To our circle of French Story Listeners,
If you missed last Friday’s Le Cercle de Bruno, or you’d like to relive the fun, Session 6 is ready for you.
🎥 Watch the Session 6 replay
https://www.aliceayel.com/resources/book-club-le-cercle-de-bruno-session-6/
We had a wonderful time talking about the superpowers we’d love to have.
Lesley would travel to the past to meet her ancestors. Barry would fly like a bird. Heather and Paulo would speak every language in the world. Carmen would soar away on a magic carpet.
What a joy to hear everyone’s dreams, in French!
A word on “faire la grasse matinée”
In chapter 4, Bruno is so worn out from his first day of magic lessons that he falls asleep at the dinner table and wakes up at ten the next morning.
Jeanne, the raven, teases him: he has fait la grasse matinée.
Faire la grasse matinée means to sleep in or to stay in bed late in the morning.
It sounds strange at first, because “grasse” is the feminine form of gras, which means “fat.” So literally, it’s a “fat morning.”
The key is that gras doesn’t only mean fat in French. It can also mean rich, ample, generous.
A grasse matinée is a morning that is rich and generous, one that stretches out longer than usual, like a morning you can take your time with.
The same idea appears in une grasse récompense (a generous reward).
The exact first use of the expression isn’t firmly documented, but the image is lovely: a morning you allow to be plump with rest.
Notice that the French don’t say it is “late.” They celebrate the length of the morning instead!
🇫🇷 Only 2 spots left: a weekend with me in Pau
I am thrilled to welcome Marisa and her husband Edward to my flat in Pau for two full days of authentic French experience, on November 28th and 29th.
Would you like to join them?
Two spots remain, and registration closes in one week, on October 26th.
It’s a rare chance to live French in real life, not on screen.
👉 Register here: https://www.aliceayel.com/live-a-weekend-entirely-in-french/
With warmth,
Alice & Ben 💕
P.S. Join us next Friday, October 23rd, for Le Cercle de Bruno! We’ll keep reading and discussing chapter 4, and we’d love to debate Bruno’s breakfast. What does a French breakfast look like to you? Tartines with butter and jam? A steaming chocolat chaud? A cup of chicorée? Come with your opinions, camera on or off, and join the conversation.