We all take endless lecons in française before heading to France for our vacance.
But no one tells you if you want to eat in France particularly pastry and chocolates you'll need lecons in ecriture française, something every French kid learns in school from early days.
Like learning French isn't tough enough without seeing it everywhere in all manner of flowery script.
Sasha Finkelsztajn in the Marais, famous for their cheesecake and strudel has covered their entire egg yoke building in ecriture française.
Translation: Tropezienne - a famous dessert from where?
St. Tropez.
This kind of hamburger bun-like pastry is filled with a giant pile of super rich whipped cream.
Just to confuse you from the same area - a sandal by the same name.
Almost edible Repetto ballerinas announces it's sale in ribbony ecriture française. This we can all read.
Lenotre tops their luscious charlotte in ecriture française but helps you out with good old Helvetica as a window sign/porte etiquette.
A confiserie in Nancy (where everyone can easily read ecriture française backwards and forwards) pairs Belle Epoch fonts with plain caps.
Not to worry...almost all boulangeries shout out their presence in big capitols any tourist can deceifer. It's when you get inside the challanges arise.
I, myself have wasted endless hours trying to write ecriture française like your average 8-year old French school kid.
I even tried putting it on a mug at Zazzle but I think I have to practice much more before I do this...
PBers, you are being tested.
Can you read the ecriture française on this package?
Fortunately they put a picture on the outside for us idiots...
Since working with my current colleague, who has lovely penmanship, I've started writing in cursive again. It was terrible and wobbly at first, but now seems to flow more easily.
ReplyDeleteAnd is beautiful to look at.
Oh do put it on your blog and share with us LouLou
DeleteWill your colleague give lessons?
What it says on that package is: "Open. Apply to hips directly."
ReplyDeleteBeurre is tres bien for strech marks they say...
DeleteAnd the French take handwriting analysis very seriously too. I worked at Cartier in New York during the epoch when lie detector tests were outlawed during the employment application process (lie detector tests were a once common feature of the application process especially for jewelry and retail operations). I was in charge of finding a graphologist in Manhattan who could scrutinize the handwritten forms that prospective workers filled out -- it was totally Standard Operating Procedure on the Mother Ship in the Place Vendome.
ReplyDeleteI talked with a lot of graphologists back then and since that time I've been very keen on peeking into friends' and strangers' psyche thru their handwriting.
Whatever you do, watch out how you cross your Ts. Very telling.
omg!!
DeleteI know, I know about the Ts
I miss crossing my T's way too many times
Very impatient :(
.. is it whether you cross your T's or how you do it? ... one more thing for me to worry about .. oy!
DeleteGoodness, those St Tropeziennes look delicious. You have such an eagle eye – I had never noticed this cursive French text before, but now you mention it, it's everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIt is my nature:) To write like that..I can change handwriting:) People remark..and I often make it look more artsy..messy..we learned with lines..I loved that..we never learned to print..Right away..cursive..
ReplyDeleteMy mom wrote like me..If I write messy..Ia m trying to be w/ it:)
You write very well ..it will come..I would trade my handwriting for your painting skills:)
I know about the t's also:)Low and high...
Sometimes I think French is just too difficult!!
ReplyDeleteI do love your photos, though - the ballerinas display is very cute.
I found that a Mont Blanc such as this one imposes that you apply yourself to the art. http://tinyurl.com/9cjhox8
ReplyDeleteAh I love French handwriting!! Always so beautiful! I'm going to have to google search that thing about crossing your T's... :)
ReplyDeletex Milla
(http://littlepiecesoflight.blogspot.fr)
I love that handwriting as well & bought an exercise book for it in France. But I haven't had the patience to practice. Uh oh, what does it mean if you don't cross your t's?
ReplyDeleteAh, l'ecriture! Did teachers and parents EVER give us poor French school children a hard time over this! Sheesh. Well, apparently, it was not in vain and some of us might even get their art displayed on blogs such as yours, Carol :-) On another note, I am proud to announce that I have just posted photos of French desserts that *almost* look as good as your Lenotre Charlotte aux fraises... almost! Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)
ReplyDeletelove the way that egg yoke building looks!!
ReplyDeleteI just love the French handwriting but you're so right. It is difficult to read! I hope the French keep it up because sadly, handwritten signs are appearing less and less here in the states.
ReplyDeleteConnie*
One of my first job interviews (for a Paris ad agency) included a graphology test. And yes, it had to be cursive. You just can't hide with cursive, they're like fingerprints to your subconscious... Or so the French must think :)
ReplyDeleteI find it quite easy to read. Unlike mine (and some others I know), it is quite decipherable. I find it's not so much the flourishes that make it difficult to decipher as the smushing together of the letters.
ReplyDeleteSure I can! In Norway all kids learn this way of handwriting during elementary school, in addition to writing just small and big letters. It's called løkkeskrift, which basically means looped writing. Another fact; my french teacher told me that a lot of people are actually unable to read THIS KIND OF LETTERING, big letters like that, especially people from surten Asian countries. We had to be aware of that when we wrote on the blackboard during class, as there were people from so many different nationalities present. (Took a french course in Paris)
ReplyDeletemerci beaucoup pour votre belle et amusant lettre "Paris Breakfast" quelle j'ai recette exactement pour le petit dejeuner ce matin :) parfait!
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by your difficulties avec l'ecriture francaise as here en Australie (Down-Under) we learnt-and still do although les ordinateurs mean it is used less-the cursive/running writing script at school and the French style is very similar to the way i write and even more so quelle de ma mere, so i was enchanted to see it in use everywhere in France. Sometimes i agree it is barely legible! lol
So my question is does that mean they only teach printing now in American schools?
J'espere que vous avez un bon sejour a Maine et les homards sont delicieux!
Merci encore et je vous addresse mes meilleurs voeux :)
Annabella.
Thank you Annabella
Deletewe have not taught script in US schools in maybe 100 years sadly
I was born in the wrong country..