books
meetings
membership
resources
francolinks
contact
special
The primary purpose of the club is to read current French literature, discuss the books and share opinions in a mutually supportive manner. The club is open to all and the group as a whole decides its direction and is free to exchange ideas and make suggestions in an open forum. There is no president, chairman or ruling committee.
Meetings:
Books:
Book selection:
Ordering books:
Discussion:
SEALECTEURS est un club de lecture. Notre but premier est d'augmenter et de partager le plaisir de la lecture d'ouvrages littéraires francophones créés par des auteurs contemporains. Toutes les personnes intéressées sont bienvenues à titre de membres. Chaque ouvrage à l'étude est soumis à un forum de discussion où les membres ont la possibilité de transmettre leurs critiques et opinions dans un cadre détendu prenant en considération les connaissances linguistiques de chacun.
Les orientations, les activités du club ainsi que le choix des ouvrages sont discutés par les membres et soumis au vote populaire. SEALECTEURS n'a pas de structure hiérarchique, comité de gestion ou président.
La tenue des réunions:
Les ouvrages:
Le processus de sélection des livres:
L'achat ou l'emprunt des livres:
Le forum de discussion:
We are reading Le Voyage en France by Benoît Duteurtre.
Our next books will be:
We have read the following books to date:
Nous lisons Le Voyage en France by Benoît Duteurtre.
Les prochains livres seront:
Liste des livres déjà lus:
Our next meeting will be on Monday, August 25th, at 7 p.m. at Mary Weatherley's home. We will discuss the last half of La Voyage en France by Benoît Duteurtre.
Mary Weatherley
912 3rd Avenue West, #104
Seatle, WA 98119
phone: 206 284 7594
Our next meetings will be on:
Notre prochaine réunion aura lieu le lundi, 25. juillet, à 19h00 chez Mary Weatherley. Nous discutons la dernière moitié du livre La Voyage en France de Benoît Duteurtre.
Mary Weatherley
912 3rd Avenue West, #104
Seatle, WA 98119
télé: 206 284 7594
Liste des réunions prévues:
To join our group, the only thing you need to do is subscribe to the Sealecteurs mailing list.
You will never receive any spam from this list since no one who is not a member can send emails to it without explicit approval. Any member who sends commercial solicitations of any kind to the group will be removed immediately.
Pour devenir membre, vous devez être intéressés à la littérature française et vous inscrire à la liste de diffusion, Sealecteurs.
L'ajout de votre nom à la liste de diffusion n'augmentera pas la quantité de pourriels que vous recevez déjà. Seuls les membres inscrits ont la possibilité d'expédier des courriels aux autres membres. Toute sollicitation commerciale est strictement interdite. Le nom de tout contrevenant sera retiré de la liste de diffusion de façon permanente.
Hachette Multimedia Encyclopedia Online Pro ( EHMEL Pro):
Monthly: 5 € TTC
Quarterly: 15 € TTC
Semi-annually: 25 € TTC
Annually: 50 € TTC
Lire : the magazine of books and writers
Encyclopédie Hachette Multimédia En Ligne Pro ( EHMEL Pro):
Mensuel: 5 € TTC
Trimestriel: 15 € TTC
Semestriel: 25 € TTC
Annuel: 50 € TTC
Lire : le magazine des livres et des écrivains
affranchi a small special social class consisting primarily of mulattoes who, in pre-revolutionary times, had gained their liberty and developed large economic interests. Under the Code Noir (9.v.) of 1685, they were considered French citizens with all corresponding rights including the right to own slaves.
alizé French name for the Antilles trade winds.
ANPE (Agence Nationale pour l'Emploi) National Employment Agency
békés white Creoles of Martinique, descendants of old established colonial planter families. Fluent in Creole, they speak accented French.
bel-air (bélé in Creole) a song and dance accompanied by Afro-Caribbean percussion.
blaff a spiced fish stew.
bombé serré an intimate slowdance popular in Martinique.
bonda butt, ass. Chamoiseau uses this word to describe a manner of dancing.
boucaut a unit of measurement used for cane on plantations; the quantity of cane needed to produce 500 kg of sugar.
bwa-kabritt (lit., wild goat) a loud, enormous cricket.
canari (Carib word) a large, all-purpose cooking pot.
câpresse in the French Antilles, the daughter of a mulatto man and a black woman.
carême (French word for Lent) in the French Antilles, name for the dry season which lasts from January to June. The wet season from July through December is called hivernage.
chabin (masc.), chabine (fem.) a light-skinned mixed-race individual, often with blond or reddish hair and black facial features. European name for a kind of sheep produced by crossbreeding a ewe with a billygoat.
chien-fer a Mexican hairless dog with iron-gray skin, now very rare in Martinique; the most hateful dog in the Creole imagination.
cocomerlo crude cane alcohol.
collier-chou a necklace made of several rows of large hollow beads; a long necklace of chased gold or gilt beads wrapped several times around the neck.
commune an administrative unit. French provinces (départements) are divided into communes.
C.R.S. (Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité) sometimes spelled phonetically as seyaress in the novel, a special national police force used for riot control and during civil unrest.
D.D.A.S.S. (Direction Départementale de l'Action Sanitaire et Sociale) Department of Health and Social Services.
E.D.F. (Electricité de France) French Electric Company.
1engagé a person who has made a pact with a spiritual power in Afro-Caribbean belief. This pact binds him to fulfill an exacting obligation in return for a fixed reward.
2engagé a bondsman. Indentured servants - sometimes shanghaied - were usually from western France and occasionally from central France, as well as other European countries.
escalin a Trinidadian sixpence.
fellaghas (Arab word) partisans fighting for independence during the French colonial period in Algeria. Generally pejorative in Martinique; any positive connotations arose (as with the word "maroon") from recent intellectual movements.
femme-dormeuse a seer who holds seances and tells the future with her eyes closed in order to receive communications from saints and spirits.
femme-matador (a Chamoiseau-created word, matado in Creole) "one who triumphs, who wins approval like a matador in the arena" (Jourdain). Current usage: a strong, respected, authoritative woman.
france-blancs recent immigrants to Martinique of European descent.
geste the French word geste means both "gesture" and geste as in chanson de geste, a collection of epic poems centered around the same hero.
guava-békés poor rural whites distinguished by rustic manners and a lack of education, speaking Creole rather than French; bumpkins.
Guinea Creole word for Africa as a whole.
hougan a voodoo priest.
ka-drum a large traditional drum made of a quarter-size barrel, usually played with the hands by two drummers.
léwoz a dynamic ka-drum rhythm; one of the seven ka-drum rhythms particular to Guadeloupe.
loas African spirits.
mabi (Caribean word) smooth beer made from fermented bark. Quite similar to birch beer if you're from the Southern Red States.
madou lemonade or orangeade made with cane syrup (jus de batterie).
madras calendé a madras tied on the side of the head.
manioc (also called cassava) a shrubby tropical American plant (Manihot esculenta) widely grown for its large, tuberous, starchy roots; the root of this plant, eaten as a staple food in the tropics only after leaching and drying to remove the cyanide. Its starch is also the source of tapioca (American Heritage Dictionary, Standard Edition). Grated the wrong way, manioc can be poisonous.
Marianne-lapo-figue (lit. Marianne-banana-peel) a horned female figure dressed in dried banana leaves who often appears during Carnival and who dances in a suggestive way; also, a folktale persona.
migan an old plantation dish made with coarsely mashed breadfruit and other vegetables.
morne a term used throughout the French West Indies to designate the hills of volcanic origin that dot the landscape. Where it is not part of a proper noun, you might translate this word as such.
Oiseau de Cham (lit., Bird of Shem; phon., Bird of the Field) the shadowy and unacknowledged figure of the author. Appearing in previous works of Chamoiseau, he is always cast as a marginal character struggling with a study of Martinican life. Oiseau de Cham is a word play on the author's name. The storyteller's play on his own name is a traditional motif. In one of the book's epigraphs, Edouard Glissant, author of the seminal Caribbean Discourse, participates in that play by calling Chamoiseau "game".
pète-bombe (lit. farting pot or bomb) a variation on the word bizbonm, which designates a top or opera hat; the hat would presumably make a flatulent noise when popped off (Jourdain).
pian yaws, a skin disease causing yellowish, swollen ulcers that afflicted black slaves brought from Africa to the New World. In the novel it also seems to describe the actual sores caused by the disease. "Mapian" (Mama yaws) refers to the principal ulcer.
quimboiseurs a word describing magic users, derived from the old tradition of curing known as Quin/Tiens Bois. Quimboiseurs dispense ancient remedies; they are professional ritual consultants. Also, pejoratively, "evildoers".
la Savane in many urban areas in the Caribbean, an open space, sometimes grassy, a central gathering place. Used as an adjective, the word is equivalent to "unofficial".
seyaress see C.R.S.
soukougnan in West Indian folklore, a creature capable of shedding its humna skin at night, flying batlike, and emitting light.
SPEDEM a body governing artistic and industrial copyrights.
tafia white rum.
tête calendée a pre-tied madras calendé.
la Trace an overland road which goes from Morne Rouge to Fort-de-France through thick forest.
vidé (from the expression videz les lieux, "vacate the premises") in the French Antilles, a noisy parade during Carnival or electoral victory celebrations.
affranchi a small special social class consisting primarily of mulattoes who, in pre-revolutionary times, had gained their liberty and developed large economic interests. Under the Code Noir (9.v.) of 1685, they were considered French citizens with all corresponding rights including the right to own slaves.
alizé French name for the Antilles trade winds.
ANPE (Agence Nationale pour l'Emploi) National Employment Agency
békés white Creoles of Martinique, descendants of old established colonial planter families. Fluent in Creole, they speak accented French.
bel-air (bélé in Creole) a song and dance accompanied by Afro-Caribbean percussion.
blaff a spiced fish stew.
bombé serré an intimate slowdance popular in Martinique.
bonda butt, ass. Chamoiseau uses this word to describe a manner of dancing.
boucaut a unit of measurement used for cane on plantations; the quantity of cane needed to produce 500 kg of sugar.
bwa-kabritt (lit., wild goat) a loud, enormous cricket.
canari (Carib word) a large, all-purpose cooking pot.
câpresse in the French Antilles, the daughter of a mulatto man and a black woman.
carême (French word for Lent) in the French Antilles, name for the dry season which lasts from January to June. The wet season from July through December is called hivernage.
chabin (masc.), chabine (fem.) a light-skinned mixed-race individual, often with blond or reddish hair and black facial features. European name for a kind of sheep produced by crossbreeding a ewe with a billygoat.
chien-fer a Mexican hairless dog with iron-gray skin, now very rare in Martinique; the most hateful dog in the Creole imagination.
cocomerlo crude cane alcohol.
collier-chou a necklace made of several rows of large hollow beads; a long necklace of chased gold or gilt beads wrapped several times around the neck.
commune an administrative unit. French provinces (départements) are divided into communes.
C.R.S. (Compagnie Républicaine de Sécurité) sometimes spelled phonetically as seyaress in the novel, a special national police force used for riot control and during civil unrest.
D.D.A.S.S. (Direction Départementale de l'Action Sanitaire et Sociale) Department of Health and Social Services.
E.D.F. (Electricité de France) French Electric Company.
1engagé a person who has made a pact with a spiritual power in Afro-Caribbean belief. This pact binds him to fulfill an exacting obligation in return for a fixed reward.
2engagé a bondsman. Indentured servants - sometimes shanghaied - were usually from western France and occasionally from central France, as well as other European countries.
escalin a Trinidadian sixpence.
fellaghas (Arab word) partisans fighting for independence during the French colonial period in Algeria. Generally pejorative in Martinique; any positive connotations arose (as with the word "maroon") from recent intellectual movements.
femme-dormeuse a seer who holds seances and tells the future with her eyes closed in order to receive communications from saints and spirits.
femme-matador (a Chamoiseau-created word, matado in Creole) "one who triumphs, who wins approval like a matador in the arena" (Jourdain). Current usage: a strong, respected, authoritative woman.
france-blancs recent immigrants to Martinique of European descent.
geste the French word geste means both "gesture" and geste as in chanson de geste, a collection of epic poems centered around the same hero.
guava-békés poor rural whites distinguished by rustic manners and a lack of education, speaking Creole rather than French; bumpkins.
Guinea Creole word for Africa as a whole.
hougan a voodoo priest.
ka-drum a large traditional drum made of a quarter-size barrel, usually played with the hands by two drummers.
léwoz a dynamic ka-drum rhythm; one of the seven ka-drum rhythms particular to Guadeloupe.
loas African spirits.
mabi (Caribean word) smooth beer made from fermented bark. Quite similar to birch beer if you're from the Southern Red States.
madou lemonade or orangeade made with cane syrup (jus de batterie).
madras calendé a madras tied on the side of the head.
manioc (also called cassava) a shrubby tropical American plant (Manihot esculenta) widely grown for its large, tuberous, starchy roots; the root of this plant, eaten as a staple food in the tropics only after leaching and drying to remove the cyanide. Its starch is also the source of tapioca (American Heritage Dictionary, Standard Edition). Grated the wrong way, manioc can be poisonous.
Marianne-lapo-figue (lit. Marianne-banana-peel) a horned female figure dressed in dried banana leaves who often appears during Carnival and who dances in a suggestive way; also, a folktale persona.
migan an old plantation dish made with coarsely mashed breadfruit and other vegetables.
morne a term used throughout the French West Indies to designate the hills of volcanic origin that dot the landscape. Where it is not part of a proper noun, you might translate this word as such.
Oiseau de Cham (lit., Bird of Shem; phon., Bird of the Field) the shadowy and unacknowledged figure of the author. Appearing in previous works of Chamoiseau, he is always cast as a marginal character struggling with a study of Martinican life. Oiseau de Cham is a word play on the author's name. The storyteller's play on his own name is a traditional motif. In one of the book's epigraphs, Edouard Glissant, author of the seminal Caribbean Discourse, participates in that play by calling Chamoiseau "game".
pète-bombe (lit. farting pot or bomb) a variation on the word bizbonm, which designates a top or opera hat; the hat would presumably make a flatulent noise when popped off (Jourdain).
pian yaws, a skin disease causing yellowish, swollen ulcers that afflicted black slaves brought from Africa to the New world. In the novel it also seems to describe the actual sores caused by the disease. "Mapian" (Mama yaws) refers to the principal ulcer.
quimboiseurs a word describing magic users, derived from the old tradition of curing known as Quin/Tiens Bois. Quimboiseurs dispense ancient remedies; they are professional ritual consultants. Also, pejoratively, "evildoers".
la Savane in many urban areas in the Caribbean, an open space, sometimes grassy, a central gathering place. Used as an adjective, the word is equivalent to "unofficial".
seyaress see C.R.S.
soukougnan in West Indian folklore, a creature capable of shedding its humna skin at night, flying batlike, and emitting light.
SPEDEM a body governing artistic and industrial copyrights.
tafia white rum.
tête calendée a pre-tied madras calendé.
la Trace an overland road which goes from Morne Rouge to Fort-de-France through thick forest.
vidé (from the expression videz les lieux, "vacate the premises") in the French Antilles, a noisy parade during Carnival or electoral victory celebrations.
moult [mult] adv. Vx ou plaisant. Beaucoup, très.
achélèmes = HLM n. fém. ou masc. Sigle d'habitation à loyer modéré, qui désigne un immeuble construit par une collectivité publique et dont les appartements sont destinés à des familles à revenus modestes. Par ext. Tout immeuble où les loyers sont bas.
bissextile adj. Dans le calendrier julien, on doublait tous les quatre ans le sixième jour avant les calendes de mars). Année bissextile : année de 366 jours, qui revient tous les quatre ans et dont le mois de février compte 29 jours.
couillonnade n. fém. Fam. Acte ou parole imbécile.
gommier n. masc. Petite embarcation dérivée des pirogues et utilisée dans l'archipel des Antilles.
boutou n. masc. heavy, sharp-edged club used by the Carib Indians for fighting.
macayer v. grignoter.
Le crin siffla comme un cristal. (p. 22) : la ligne tinta tel des billes qui s'entrechoquent.
crin n. masc. signification exclusive, ligne : fil terminé par un ou plusieurs hameçons pour pêcher.
cristal n. masc. signification nouvelle : bille : petite boule en pierre, en verre, etc., utilisée dans les jeux d'enfants.
ravet n. masc. roach (créole haïtien)
accorer v. to dry-dock, put a ship up on supports to effect repairs.
propreter v. to take care of
bécune n. fém. Nom vernaculaire du grand barracuda ( Sphyraena barracuda).
Tenir tête à quelqu'un : lui résister, s'opposer à son autorité.
ânonner v. intrans. et v. trans. Lire, parler ou réciter avec peine, en hésitant et sans intonation. L'écolier ânonnait (sa leçon).
moult [mult] adv. Vx ou plaisant. Beaucoup, très.
achélèmes = HLM n. fém. ou masc. Sigle d'habitation à loyer modéré, qui désigne un immeuble construit par une collectivité publique et dont les appartements sont destinés à des familles à revenus modestes. Par ext. Tout immeuble où les loyers sont bas.
bissextile adj. Dans le calendrier julien, on doublait tous les quatre ans le sixième jour avant les calendes de mars). Année bissextile : année de 366 jours, qui revient tous les quatre ans et dont le mois de février compte 29 jours.
couillonnade n. fém. Fam. Acte ou parole imbécile.
gommier n. masc. Petite embarcation dérivée des pirogues et utilisée dans l'archipel des Antilles.
boutou n. masc. heavy, sharp-edged club used by the Carib Indians for fighting.
macayer v. grignoter.
Le crin siffla comme un cristal. (p. 22) : la ligne tinta tel des billes qui s'entrechoquent.
crin n. masc. signification exclusive, ligne : fil terminé par un ou plusieurs hameçons pour pêcher.
cristal n. masc. signification nouvelle : bille : petite boule en pierre, en verre, etc., utilisée dans les jeux d'enfants.
ravet n. masc. roach (créole haïtien)
accorer v. to dry-dock, put a ship up on supports to effect repairs.
propreter v. to take care of
bécune n. fém. Nom vernaculaire du grand barracuda ( Sphyraena barracuda).
Tenir tête à quelqu'un : lui résister, s'opposer à son autorité.
ânonner v. intrans. et v. trans. Lire, parler ou réciter avec peine, en hésitant et sans intonation. L'écolier ânonnait (sa leçon).
French-American
Chamber of Commerce
Seattle-Nantes
Sister City Association
French-American
School of Puget Sound
Washington
Academy of Languages
The French-speaking community in Seattle meets on the first Monday of every month from about 7 pm at the Virginia Inn. This is only one of several tables. Join us and enjoy a glass of wine, a light meal and good French conversation!
Kirland Library Conversation Group
Practice speaking
French and meet fellow learners at the Kirkland
Library's Conversation Club.
Whether you are a native speaker or just learning, all are welcome
to enjoy learning together! The class will meet the fourth Monday of
every month from 7:00-9:00pm. No registration required, just drop by.
All ages welcome.
Association
de jumelage Seattle-Nantes
Chambre
de commerce franco-américaine
Académie
des langues de Washington
Ecole
Franco-Américaine du Puget Sound
Académie des langues de Seattle
Les francophones se réunissent le premier lundi de chaque mois à partir du 1900 au Virginia Inn. Celle-ci est seulement une table parmi plusieurs. Venez nombreux et partagez un verre, un petit plat et la bonne conversation française!
Groupe de Conversation à la bibliothèque
de Kirkland
Venez pratiquer votre français et faire la connaissance d'autres
francophiles au Club de Conversation de la Bibliothèque
de Kirkland.
Que vous soyez francophones ou étudiants de cette langue, vous êtes
tous les bienvenus! Les réunions
ont lieu les quatrièmes
lundis de chaque mois à partir de 19 h 00. Pas besoin de s'inscrire:
venez simplement vous joindre à nous. Tous âges bienvenus.
Check out the music: tôt Ou tard !
Ecoutez la musique: tôt Ou tard !
Alliance
Francaise of Seattle
Words Without Borders