la fin = the end

-

le rouge à lèvres = the lipstick

‘rouge à lèvres’ literally means ‘red for lips’

un collier = a necklace

'the necklace' is the translated English title of a very famous short story by Guy de Maupassant.

la porte = the door

We usually open and close ‘doors’ (=‘portes’).
Since 1965 we can also listen to them thanks to the combined geniuses of singer Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger.

Another link with French culture: Jim Morrison is buried in Paris at Père-Lachaise cemetery.

la douche = the shower

‘la douche’ = to be pronounced ‘dooshh’

“As seen on the ABC’s new inventors”
http://www.showersaver.com.au/
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1305219.htm

la chance = luck

‘Friday 13’ (=‘vendredi 13’) was supposed to be a day of luck (jour de chance).

Heaps of people played the lottery that day.
How many winners?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

le retard = the delay

No new french word for a few days?

‘Je suis en retard’ = ‘I was delayed’

le poisson = the fish

A story of ‘fish’ (=‘poisson’) and things that go a bit south in Vanity Fair.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/04/iceland200904?currentPage=1

Fishermen turned bankers, who were laid off from trading jobs in October and now might return to fishing.

A tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, that decided, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial powernation

The article follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.

A fishy tale.

une tasse = a cup

A 'cup' of coffee' (='une tasse de café') to start the day.

Must read stats on the economist website re- the water needed to produce everyday goods and beverages:

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=7933596&story_id=13176056

"A cup of coffee, for example, needs a great deal more water than that poured into the pot. According to a new book on the subject, 1,120 litres of water go into producing a single litre of the beverage, once growing the beans, packaging and so on are measured. Only 120 litres go into making the same amount of tea."

un vélo = a bicycle

Community service at its best:

Vélib’ a self serve ‘bicycle’ (=‘vélo’ but also = ‘bicyclette’)

A good thing to try next time you visit Paris.

http://www.velib.paris.fr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib‘

http://www.scribd.com/doc/361657/The-Velib-in-Paris33-questions

un canard = a duck

Why a ‘pink duck’ = ‘canard rose’ today?

Maybe because it’s Mardi Gras Festival in Sydney this weekend…

Seen at Woolloomooloo swimming pool.

un livre = a book

I have been reading that the much expected Kindle 2 was unveiled a few weeks ago but remains in the realms of niche electronics:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25122653-36418,00.html

So I will stick to the old fashion paper ‘book’ = ‘livre’ over the weekend to indulge with ‘The Origin of Wealth’ by Eric D. Beinhocker.

http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Wealth-Evolution-Complexity-Economics/dp/157851777X

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eUoolrxSFy0C&dq=beinhocker&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=Sj0iNw13S7&sig=zGPFaphqGQe-ZD4i-LD2kePbB84&hl=en&ei=mJqrScSoIYKUsQPw8onlDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPR13,M1

A must read. The reviews on the web tell it all:

"A brilliant, thought-provoking and wide-ranging book… For me, it was more than the business book of 2006; it was the book of 2006."
- Martin Wolf, Financial Times

"Every once in a while, a book comes along that is able to pull together all the divergent threads of economic thinking into something approaching a coherent, understandable whole. The Origin of Wealth is such a book… it is a brilliant piece of intellectual history that deserves a prominent place on any shelf of economic literature."
- Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

la fête = the party

Every time I log on to Facebook I feel I’m crossing a vortex and end-up in a parallel world where the same ‘party’ = ‘fête’ has been going-on for months…

Don’t they ever work, sleep or even rest?

un funambule = a ropewalker

The documentary ‘Man on Wire’ chronicles ‘ropewalker’ (=‘funambule’) Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Centre.

In 1973, about a year before the World Trade Centre walk, he performed a similar stunt in Sydney walking across two pillars of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2372173.htm

Do you ever feel you kind of do it metaphorically? say... at work?

chaud = hot

‘Chaud’ = ‘hot’ is definitively and unfortunately the word in season in Victoria at the moment.

Donations to help the victims of the bushfires:

Internet Banking or Telephone Banking:
Biller name: Victoria Bush Fire Relief Fund
Biller Code: 116657
Reference No: 8600462

Or online:
https://www.redcross.org.au/Donations/onlineDonations.asp