la plage = the beach

Sunny saturday = 'a la plage!' = 'let's go to the beach'

The Beach is also a movie directed by Danny Boyle, who just did Slumdog Millionaire, which I really enjoyed last night....
--> http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2426044.htm

une bière = a beer

It's Friday... A few people will start the week-end sharing a beer (une bière) or two at the pub. A quintessential Aussie tradition.

As a responsible blog afrenchwordaday obviously recommends to 'Enjoy in Moderation' = 'Apprecier (=appreciate) avec moderation'.

On the news front re- 'Beer', a few articles about "Ginger beers caught in alcopops net":
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/govt-seeks-higher-tax-on-altered-beer-20090225-8h4e.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25112596-2702,00.html

une peinture = a painting

The estate of Yves Saint Laurent is auctioned in Paris.
The Archibald Prize finalists have been announced.

So quite a few paintings (peintures) on display on both sides of the world...

Your favourite iPhone app brings you not A painting, but LA peinture by Henri Matisse, which sold on Monday for €32.1 million — a record price for a work by the French artist at auction.
(yep, that's the one on the picture. Enjoy it: at that price, each pixel on the screen is worth €220)

The sale came at the start of a three-day Paris auction of art from the collection of the late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent that some are calling "the sale of the century".

--> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7905364.stm

Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé built this collection over more than 50 years.

After Saint Laurent's death last June aged 71, Bergé chose to part with the 732 pieces, collected to grace the couple's apartments.
Bergé, a 79-year-old business tycoon and patron of the arts, said before the sale that "the day Yves Saint Laurent died, I decided this collection had run its course," he said. "It was something we created together. Selling it was the only possible solution."

During the inaugural session of the three-day auction, 59 works of Impressionist and Modern Art sold for a total of € 206 million.

Proceeds from the three days of sales will be split between medical research and the fight against AIDS, and a Bergé/Saint Laurent Foundation honouring the designer's work.


More on the Archibald Prize:
http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2009/entertainment/archibald-prize-finalists/index.html

The backroom workers of the Art Gallery of New South Wales picked out their favourite Archibald portrait - a Paul Jackson painting of comedian Paul 'Flacco' Livingstone.

la bourse = the stock-exchange

"Wall Street shares tumble to 1997 levels"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25098678-5017999,00.html
The New-York stock exchange (la bourse de New-York) is back to 1997 levels.

1997... Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his 2nd term, Tony Blair was elected, Princess Diana and Mother Theresa of Calcutta passed away, Steve Jobs returned to Apple...
In tennis Pete Sampras won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, Pat Rafter won the US open and Kuerten from Brazil won Roland-Garros. Australie won the ashes in England. The Spice girls were at the top, Radiohead released 'OK Computer' (now a classic).
And my $27 weekly Sydney CityRail train ticket probably cost $15 in 1997... (happy to be confirmed on this one).

Le chevalier noir = The dark knight

Heath Ledger has won the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as The Joker in the Batman movie, The (Le) Dark (usually translated 'sombre' but here associated with 'black'='noir') Knight (Chevalier).

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/23/1235237514731.html

moufle = mitten

'enleve tes moufles' = 'remove your mitten' is what they say when you loose your work after several hours at the computer, bcse you pressed the wrong button. Time to call it a day.

piscine = swimming-pool

Today I was at the swimming-pool when I received an email from Rob who suggested we make an iPhone app with "learn a French word a day".

So, et voila, here it is.

After all even Newsweek wrote it the other day in --> http://www.newsweek.com/id/183664
"Have you noticed that Barack Obama sounds more like the president of France every day?"
So in that case we may as well start to learn the language if we want to understand him.

Speaking of swimming-pool, the movie 'La Piscine' = 'the swimming-pool' is really worth seeing. --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0324133/