french friday

*Check the video at the end of this post for pronunciations of all French words used*

Not to be confused with "french fry day." Okay, Liz and Katie J? Sorry if I have you all now craving french fries.

Yes, this is the first installment of my now (hopefully) weekly "French Friday." I hope this helps my astute readers to become even more well-rounded in your knowledge of worldly (okay, maybe just French-related) matters.

Actually, I thought maybe it would just be fun for you to be a little "pompeux" (pompous) and surprise all of your friends by throwing in a few french terms here and there. Isn't it fun to be a little prétentieux (pretentious) sometimes? I'm just helping to make you all "très chic" and to give you that... "je ne sais quoi." (literally: "I don't know what" but means "something distinctive or attractive.") Wouldn't it be fun to be the girl of whom people say, "She has a certain je ne sais quoi."

So, here's your french lesson for today, and it's a touchy subject... it has to do with IN-LAWS! (Did I just hear some of you gasp?)

I'm extremely fortunate that my in-laws are "formidable" (wonderful). Since they all live far away, they sometimes come and stay for a week and I thoroughly enjoy it!

Seriously, look how cool they are:

The men even cooperated by wearing french mustaches to go along with my french theme. How sweet.

However, I know not all of you are as blessed as I am to have this type of relationship.

But, maybe you would if you lived in France and always referred to your mother-in-law as "belle-mère." Do you know what that means? Yup - beautiful mother! And the same goes for your father-in-law - "beau-père" or handsome father. And if you have a daughter-in-law that you don't get along with, imagine referring to her as your "belle-fille" or beautiful daughter! And son-in-law is "beau-fils" or, you guessed it - handsome son. So, every time you'd refer to your in-laws, you'd be calling them your "belle-famille" or beautiful family!

Doesn't this sound much more like a loving, healthy relationship than the term "in-laws." That pretty much just sounds like, "yeah, they're technically my family... but ONLY through the law... I certainly wouldn't have picked them..."

Imagine how your relationship would change with your mother-in-law if you were constantly calling her "beautiful."

So here's my french "défi" (challenge) for you this week - The next time you talk to your mother-in-law / daughter-in-law, etc, purposely call her your "belle-mère" or "belle-fille," etc. And then tell her what it means and that you appreciate her/him (you can also do this with a father/brother-in-law). I'll even give you BONUS points if this exchange takes place with an in-law whom you find, um... "difficile" (difficult).

After you do this, please comment back on here before next week's installation of French Friday and let me know. I may even come up with some sort of prize...

*The following video has the pronunciations of the French words used in today's post. I did NOT want to do this. I tried to do just sound clips, but couldn't figure out how to do that. (Does anyone know?) So, please forgive the hilarity that is this video.

For correct pronunciation of the french language, please see this article.