About Me…Je me présente…

Allons-y ! Come with me as I find a little poetry, a little (or a lot of) French, a little music, and some good recipes in my little corner of the world.

So, where is my little corner of the world? Mostly in Colorado, but as an airline pilot I am privileged to have a unique view of the US and some parts of Canada too. I think I have the best office view a girl could ask for.

Why is Forty “Fantastique?” I am enjoying my forties very much because I made a conscious decision to do and be all the things I have “always dreamed” of when I turned forty. I am in the best shape of my life right now, and I love my job. It’s awesome in itself, and it also provides me the time to pursue my other interests.

What’s with all the French? I’ve always thought this was a beautiful language, and finally, two three three and a half years ago in 2012…I bought a Groupon. The Groupon provided 6 months access to an online language learning course of my choice. I thought, why not? Oops. I forgot that I have a sort of obsessive personality. Learning “Bonjour“, “au revoir“,  “merci” and “Je ne parle pas français” was just not going to do it for me. So I finished all the lessons I could in 6 months, I made contact with native French speakers, and I found about bazillion free French learning sites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. I scoured the local “bibliothèque for French books…yes, I really got into it! Finally, I took a series of lessons on Skype. That was super, because that teacher specialized in pronunciation. and after that, I discovered that there was a class in my own town *on my regular day off* with another really great teacher who is from France. Quelle chance !

So now, I have an intermediate (and maybe approaching an early advanced) B2 (passed the DELF in 2016) level in French and am planning just got back from went last year have gone twice in the last 4 years on a long séjour in France with my husband, who thinks I’m a little crazy, who speaks absolutely no un petit peu de French, (YET!  News Flash: he’s signed up for un cours de français pour des débutants!) and who has an amazing sense of adventure! (He’s also “fantastique!”) In fact, we now have a habit of doing this every other year and we are trying to figure out how to retire there. I hope there are some other French learners and some Francophones out there who will be interested in a few posts en français. Oh, and if you’re a native speaker, s’il vous plaît, be gentle with this étudiante. (But please don’t be afraid to comment on glaring errors – and if you have an interest in practicing English, I’m here for you!)

I prefer “Flutist”, not “Flautist”. If you’re still reading, you might see a few posts about music, in particular flute music. My actual college degree is in music and my instrument is flute. Oddly enough, there are many many French composers and players who were and are highly influential in the art of the modern flute.

Oh, and one more thing…I adore cooking. I read tons of food blogs, I spend a large portion of time watching Food Network, and I will try to cook just about anything. So I would love to hear from fellow cooks, anyone who likes to share recipes or websites, in English or in French! Oh, and the recipe for the lemon curd is at this wonderful blog, if anyone is interested…

 

Lemon curd and English muffins

Tarte aux courgettes

Home-made croissant – a labor of love. And butter.