok must be like spanish, it's the same word for god's sake, it means "with" like "con carne" with meat. But of course not we are talking about the french here, which is why when I want to go left, my wife wants to go right. Anyway with the word "con" she is asking "when" . Maintenant, means now, go figure. So our most common use of the word "Prejudice" to prejudge, is not how the word is used in french. We have similar definitions for the word but I have never heard it used for this. They would use it only to refer doing someone harm, to suffer mental distress. In french the word that has then same meaning as prejudice is "prejuge" accents on the "e's" of course.

Ma Chere Amour

I get this email, "Cher(e),"
Now I know enough about French tell you this is a opening like saying Mr(s), but "Cher" I find out is dear, so we would say, Dear Mr.(s), meaning Mr or Mrs. They can do the gender in one word, kinda like "I can name that song in two notes" . So anyway, I am wondering now about that word.
And speaking of naming songs, "Ma chere amour" this is what has me messed up. I wondered how that was spelled, surely not as above since you can't pronounce the last e in french.
So I have this discussion with my step daughter." Cher " it does mean dear, and they use it as a term of affection also. So why have I learned the a word "Chereee"? Well she tells me you can pronounce the last E in songs and poetry. Songs and poetry pass along so much language, no wonder I'm messed up.

"Return of the language from hell"

I'm back and taking French class at DVC, a Jr college in Concord CA.
So it's me and Seb my French speaking son trying to figure stuff out together.
I have enough vocabulary to sometimes fill in the gaps with Sebs English.
So I'm going to French class last night and am fixing dinner, I ask Seb if he wants "3" "trois" poisson.
Well he tells me no it's "tRois" I can't hear this, I pronounce it like "toi" or you. I miss the "r" thing and how that works. When people say "toi" or "trois" it sounds the same to me, and I have never been corrected before.

People get a little sloppy with language and I think most of the French don't pronounce well anymore than we do English. "Oui" for instance is pronounced by the kids in Belgium "WAY" rather than the known "WE". I understand this is a Paris thing also.

Now I have a French speaking teacher that also speaks English, this is making my understanding of what I am learning come a little quicker. My Dutch speaking teacher with little English was great but this is a easier for me.

I am really listening to the words and trying to figure this out last night. Something else hit me.
When you are trying to learn the gender of nouns you have to learn the proper article which written is easy to see. It's a little more difficult to hear. For instance "la chaise" the chair, is feminine. But when people are talking they will use the plural or"les chaises" the chairs. OK so the S's are silent and this is pronounced "le chaise" which would be masculine, now "les" and "le" are not pronounced the same but it sounds more like "le" then "la" and I get confused.

What else did I learn, well "neuf" is not only nine but NEW, so there is this town near the airbase in Belgium call "Neufmaison" it was kinda a small town, I always thought it meant 9 houses. So maybe it's like NEWHOUSE Minnesota.

Not a good cup of coffee

Well when you get your coffee in bed, you don't complain to much. But on my arrival down stairs I tried to correct what I was told was not a good cup of coffee. To weak, so I made the next cup with much less milk. This was way to strong. Anne told me she came down and remade to pot. It was "jus de chaussette" or sock juice. So now she got the much stronger coffee with less milk.
So what do I do after my coffee, I go to the office, pictured below

Spring

So Chocolate of course, it was packed downtown at Leonidas, they are known as the best value in the chocolate business.
Didn't quite get the weather right this year.

Normande

Normande bridge and the town of Honfleur, very nice spot. Pretty little harbor, good fish, nice restaurants.