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| © LKL |
Nous avons passé un bon moment en bavardant avec un des vendeurs, qui s'est avéré être le président de la Coopérative Oléicole du canton d'Ollioules, où nous sommes allés en octobre pour la Fête de l'Olivier.
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| © LKL |
Cette foire a eu lieu juste après les Portes ouvertes de la Société du marché aux fleurs d'Hyères, mais malheureusement il n'y avait pas de corso fleuri cette année.
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| © LKL |
English translation
Plant Fair in Hyères
You're going to think I'm obsessed with flowers, since I told you about the Plant fair in La Londe less than three weeks ago, but that's spring in the south of France for you. And the pictures are so beautiful that I feel obliged to share them. Plus, the weather was nicer here and the flowers seemed more varied even though, for the most part, the exhibitors in Hyères were the same ones as in La Londe. They go around the region for several months, because there's a plant fair in most of the big towns.
We had a nice time chatting with one of the vendors, who turned out to be president of the olive cooperative in Ollioules, where we went to the olive tree festival in October.
Our little balcony is already occupied by about 30 plants, so we were only able to buy a hanging lobelia. We had a choice: either we or more plants can have the balcony, and since we really like having lunch outside, our garden can't get any bigger. I dream of the day that I live in a house and have a yard with a table, two chairs, and tons of bougainvillea, pansies, peonies, lobelia, lemon trees, strawberry plants...
This fair took place just after the Hyères flower market's open house, but unfortunately there wasn't a flower parade this year.
Please scroll down for the side-by-side translation.
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Side-by-side translation
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Foire aux Plants à Hyères Vous allez penser que je suis obsédée de fleurs, vous ayant parlé de la Foire aux Plants à La Londe il y a moins de trois semaines, mais voilà ce que c'est le printemps dans le Midi. Et les photos sont si belles que je me sens obligée de les partager. En plus, il faisait plus beau ici et les fleurs me semblaient plus variées bien que, dans l'ensemble, les exposants à Hyères aient été les mêmes qu'à La Londe. Ils font le tour de la région pendant plusieurs mois, parce qu'il y a une foire aux plants dans la plupart des grandes villes. Nous avons passé un bon moment en bavardant avec un des vendeurs, qui s'est avéré être le président de la Coopérative Oléicole du canton d'Ollioules, où nous sommes allés en octobre pour la Fête de l'Olivier. Notre petit balcon étant déjà occupé par une trentaine de plantes, nous n'avons pu acheter qu'une lobélie suspendue. On avait un choix : soit nous soit encore de plantes peuvent avoir le balcon, et puisque nous aimons beaucoup déjeuner dehors, notre jardin ne peut plus s'agrandir. Je rêve du jour où j'habiterai dans une maison et aurai un jardin avec une table, deux chaises et des tas de bougainvilliers, de pensées, de pivoines, de lobélies, de citronniers, de fraisiers.... Cette foire a eu lieu juste après les Portes ouvertes de la Société du marché aux fleurs d'Hyères, mais malheureusement il n'y avait pas de corso fleuri cette année. |
Plant Fair in Hyères You're going to think I'm obsessed with flowers, since I told you about the Plant fair in La Londe less than three weeks ago, but that's spring in the south of France for you. And the pictures are so beautiful that I feel obliged to share them. Plus, the weather was nicer here and the flowers seemed more varied even though, for the most part, the exhibitors in Hyères were the same ones as in La Londe. They go around the region for several months, because there's a plant fair in most of the big towns. We had a nice time chatting with one of the vendors, who turned out to be president of the olive cooperative in Ollioules, where we went to the olive tree festival in October. Our little balcony is already occupied by about 30 plants, so we were only able to buy a hanging lobelia. We had a choice: either we or more plants can have the balcony, and since we really like having lunch outside, our garden can't get any bigger. I dream of the day that I live in a house and have a yard with a table, two chairs, and tons of bougainvillea, pansies, peonies, lobelia, lemon trees, strawberry plants... This fair took place just after the Hyères flower market's open house, but unfortunately there wasn't a flower parade this year. |
Comments
Hi Chat – conjugated verbs are tricky as even dictionairies don’t give the normal IPA pronunciation guides. To here them spoken, try copying Laura’s text into this link and select your fave french speaker… http://www.acapela-group.com/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html
Laura, after such a long miserable winter, you can talk about flowers all you like! I have to careful not to rabbit on every time I glimpse the sun
I notice in the French version you havent used a conditional word corresponding to “since” in the Englisg version – ie something like “puisque”
Isn’t this required?
Another completely different issue: I’m often worried if I am pronouncing the conjugated forms of irregular verbs correctly, because dictionaries usually only give the pronunciation of the root form (including online conjugating dictionaries) – this thought came up with that “aient” in the second para.
Is there any solution for this?
chat
Hi Laura – trying to get to grips with the subjunctive, but don’t understand why it’s used in the 3rd para ‘..soit nous soit encore de plantes peuvent avoir le balcon’ Can you help?
RE: ‘Chat’ and how to pronounce ‘aient’ – it’s the same for all conjugations of ils/elles i.e. don’t pronounce the -ent so ‘aient’ is pronounced the same as the ‘ai’ in J’ai. Hope this helps.
Mandy -
Soit… soit is not the subjunctive – it’s a conjunction meaning “either… or.” http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/conjunctions_3.htm
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Salut Chat –
>>you havent used a conditional word corresponding to “since” in the English version
In French, I have ayant parlé, literally “having talked.” Because this construction is somewhat awkward in English, I used “since I have talked” instead. The end meaning is the same, and that’s the goal of translation, not a one-to-one correspondence of every word.
Re. verb pronunciation, please ask in the forum: http://forums.about.com/ab-french
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
More fun than ever before now that your journal has gorgeous color photographs. As a hobbyist trying to learn French, I look forward every day to your posts. Thanks.
Laura,
Is there any chance that you could post a story each day ( Monday thru Friday) or more than 2 per week?
I realize that would offer more pressure for you to produce stories and I do not intend to create more work for you. But I have gotten to the point where I can translate your stories reasonably quickly and accuratelty as compared to when I first started reading them. And I think they are something I would enjoy daily assuming you could manage more.
And I throw this out to your audience: Is there anyone else out there who would appreciate more stories per week from Laura?
Mick – I sincerely appreciate your enthusiasm, but I’m only one person and I already spend 50+ hours a week on this site. Besides that, I just don’t do enough to write another 3 times a week. As it is, I sometimes struggle to find something to write about.
I recommend that you try reading the news, or some French books, or maybe subscribe to an audiomagazine to get more French practice.
http://french.about.com/od/news
http://french.about.com/od/books
http://french.about.com/od/listening/tp/audiomagazines.htm
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Thanks for your story which is helping me with my french. I was wondering about the verb “aient été” – how did you know to use this as opposed to the imperfect ?
Salut Laura
Votres photos sont formidable. Je pense que vous devrez d’acheter plus de les plantes pour votre balcon et les mettez sous la table. C’est tres dur. L’an derniere quand j’etais en Provence je achetais des fleurs pour la professeure car je les ne resiste pas.
Farouk – The sentence is bien que … les exposants à Hyères aient été les mêmes. I had to use the subjunctive because of bien que.
Barbara – Il y a déjà des plantes en dessous de la table, et sur des étagères. Notre balcon est très, très petit.
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Salut Jos,
Merci! Ce site-Web, c’est formidable!
chat
I was astonished to find “jardin” translated as “yard” then realized that in American english a yard is what would be called a back-garden in UK english. A yard in UK eng is invariably a hard paved area; with my UK background a yard is an uninviting area, the only plants being weeds growing between the paving ! for me “jardin” could only ever be translated as garden in UK english.
Incidently can I add my praise to the justified eulogies which you get from users of your site.
I live in France and find your site the most precious resource on the internet for learning French.
Bonjour Gordon – merci bien.
Re. yard/garden – for me, a garden has rows of carefully tended flowers and/or plants. A yard is any grassy patch of land in front or back of a house, possibly with some scattered flowers and flowering trees.
Years ago, a friend of mine was invited to visit the home of an English couple. Upon arriving, she exclaimed “What a lovely yard!” and was understandably embarrassed when they explained the difference between garden and yard in British English.
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Bonjour Laura,
Merci mille fois pour les belles photos de fleurs d’Hyères,
Adieu,
Jacqueline
C’est marrant Laura.
Je trouve toujours plusiers erreurs apres j’envoye mon emails. Comme j’ai fait en mon derniere remarque et probablement celui-ci en plus. J’enseigne moi-meme le francais avec l’aide de votre website. Merci
Bonjour, Laura,
Votre site est formidable. Fabuleux!
Un question: “Vous allez penser que je suis obsédée de fleurs…”
Why “de fleurs” instead of “des fleurs”?
Merci beaucoup.
Marie
Marie – Merci bien.
>>Why “de fleurs” instead of “des fleurs”?
See section B2 of this lesson: http://french.about.com/library/prepositions/bl-devsdes.htm
Laura K. Lawless
Learn French at About
Bonsoir Laura,
J’ai decouvert ce blog seulement ce soir. Je continuerai a arreter ici chaque jour.Pourriez- vous me dire si l’on doit ajouter un “e” au mot professeur pour le feminin comme Barbara a ecrit? En france aujourd’hui emploie-t-on les deux, le professeur et la professeure. Que pensez-vous de ” la feminine”:)
cdt,
Howard
#5 Mandy: ”aient” is pronounced ‘eh’ as in English pet.