Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule

Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule // Richard of York gave battle in vain // Every hunter wants to know where a pheasant sits 

At the moment I am following a watercolor mini marathon, given one by one of the teachers of an online art school: https://drawing-dog.com/ 

The mini marathon is excellent, but there is one curious point to it. Since I've signed up to it from Spain, the site insists on giving me lessons in English, rather than in the original Russian. I don't mind, the translation is good overall, and some curious mishaps make me chuckle a bit. One example of such happened when the teacher said that he works with a very limited palette, the rainbow spectrum, from which he can mix every possible shade he might ever need. The translator then said "Every hunter wants to know where a pheasant sits". I recognized it as a russian mnemonic for the rainbow color sequence, "каждый охотник желает знать где сидит фазан" and then thought "hang on a second". 

It took me a while to remember what the English mnemonic was (Richard of York gave battle in vain, of course), and later I searched a bit for the French one. 

And here it is: "Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule", “You’re quite the inventor, you ridiculous idle youth!”.

It´s sort of worse than either Russian or English, since the violet and green start with the same letter - violet and vert. And it is in reverse in relation to both, starting with violet and ending with red. 

But well, this is French, after all.

And anyway, I prefer another Russian mnemonic for the same thing - "Как однажды Жак-звонарь головой сломал фонарь", "Once, Jacques the Bell Ringer Broke a Lamppost with His Head". It has a certain French ring to it, I think.

La lutte éternelle entre les alouettes et les hiboux

 

Rendez-vous demain à 7h30! Non, mieux à 7h! -- Ce n'est pas mieux -- C'est juste plus tôt // Let's meet tomorrow at 7.30! No, better at 7! -- It's not better -- It's just earlier

There is a facade repair going outside our window right now. Several guys turn up in the morning on a platform suspended from the roof and then go up and down the whole day, doing what needs to be done, talking and playing music. 

I must say the work they are doing is very necessary, but I do have an issue with their working hours. They seem to be turning up earlier and earlier every day.

Which reminded me of a small conversation from the very beginning of my working life, which you can read in the pic. I have to add that we were a tiny, recently formed private company, all working very hard and that our boss was a lark, that is to say an early bird, and proud of it.

The eternal struggle between larks and owls goes on (and on, and on).

Dans le jardin

Les oiseaux dans le jardin se régalent des miettes que je leur ai laissées. //

The birds in the garden are feasting on the crumbs I left for them.

It is an ambush, it seems. But don't worry, the borbs are perfectly safe. The cat doesn't even have a mouth, as you might have noticed already. He is just being silly.

Le niveau d'orthographe

Les dictées permettent aux professeurs d'évaluer le niveau d'orthographe de leurs élèves //

Dictations allow the teachers to test the level of their pupils' spelling skills

The cat doesn't seem to be very pleased with the level of his pupil's skill, don't you think?

In case you are wondering what is it the owl is writing, allow me to refer you to the original.

Well, actually, of course, he is saying ‘A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.’

bavarde comme une pie

Elle est bavarde comme une pie. Peut-être que c'est parce qu'elle est une pie // She is as chatty as a magpie. Maybe it's because she is a magpie.

Today, we learned another expression which is very similar to something we'd say in Russian. Apparently, if you are a chatterbox, you are "as chatty as a magpie", "bavarde comme une pie". It corresponds very nicely to russian "трещит, как сорока" - "rattles like a magpie".

Note also the obvious connection between magpie and pie. Apparently the "Mag" bit come from a nickname for Margaret, that was used to denote a chatterer, and the "pie", predictably, from French.

Aren't languages fascinating?

Il y a toutes sortes d'oiseaux

Il y a toutes sortes d'oiseaux sur le cap Fréhel // There are all sorts of birds on cape Fréhel

Today, we listened to a dialogue in a tourist office somewhere in Bretagne, trying to decipher it. Afterwards, a transcript of the audio was given out, and I promptly lost it, don't ask me how. 

I am pretty sure there was a phrase in it about all sorts of birds you can see on cape Fréhel.

The cat, on the other hand, always wanted to be a bat.