Posts Tagged: France

  • AI generated illustration showing some key words of the Tour de France

    How to talk the language of the Tour de France

    I love the Tour de France. It combines beautiful landscapes with thrilling sports action. There is colour, drama, controversy, charismatic sportsmen, crashes, tactics, speed and endurance. The first Tour de France was held in 1903 and the development of the race defined endurance cycling. The gruelling rides over the mountain passes had never been contemplated […]

  • GALLIMAUFRY—a confused jumble or medley of things text on image of smorgasbord

    A gallimaufry of culinary words

    One of my favourite words is gallimaufry—it means a confused jumble or medley of things. I am not quite sure why I favour it as there are quite a lot of words in English that have similar meanings. From the very common words like hash, hodge-podge, smorgasbord to the rarer salmagundi and gallimaufry—we have borrowed […]

  • book by Australian French cook, Dianne Holenghue, A Lifetime of Cooking, Teaching and Writing from The French Kitchen, because it had a recipe for cooking bouillabaisse with Australian fish.

    Something fishy about National Bouillabaisse Day

    Today, 14 December, is “National” Bouillabaisse Day. The fishy thing about National Bouillabaisse Day is that I am not sure entirely whether it is National Bouillabaisse Day in France, the United States or indeed anywhere. I can’t possibly believe it is National Bouillabaisse Day in Australia because we don’t even celebrate National Vegemite Day. I […]

  • The Pais Metro sign saying Metropolitan—coloured by Madrigal

    Metropolitan words from the city

    My eleven year old son asked me (a few years ago) what metropolitan meant when we took the train into Sydney on the weekend. I knew that polis is the old Greek word for the people of a city or the city. However, I was unsure what metro was, so after I got home, I […]