Friday, May 28, 2010

french friday - part dix

*Please check the end of this post for meanings of the French words and a pronunciation video.*

Vraiment? French Friday is actually back?! Oui, oui. I know, I know... I took a little break from it, but May is such a crazy month! I know I've been causing HUGE disappointment to my loyal French Friday fans, and for that... je suis désolée.

Another reason for not posting is lack of good topics. Don't get me wrong, I have lots of possible posts floating around in my head, but I'm just not sure what you really want to know. So, LET ME KNOW!

Are you ready for today's French topic? Okay, here it is:

Les Chiens. Les chiens are très populaires in France.

They even have little dog-washing shops. Kinda like a car wash, but for your dog. I found this one on the streets of Angers.
This shop is called "I Wash Toutou."
Toutou is an affectionate name for a dog.
And the window says, "Free wash service for our friends, the dogs." This type of "free" doesn't mean you don't pay... it means you're "free" to wash when you please.
Aww, isn't that sweet? :)

Since getting Odie, I've been doing some more thinking about these animals. I especially think about where I can and can't take him to. You know, if I lived in France, I'd have a LOT more options! I remember seeing dogs partout in Paris. Bistros, boutiques, les marchés, parks... pretty much anywhere you want to go, you can bring along your little Toutou.

Great for dog lovers.

Not so great for non dog lovers. Or those with pet allergies. Or those who don't enjoy stepping in crotte. Don't take me wrong. I love dogs and would think it'd be great to take Odie along everywhere! But I'd feel kinda bad for those who don't appreciate them as much as I do.

And the dog poop problem - now that's a pretty serious issue. Think about it for a second. When you take your dog for a walk here in the states, there's usually a sidewalk with grass nearby where the dog does its business and you pick it up and carry on. In French towns, most of the people live in areas where there is no grass out front. The sidewalks butt right up to the houses so when your dog decides to do his business, he does it right on the sidewalk. Now a good dog owner would pick it up, but there are lots of not so good owners who don't and then everybody ends up stepping in it. Beurk.

That's why there are signs like this posted all over:
Translation: Poop not picked up is a fine of 183 euros.

Okay, I need to wrap this up because there's only 30 minutes left of Friday. And I want this to be posted on Friday.

So, here are your vocab words:

vraiment - really
Je suis désolése(e) - I'm sorry (add an "e" if you're a girl)
les chiens - dogs
très populaire(s) - very popular (add an "s" if plural)
partout - everywhere
les marchés - markets
crotte - crud/muck/crap
beurk - yuck


And remember - let me know what you want to learn about!

2 comments:

peter marie said...

Fun topic!!

We had a little class field trip to Brussels and I stepped in dog poop. More like slid in it. It was disgusting. Poop was everywhere!

Glad you got back on track with your French Fridays!

The Sneaky Mommy said...

Whoa...when I saw that poop poster, my nose instantly smelled it. EW! How did you do that?
Maybe it's because I have an inner fat child, but I'd love to learn some French foodie terms. :) I know...crepes. That's it. Help me out!