beaucoup trop court

Le pull qu'elle m'a tricotée est beaucoup trop court // The sweater she knit for me is way too short

This!

But I guess she tried her best.

Or maybe she wanted to make a crop-top, it's just that the cat is not very fashion-conscious.

Vos pensées franches

La franchise est une qualité que j'apprécie ; il ne sert à rien de cacher ce que l'on pense vraiment. --
Vous êtes un imbécile suffisant et personne n'est intéressé par votre opinion. //

Frankness is one quality I appreciate; it's not worth hiding what you really think. --

You are a smug fool and no one is interested in your opinion.

I think here the cat on the right demonstrates quite convincingly that sometimes it's best to keep your frank thoughts to yourself.

l'appoint

Je suis désolée mais je n'ai pas l'appoint ; prendriez-vous un billet de 20€ ? //

I'm sorry, but I don't have any small change; would you take a 20€ bill?

I am reasonably sure he would.

Tout au long de la route.

Les services de la mairie ont planté des bouleaux tout au long de la route // 
The town hall department planted birches along the road

When I was a kid all these years ago, I had an impression that birches, especially silver birches, were somehow exclusive to Russia. I am not saying that the idea was being actively planted, I don't think anybody was bothered to do it. But what with it being the symbol of Russia and practically nobody ever allowed outside of the Soviet Union, well, you can see how it might have developed.

It wasn't only me who was under this impression. Later on when the regulations became slacker and the brain-drain began, suddenly we got exposed to what the "outside" was really like. I remember my university friend sharing with us a little observation his relative brought back from his visit to Canada: "You know, every fifth tree is not a silver birch".

So. I don't know where the cat is playing hide-and-seek (cache-cache). Could be anywhere.

L'univers tout entier

Si l'on considère l'univers tout entier, notre planète Terre est un point minuscule dans l'espace //

If we consider the whole universe, our planet Earth is a tiny dot in space.

Have you heard that the intelligent life on Earth was started by space-travelling cats to provide them with a nice holiday planet?

Well, now  you have.

Sous le sort des sorcières...

Sous le sort des sorcières, le prince charmant se transforma en crapaud //
Under the witches' spell, the charming prince turned into a toad

Poor prince. He doesn't look pleased at all.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Une bonne bouteille de vin

Nous allons déboucher une bonne bouteille de vin pour fêter cela //
We are going to uncork a good bottle of wine to celebrate that

The cat obviously had to go down to his wine cellar to bring up this very dusty bottle of wine. He has a party hat and everything, he is ready to celebrate.

Pictures related to cats, bottles and wine @ Shutterstock.

Par le jeu

Il est parfois plus facile d’apprendre les langues par le jeu que scolairement //
Sometimes it is easier to learn foreign languages by playing games than scholastically

What can I say. He seems to have chosen a wrong type of game to play if his aim was to learn a new language.

Also, he is losing, it seems.

In his defense I must say that the guy he is playing against is Emanuel Lasker, as (at least partially incorrectly) described by conman Ostap Bender in The Twelve Chairs.

«Вы знаете, Ласкер дошел до пошлых вещей, с ним стало невозможно играть. Он обкуривает своих противников сигарами. И нарочно курит дешевые, чтобы дым противней был.»

“You know, Lasker came to such vulgar things that it became impossible to play with him. He blows cigar smoke all over his opponent. And he purposedly chooses cheap cigars, so that the smoke would be nastier.”

Pictures related to cats, chess and smoke @ Shutterstock.

Pendant les vacances

Je cuisine pour elle pendant les vacances et elle mange mes petits gâteaux avec délice //
During the holidays I cook for her, and she eats my cakes with delight

What can I say? Lucky her, I suppose. Not sure how she manages to eat the cakes, what with having no mouth, but she must be managing somehow.

Is it my imagination or has the cat gotten even rounder over the said holidays?

Sur la route

Il y avait une légère brume sur la route // There was a light fog over the road

Well, Christmas is coming and three wise cats are on their way, weather conditions notwithstanding.

The creature in the tree hollow is quite probably another cat, and  most likely a wise one, but he is shy and we will never know.