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Le Petit Journal
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Aix en Provence, March
Sommaire
Pensées de la Présidente 2 Huguenots 7 Annonces Evénements 3 Favorite Book List 8 French Immersion Weekend 3 Podcasts for French 9
La Table Française 4 Recipe Corner 10 Notes of Interest 5 Crossword Puzzle 11 French Film Festival 6 Membership Form 12
Le Petit Journal de l'Alliance Française de Memphis
Numéro 60 Mars, 2012
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Website: http://www.frenchtennessee.org/afmemphis Email: [email protected] Facebook: http://www.facebook.com Search for Alliance Francaise Memphis
Bienvenue à nos nouveau membre! Maury Ballenger
Alliance Française de Memphis CONSEIL Présidente Lise van Stolk Vice-Présidente Teresa Dalle Secrétaire de Séance Basya Goldstein Trésorier Jim Eubanks COMITÉ Ludovic Bruneau Réginald Dalle Renee De Rossitt Juliet Jones Will Thompson LE PETIT JOURNAl Rédaction/Mise en Place
Emily A. Thrush
Pensées de la Présidente – Mars 2012
Le Comité de L'AFM s'est réuni pour une retraite l'après midi du 19 Février. Nous avons projeté des activités pour les mois à venir et nous avons discuté des améliorations de notre site web et de nos autres moyens de communications pour nos membres et la communauté de Memphis Pendant le mois de mars et d’avril nous vous offrons plusieurs possibilités de parler français ou d'entendre parler français. Il y aura, commes toujours, La Table Française et le Happy Hour au Chardonnay et aussi une soirée de jeux chez Ed & Juliet Jones (avec Scrabble et Pictionary en français -- un défi amusant!) Puis il y aura le Language Fair (Venez svp soutenir les étudiants de français dans les écoles secondaires privées et publiques de notre région) et la Tournée des Films Français à l'Université de Memphis. Dans la prochaîne édition du Petit Journal nous vous donnerons les renseignements complets sur le nouveau programme de e-learning offert en collaboration par AF-USA et Middlebury College. C'est quelque chose de très intéressant. Je suis de nouveau au Canada où il fait très beau avec beaucoup de neige récente. Les sentiers au bord de la rivière Ottawa sont entretenus pendant l'hiver comme pistes de ski de fond. Hier j'ai vu beaucoup de skieurs -- un defilé sportif très coloré Pendant ma visite ici je chercherai la recette la plus parfaite pour une tarte au sucre -- un délice Québecois. Je la partagerai avec vous en avril. J'espère vous voir bientôt à un évenément de l'AFM! Lise van Stolk
Présidente de l'Allliance Française de Memphis
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Upcoming Events March 2012 Monday 5: La Table Française. 6:30 Our popular French conversation group. Depending on the number of attendees, there will be one or two groups to choose from, Advanced and Elementary. See page 4 for more details. Tues. 13: Happy Hour! Le Chardonnay. 6:00-until. Watch your email for the invitation. Thurs. 22: Alliance Game Night. Come play some games and practice your French! See page 5 for more details. Thurs. 22: French Program at GPAC. Victor Asuncion and Marie-Stephane Bernard will play a concert of music by Ravel and Debussy in an intimate cocktail setting. http://www.gpacweb.com/event.cfm?aID=391&date=2012-03-22. Sat. 31: Language Fair at UOM. See page 6 for more details. . Save the Date! April 13-15, 2012 This is a wonderful opportunity for those of you looking for a French immersion experience close to home! The Alliance Française in Louisville does a wonderful job organizing this special weekend. It will be April 13-15. In past years members have carpooled to this event. It is well worth attending! Check www.aflouisville.org for more information.
Immersion Weekend 2011
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LA TABLE FRANÇAISE
We meet in a small group for French conversation while we enjoy a light dinner together (Dutch treat; please be prepared to order food). Sometimes we just have one group; sometimes we split into two groups of slightly different levels of fluency, depending on number of participants. Nous nous retrouvons pour parler français tout en partageant un dîner léger (chacun paie sa part).Tous niveaux de facilité sont les bienvenus ! Same place, new name. Bronte's is now
Inside the Booksellers, at Poplar and Perkins, behind Sears. They have their license to sell wine, so no need to bring our own.
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Nuit Française de Jeu!
Join us for a night of games at the home of Ed and Juliet Jones.
Thursday, March 22nd
7-9 pm
5071 Anchor Cove, Memphis 38117.
Refreshments served.
Watch your email for an invitation.
Tours of Provence by Lise van Stolk Upon the completion of their studies in Aix en Provence last fall, my daughters, Heather and Courtney, brought home an absolute treasure trove of information about traveling through France. Over the coming months I look forward to sharing as much of that information as possible. If any of you are planning a trip to the south of France this year, do take a moment to visit www.tastesofprovence.com. It's a food lover's dream! The company's specialty is gourmet walking tours of Aix en Provence. They offer two standard tours: "Shopping the Markets" and "Savouring Aix in Provence," which are in English, plus they also offer custom tours, coordinate wine tastings and much more. There is also a section on the website with useful links to companies offering related services and to the Provence tourist office. For more information, you may contact the owner: Jennifer Dugdale, at [email protected]. Jennifer Dugdale, at [email protected].
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la Société Nationale de Huguenots by Jim Eubanks
Beaucoup d’entre nous ont de l’ascendance française, peut-être des ancêtres Huguenots qui sont venus à ce pays de France, à cause de quelques événements malheureux là . Les Huguenots, aussi connu comme les protestants français, suivaient les interprétations bibliques de Jacques Calvin. Ils n'étaient pas bienvenus en France; donc, plusieurs d'entre eux sont partis dans des pays divers. Beaucoup d'entre eux sont venus à la nouvelle Angleterre. Pourriez-vous prouver votre généalogie Huguenotte? Si aussi, vous pourrez vous joindre la Société Nationale de Huguenots, mais vous devez le prouver avec des documents corrects. Dans ma situation, je n'ai pas de documents légaux corrects pour prouver qu’un ancêtre certain est venu au Tennessee de l'état de New York. Ceci est considéré être un lien faible, bien que la femme de cet ancêtre a pu verifier l'origine de son mari. Ainsi . . . je chercherai encore pour plus de preuves. Le siteweb Huguenot est: http://www.huguenot.netnation.com/general/ Many among us have French ancestry; perhaps Huguenot ancestors who came to this country from France because of some unhappy events there. Huguenots, also known as the French Protestants, followed the biblical interpretations of John Calvin. They were not welcome in France; therefore, many fled to other countries. Many came to the New England area. Could you prove your Huguenot genealogy? If you can, you will be able to join the National Company of Huguenots, but you must prove it with the correct documents. In my situation, I do not have the correct legal documents to prove that a Huguenot ancestor came to Tennessee from the state of New York. This is considered to be a weak bond, although the wife of this ancestor was able to verify the ancestry of her husband. Thus… I will still seek for more evidence. The Huguenot website is: http://www.huguenot.netnation.com/general/
The lily cross symbolizes the Huguenots
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Favorite Books by Lise van Stolk
During the annual Alliance Board retreat, which was held last weekend, there was much discussion about starting a book club next fall. One of the things we would especially like to do is participate in the Alliance's One Book One Federation program.
Each year the Alliance nominates a book and all the chapters are encouraged to read it together. The chosen book for 2011 was Le banquier et le perroquet which was reviewed in the January issue of Le Petit Journal. The book for the 2012-13 membership year will be announced in October at the AF Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. In the meanwhile, we thought it would be fun if each month a different Board member shared the titles of 4 or 5 of their favourite books about France or about Francophone language and culture. I offered to begin and, oh my, it was difficult to narrow my list down to just 4 or 5 books and stillhave the list make sense. I admit defeat...I stuck to 5 books but the list is very eclectic! #1 Le Nouveau Bescherelle 1. L'art de Conjuger: Dictionnaire de Douze Mille Verbes Éditions Didier-Hatier Indispensable for those (like me) who need constant help with conjugation!
#2 Savoir Flair, Polly Platt The very first AFM event I ever attended was a lecture given by this author. Her book is an enjoyable overview of customs and culture in France especially as it pertains to working and living there.
#3 Villages de France A picture book of villages through out France. What set this book apart from many similar coffee-table books are the excellent maps, descriptions of the villages, and overviews of the regions. It's a most enjoyable way to become familiar with the entire country.
#4 Chasing Cezanne, Peter Mayle This or any book by Mr. Mayle is the perfect escape from the cares of the everyday world. If you close your eyes at the end of any chapter you can imagine the sights, smells and tastes of Provence.
#5 Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Mordecai Richler A look at the joys, conflicts and conundrums of a bi-lingual, bi-cultural society.
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Language Learning How Podcasts Can Help You With Your French
By Juliet Jones
First, a little story. A couple of years ago, I was on my way to the annual Allliance Française conference in New Orleans with Teresa Dalle. We were using her car for the trip, and to help pass the time on that long drive, Teresa had downloaded some books onto her iPod which was dangling from the dashboard.
I am not a tech-savvy person at all, and until we started listening to "The Help" I had no idea that it was even possible to connect an iPod to a car! Needless to say, this was a big revelation to me. I already had an iPod, but my old VW bug certainly did not have anywhere to plug it in. (It didn't even have a CD player) A few months later, I needed to buy a new car. We were looking at a Camry, and when I saw that it had an AUX port I knew that I had found the car I wanted (the heated seats were also quite a selling point).
Being able to listen to my iPod in the car opened a whole new world to me: Podcasts! There are, of course, many different kinds of these, including many for learning French. Here's a very short list of some that I have tried, and that I hope will be of interest to some of our members. "Coffee break French". This one is for complete beginners, it is quite short, and only covers a small amount of content each time, for example, greetings. The narrator appears to be Scottish. "Cultivate your French". Laetitia is a native speaker of French, and the level is low intermediate. "Learn French Free". Also intermediate, with Louis. This is my personal favorite because the text is presented three times: at normal speed, then slowly, then normal again. "RFI Journal en français facile". Fairly advanced for being "facile. It covers the latest news from a French point of view. RFI also has another one, called "Apprendre le français avec l'actu" which also at a pretty advanced level. (RFI is Radio France Internationale). There are a couple of good things about using podcasts to practice French: Number one: they are free! And number two: they are short, sometimes less than 5 minutes long. You can listen to the same one over and over until you "get" it. Just go to iTunes and follow the directions to download them from there. You don't have to have an iPod; you can listen to the podcasts with any computer, not just an Apple. But the advantage of using an Ipod is that you can take it anywhere!
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Magret de canard Pour 4 personnes Temps de préparation : 15 minutes la veille Temps de cuisson : 15 minutes Ingrédients:
• 4 magrets de canard • 1/4 de litre de vin blanc sec • 2 cuillérées à soupe de grains de poivre vert • 30 grs de beurre • 1 petit verre de cognac (60 ml) • 50 grs de crème fraîche • 1 pincée de sel Directions
Préparation:
Faire mariner, la veille au soir, les filets de canard dans le vin blanc avec une cuillérée à soupe de grains de poivre vert. Le lendemain, faire sauter les filets de canard à la poêle avec du beurre. Salez. Ne les cuisez pas trop: 3 minutes par face devrait suffir. Lorsqu'ils sont cuits (mais saignants), retirez-les de la poêle et placez-les au chaud. Versez dans la poêle le Cognac, un petit verre de marinade (125 ml), la crème fraîche et le reste du poivre. Cuire à feu doux pendant 5 minutes dans la poêle en remuant avec une fourchette. Verser ce mélange sur les magrets et servir aussitôt. Servir avec des pommes de terre sautées ou des haricots verts. Bon appétit !
French Duck Breasts in Green Peppercorn Sauce Servings: 4 Preparation time: 15 minutes the day before serving Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients
• 4 boneless duck breasts • 1 cup French white wine (Vouvray, Merlaut, Muscadet or Sancerre for example) • 2 Tbs whole green peppercorns • 1 oz butter • 1/4 cup Cognac • 1/4 cup whipping cream • 1 pinch salt
Directions Marinate the pieces of duck in the white wine with one Tb of peppercorns overnight. Drain the breasts. In frying pan, melt butter and add the pieces of duck. Add salt. Cook both sides of the duck breasts over high heat (3 minutes for each side should be enough). Duck should be cooked medium rare. Remove from heat. Keep the duck breasts warm in a dish. Pour Cognac, 1/2 cup of white wine used for the marinade, whipping cream and one Tb of peppercorns into the frying pan with remaining gravy. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour the mixture on the duck breasts and serve immediately. Serve with potatoes or green beans. Bon Appétit!
Recipe from http://www.francemonthly.com
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Mots croisés numéro 464 Copyright © le Cruciverbiste Gilles ROGER Hélène BEAUDRY
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MEMBERSHIP FORM
Alliance Française de Memphis
DATE: ____________________________________________ NAME: ______________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ HOME PHONE: __________________ WORK PHONE: __________________ E-MAIL: ______________________________________________________ I would like to receive the newsletter, and event announcements, by e-mail: Yes __ No __ I am interested in helping as a Committee Member: Yes __ No __ Please check your areas of interest: __Social/Potluck Committee __French Cooking/Wines __French Conversation __Publicity Committee __French Culture __French Films __Fund Raising __Taking French Classes __Teaching French Classes __School Liaison Committee __Travel __French Music and Dance __Newsletter Committee __Hosting French Speakers __Interpreting __Website MEMBERSHIP DUES: (annual dues from October 1 to September 30) Annual dues: Single: $30 Couple: $50 Student/Military: $15
Educator: $15 Patron $250 (Patron includes free admission to all Alliance events) (50% due if joining after March)
Additional Donation $_________ Please send your check, payable to The Alliance Française de Memphis, to the Treasurer: Jim Eubanks 1965 Edwards Mill Cove Germantown, TN 38139
