A French Cartoon About Coffee

le Café - Oldelaf (english subtitles)
Uploaded by Boebis

This little video has been all around the Internets, but I love it. I'm a huge coffee addict (Yes, even when pregnant! Egads!) and I love that this is in French avec subtitles.

There are other little cartoons as well. Enjoy!

Good Times At The Alliance Francaise

If you like wine and want to learn more about it, your first stop should be the Alliance Francaise. They have all sorts of wine events, and tonight there was a large party in honor of a new crop of Beaujolais. It was crowded and loud and felt a little bit like a frat party for wine. I waited in line for a long time for some cheese. But overall it was a very good time. Stay tuned for the monthly wine tastings in the winter. They're not for the casual bouveuse.

Charlie Rose was a guest of honor (?!?!) and was inducted into some ancient Order of Beaujolais. I kid you not.


I have to offer a grande j'excuse to the ladies at the Trois Petits Couchons table. I know I loitered a lot, but only because the pate was so good! (And again, it was nearly impossible to get to the cheese table.) I am totally ordering some for Thanksgiving.

Also: The big winner in wine tonight was Laboure-Roi, who had a light, but still peppery Beaujolais that I couldn't get enough of. It got to a point where the winery owner knew my name, and gave me a card so I could order a case or so for the house. Methinks he was trying to distract me from emptying the small supply they'd brought to the party.

It is not an exageration to say that English was not the only language spoken in my house growing up. My mother, native to Belarus, spoke Russian with my grandmother as well as German with other relatives. Both my parents spoke French and did business in France. We even had a French au pair of sorts named Fon Fon (a diminutive form of Francoise) who would watch my two brothers and I.

That said, I've always identified with the French language. With a name like Pauline Madoule Millard, it's kind of crime not to speak the language. I started learning French in an after school program in fifth grade and followed it straight through college. I even took the French AP exam and did quite well on it, thanks to a teacher named Nola who was a stickler for grammer.

Outside of school, and France, it can be hard to find other people who speak French. Luckily in New York there is the Alliance Francaise. I recently joined and spent this past evening at a mixer, sipping a sweet Beaujolais and babbling in French. It's easy to babble en fracais after a few glasses of wine.

What I learned: I am a lot better at French than I realized and that there are a lot of people who love to speak French, even if they don't have to. (English was allowed at the party, but no one used it.) In a few weeks there is a Bordeaux tasting, and you know I'll be there. Should I be concerned that good wine is my motivating factor to leave the house?