l'âme sœur

De nombreuses agences matrimoniales vous promettent de trouver l'âme sœur, mais ce n'est pas une tâche aisée //

Many matrimonial agencies promise to find you a soul mate, but this is not an easy task.

A cat can dream.

Je suis resté éveillé

Je suis resté éveillé toute la nuit car j'étudiais pour cet examen //

I've been up all night because I was studying for this test

Poor little thing.

As it happens, there are two persons in our house who are studying for exams. None of them stays up all night though.

Quand j'étais petite

Quand j'étais petite, j'adorais faire des avions de papier // When I was little I loved making paper planes

The cat is having an acute attack of nostalgia, it seems.

The instructions (in Russian) for this design of paper plane - here

Aussi têtu qu'une mule

L'un de mes étudiants est aussi têtu qu'une mule. // One of my students is as stubborn as a mule.

I think the cat has a pretty good idea as to which one of the students his colleague is talking about.

When we were still at the uni all these years ago, one of the students was amusing himself by writing the central statement of Fermat's Last Theorem on the clean blackboard sometime before the math classes started. I think our professor was under impression that we had a budding "fermatist" in our midst, which we didn't of course.

The Last Theorem has been proven since.

Occupe-toi de tes oignons

Occupe-toi de tes oignons! // Mind your own business!

Another “vegetable” expression.

Looks like his onions need minding quite literally — one started sprouting while he wasn’t looking.

Pictures related to cats and onions @ Shutterstock.

Mets ton bonnet!

Mets ton bonnet, tu vas attraper froid! // Put your hat on, you are going to catch cold!

Today’s phrase of the day is the wintry battle cry of all Russian moms and grannies — except it is in French. «Надень шапку, простудишься!» accompanied all our attempts to go out without a hat from September to May, roughly.

Pictures related to cats, hats and winter @ Adobe Stock.

Je n’aime pas conduire

Je n’aime pas conduire quand il neige // I don’t like to drive when it snows

That.

Transparent Language’s word of the day keeps turning to be wintry. And the combination of “snow” and “driving” in one sentence made me remember this particular bit of the road leading to the house where we lived in Finland. A few postboxes, little bridge, sharp turn left, then right and a steepish shortish up. I disliked driving this bit even in summer, but in winter I had to steel myself every time it was coming up.

Pictures related to winter, snow and Finland @ Shutterstock.

Très tôt

La nuit tombe très tôt en hiver // The night falls very early in the winter.

Curiously, in Russian the night doesn’t fall, as it does in English and, it seems, in French as well. It normally descends (спускается, опускается) or advances, military-fashion (наступает). Sure, you can find mentions of the night falling (падает), but it not that common.

Maybe it’s because we are from the North, and our sun doesn’t move so fast.

Pictures related to night and winter @ Shutterstock.

Dans la neige

Les enfants jouent dans la neige. Un moment parfait pour une tasse de thé. //
The children are playing in the snow. A perfect moment for a cup of tea.

The phrase about children comes from today’s Word of the Day. The other one is mine.

The kittens seem to be playing two different games. One on the left is making a snowcat (bonchat de neige), and the one on the right is playing hide-and-seek (le cache-cache).

Pictures related to cats, snow and tea @ Shutterstock.

Beau ciel étoilé

Nous sommes allés nous promener de nuit, sous un beau ciel étoilé //
We went for a walk at night under a beautiful starry sky

French word of the day from Transparent Language to the rescue.

What can I say, my take on black and white van Gogh falied miserably.

Pictures related to night and starry sky @ Shutterstock.

Отмухиваться, portmanteau parfait

Кот отмухивается // The cat is waving away the flies

Today, let’s do something Russian for a change. Kirill wrote a nice article about Blends, Melds and Portmanteaux in his blog, where he mentioned the word отмухиваться, i.e. “wave away the flies”, all in one word (отмахиваться — wave away, мухи — flies).

I did read the book “От двух до пяти”, where it comes from, but I forgot this wonderful example completely.
So I felt compelled to illustrate it.

Pictures related to cats @ Shutterstock.

Family event

Et si l’on invitait mes parents pour Noël? // What about inviting my parents for Christmas?

Poor cat. He only just settled down with a good book.

I don’t know whose voice it is. I don’t even know if it’s the same voice that asked not to leave jam on the table or if the tap was closed. For all I know, they are three different voices.

Pictures related to cats and Christmas @ Shutterstock.

Cat-above-the-clouds, Felis supranubius

En montagne, il fait très froid à cette altitude //
In the mountains, it is very cold at this altitude

I do hope the cat is wearing the angora wool sweater his granny made for him.

As to the “cat-above-the-clouds” title, let me explain:

When I was writing a post about ascent of Teide, I was fascinated by the specific Latin name of one of the flowers — Spartocytisus supranubius, “supranubius” consisting of above (supra) and clouds (nubius).

It feels strangely satisfying to be able to use this seemingly useless bit of knowledge.

Pictures related to cats, clouds and Mount Teide @ Shutterstock.