Jeux Olympiques d'hiver: do you know how well France did?

Les JO d'hiver de Sotchi ( Winter olympics in Sotchi) were very promising for the French athletes and the results are very pleasing.
France got 15 medals ( 15 médailles), 4 more than in 2010.
French commentators have been talking of une moisson de médailles ( a crop of medals)
Le premier médailler ( the first athlete with a medal) was Martin Fourcade who got a gold medal ( une médaille d'or) in the biathlon.

 

Another result wich made every French commentator excited was the 3 medals ( le triplé) in the men's ski cross.
Otherwise, France received some silver and bronze medals ( des médailles d'argent et de bronze) in snowboard cross, ski half-pipe ( all French sounding disciplines!!!) and in saut à ski féminin ( female ski jump), ski de fond ( cross country skiing) and in slalom géant ( giant slalom).
There are more disciplines with proper French names such as:
le patinage artistique ( figure skating); le patinage de vitesse ( speed skating); le ski acrobatique ( free style skiing); la luge ( tobogganing); le ski alpin ( downhill  skiing)

 

There will be a quiz in March, organized by Alliance Française de Bristol, some answers may be in this post, you never know!!
For more info...

Did you know that Alliance Française de Bristol has its next French cookery workshop on Thursday?

As usual, Isa, our French tutor and chef, will be showing and helping students make a dish. It will be a dessert this time. Here is some vocabulary to do with preparing de la pâtisserie:
You may learn to make some pastry ( de la pâte) with flour ( de la farine), butter ( du beurre), sugar ( du sucre) and eggs ( des œufs), once the pastry is made, you have to spread it with a pin roller ( l'étaler avec un rouleau à pâtisserie ),

 

 then you put the pastry in a tin ( un moule, not une moule which is a mussel ). You may have had to cut the pastry with a pastry cutter ( un coupe pâte) before putting it in the tin.

You may want the pastry to have a golden look so you brush it with milk, you use un pinceau à dorer. You may wish to decorate your pâtisserie, you will be using a piping bag ( une douille).

Watch this space to find out what Isa and her students will prepare and to find out about French events and French tuition classes. For more info...

Did you know there will be another French cheese workshop on 14th February?

Julien, French teacher and expert on French cheeses, will help 10 lucky students find out all about French cheeses: how they are made, how long it takes to make them, what different kinds there are, where they are made, and last but not least what they taste like!
They will find out about:
La présure: a milk curdling agent
Le caillage: curdling
L'affinage: maturing
La faisselle: a very fresh cheese, a little bit like cottage cheese
Les fromages à pâte molle: soft cheeses
Les fromages à pâte dure: hard cheeses
Les fromages de lait de vache: cow's milk cheeses
Les fromages de chèvre: goats' cheeses
Les fromages de brebis: ewes' cheeses

 

If you wish to find out more about the cheese workshop or any other event organized either by Alliance Française de Bristol or Alliance Française de Bath, click here...

Two events this coming week!

Alliance Française de Bath is having its first bookclub ( club de lecture) on Thursday, 6th February at 2pm. For more info about the venue...
The book discussed is Raboliot by Maurice Genevoix. Maurice Genevoix wrote the book in 1925 when it received Le prix Goncourt ( prestigeous French prize for literature).
Raboliot is a woodcutter ( un bûcheron) and also a poacher ( un braconnier) who lives in La Sologne, a wooded area near the Loire, famous for its game ( son gibier). It is a story about hatred ( la haine) and revenge ( la vengeance) with the countryside and the wild life as background.
A film was made in 1945.

Alliance Française de Bristol is presenting its show if sketches and games on Tuesday, 4th February at 8.30pm. For more info about the venue...

This time, the actors with the expert help and guidance of Audrey, their French tutor, are going to take their audience ( leurs spectateurs) to the Cannes Festival ( le festival de Cannes) with several film extracts ( des extraits de films) imagined by the actors ( les acteurs). And you are going to decide who receives La palme d'or, the ultimate prize of the Cannes festival.
The entrance fee is only £2 and you are guaranteed an evening of entertainment and laughters.


The above photo is from the previous show.
If you would like to see some of the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1iE2_yv88