La Coupe de France

une coupe (pronounced 'coop') = a cup

La Coupe de France is the French soccer/football cup, and its final game is happening tomorrow.

While a second national cup (La Coupe de la Ligue) was created in 1994, la Coupe de France remains the most prestigious trophy in a direct-elimination tournament. It typically offers the most surprises, thanks to the participation of amateur teams, and also provides its winner with a spot on the prestigious UEFA European cup.

Tomorrow, archrivals Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Olympique de Marseille (OM) are facing off for the first time in a final. The game will be played in Paris' Stade de France in front of 80,000 fans, and will surely bear all the marks of the long-time tension between both cities and teams.

Haha!

In French, the funny bone is called "petit juif" (small Jew), for some reason. I'd love to know why, if anyone has an answer let me know.

Sounds

French sounds:
Toc toc: knock knock
Dring dring: bell ring
Boum!: Bang!
Paf!: Wham!
Pouf!: Oopsadaisy!

Weight

léger / légère = light (as in "not heavy")
lourd / lourde = heavy (the 'd' is silent in the masculine form)

Examples:
je manger léger = I eat light (léger can also be an adverb)
à la légère = lightly, not seriously, without thinking
prendre quelquechose à la légère = not to take something seriously
avoir le cœur lourd = to have a heavy heart
avoir la main lourde = to be heavy-handed
t'es lourd! = you're getting on my nerves! (slang)

Italien

Italien / Italienne = Italian (both noun and adjective)

An interesting slang variation is rital (plural ritals). Although the shortening (dare I say apocope ?) of "italien" to "ital" is fairly clear, the "r" somehow remains a mystery. French newspaper Le Monde argues that it may be a remnant of the pronunciation of "parler italien" (to speak italian), where the final "r" in "parler" is vocal. I'd welcome any official answer on this one.

More geography

After the discussion on départements, some people pointed out to me that:

• The map was a little outdated, as it referred to the original boundaries set in 1790... Here is a more up-to-date map
• T.O.M. (territoires d'outre-mer, oversees territories) are additional administrative divisions beyond départements. DOM-TOM collectively refers to the 4 départements d'outre-mer (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, Réunion) and the territoires d'outre-mer (Nouvelle Calédonie, Polynésie Française, Wallis et Futuna, Terres Australes et Antarctiques Française). Strictly speaking, TOM do not officially exist anymore, having been replaced by a number of other fascinating denominations like DOM-ROM and COM.
  

Have a good week-end, and here's a couple more for the road:
Pâque = Easter
Pâque Juive = Passover ("Jewish Easter", how original)

Some geography

(un) département is an administrative division of France. Created in 1790, their boundaries, number, names evolved over the past 200 years. Today, there are 96 départements in continental France, plus 4 départements d'outre-mer (overseas departments).

Départements are grouped into 22 (continental) + 4 (overseas) régions, and further devided into arrondissements, communes etc. Each département has a capital city, called a préfecture, and a number assigned to it (used, for example, on car license plates).

Départements are numbered in alphabetical order, from 1 (Ain) to 19 (Corrèze), then 2A and 2B instead of 20 for the two départements making up Corsica, then from 21 (Côte-d'Or) to 95 (Val-d'Oise). Add to that the four départements d'outre-mer: 971 (Guadeloupe), 972 (Martinique), 973 (Guyane), 974 (La Réunion).

Learning the list of all départements, their number and préfecture, used to be a typical exercise for middle-schoolers. I personally think it's enough to know that Paris is #75, an its préfecture is Paris. See the complete list, or a short description of each

Le mur

(un) mur = wall

Aller droit dans le mur = to go straight into a wall
Être le dos au mur = to have one's back to the wall
C'est à se taper la tête contre les murs = you feel like banging your head against the wall

Super

Some nice words to wrap up the week:
super = great
génial = brilliant
épatant / épatante = marvellous
d'enfer = "a hell of a", e.g. une fête d'enfer = a hell of a party
géant = great (literally giant)

e.g. c'est super! = c'est génial! = c'est géant! = it's great!

So

(un) sot (the 't' is silent) / (une) sotte = silly. Can be both a noun or an adjective.
E.g. il n'y a pas de sots métiers = no profession is without merit

It's also pronounced the same as:
un seau = a bucket
e.g. un seau à glace = an ice bucket