Dust

la poussière = dust, a speck of dust. E.g.

• réduire en poussière = to reduce to dustspeck of dust.
• 5 euros et des poussières = just over 5 euros
• mordre la poussière = to bite the dust

Paris

No big surprise with this one (don't pronounce the 's' in French), but a few side notes and snippets of information:

• Paris was known as Lutèce (Lutetia) under Roman occupation, but takes its name from the Parisii celtic tribe that inhabited the region before the Romans
• It is nicknamed la ville-lumière (city of lights), supposedly both for its center role in the French cultural life and its famous street-lighting
• It is also referred to as Paname, an early-20th century slang term that has recently been revived by the young generation
  
• It's also sometimes referred to as la ville aux cent villages (the hundred-village city), la cité de l'amour (the city of love) or, modestly, la plus belle ville du monde (the most beautiful city in the world)
• Parisians are les Parisiens, also pejoratively called Parigots (pronounced pa-ree-go) by jealous non-Parisians
• Its often-mocked soccer team is PSG, which stands for Paris Saint-Germain
  

Elections

Well, today's word in an easy one, as French voters return from the urns:
une election = an election
but it also allows me to introduce some of the acronyms that you need to be aware of if you happen to speak to a French national in the next couple of weeks, as these are sure to be part of every conversation:

• UMP: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement) - right, candidate Nicolas Sarkozy who came in 1st in the first round
• PS: Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party) - left, candidate Ségolène Royal who came in 2nd in the first round
• UDF: Union pour la démocratie française (Union for French Democracy) - center, candidate François Bayrou who came in 3rd in the first round
• FN: Front National (National Front) - extreme right, candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen who came in 4th in the first round.

And for the smaller ones:

• LCR: Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League)
• MPF: Mouvement pour la France (Movement for France)
• LO: Lutte ouvrière (Workers Struggle)
• CPNT: Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions (Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions)

If you are interested in reading about these and the fascinating process of French presidential elections, feel free to read more here. The climax will happen in two weeks (on 5/6), with the 2nd round face-off of Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.

Elections

Well, today's word in an easy one, as French voters return from the urns:
une election = an election
but it also allows me to introduce some of the acronyms that you need to be aware of if you happen to speak to a French national in the next couple of weeks, as these are sure to be part of every conversation:

• UMP: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement) - right, candidate Nicolas Sarkozy who came in 1st in the first round
• PS: Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party) - left, candidate Ségolène Royal who came in 2nd in the first round
• UDF: Union pour la démocratie française (Union for French Democracy) - center, candidate François Bayrou who came in 3rd in the first round
• FN: Front National (National Front) - extreme right, candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen who came in 4th in the first round.

And for the smaller ones:

• LCR: Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League)
• MPF: Mouvement pour la France (Movement for France)
• LO: Lutte ouvrière (Workers Struggle)
• CPNT: Chasse, pêche, nature et traditions (Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions)

If you are interested in reading about these and the fascinating process of French presidential elections, feel free to read more here. The climax will happen in two weeks (on 5/6), with the 2nd round face-off of Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.

Boulet

un boulet = a large, heavy ball, usually a cannonball:
un boulet de canon = a cannonball
Also means a ball as in "ball and chain", hence the popular expression to designate someone who's a burden:
je ne veux pas être un boulet pour toi = I don't want to be a burden to you
quel boulet! = what a drag!

1-2-3

primo = firstly
secundo (pronounced se - gon - do) = secondly
tertio = thirdly (pronounced ter-see-yo)

You can also use deuzio (also spelled deusio) but it is less formal (although it is listed in my dictionary). If you want to be facetious, you can also try uno-deuxio-troisio (simply appending -io to the numbers) but that's definitely incorrect. And lastly, you can go a little bit further (quarto = fourthly) but it becomes a mine field trying to go past 4. I wouldn't recommend it :)

Khâgne

la khâgne = slang term used to designate the classes préparatoires (preparatory classes) to France's top schools ("grandes écoles")

This term refers in particular to humanities classes, but classes préparatoires more generally refers to the two years of intense study, right after high school, that lead to highly competitive exams for entrance into the top engineering, business and research schools, such as the Ecole Normale Supérieure (for research, aka Normale Sup', ENS or Ulm after the street where it's located in Paris) or Ecole Polytechnique (for engineering, also called "X"). Known for their intense competition between students ("no, you can't borrow my eraser, I wouldn't want you to correct your mistakes"), classes préparatoires also compete against each other. Among the most famous ones are Louis-le-Grand, Henri IV (aka H4), and Saint Louis, all located in Paris' famous Quartier Latin (latin quarter) student district, but many more exist throughout France.

By extension, un khâgneux / une khâgneuse = slang for a student in a preparatory class. Slang is actually an integral part of life in classes préparatoires, for example:

• maths sup' (short for mathématiques supérieures) = first year of math prep school
• maths spé (short for mathématiques spéciales) = second of math prep school
• 3/2 (trois-demi) = student in his second year of classes préparatoires
• 5/2 (cinq-demi) = student who's repeating his second year and taking the entry exams for the second time
• une colle = literally, glue. In university lingo, an oral test
  

Tarte

une tarte = a pie

One of my favorites has to be la tarte tatin, an apple pie baked upside-down with caramelized apples. Legend has it the Tatin sisters created this dish by mistake (either by dropping a pie on the floor and re-baking it, or by trying to salvage a bunch of overcooked apples... more here). Anyway, it's delicious with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream. Here's a recipe.

In completely unrelated news, No One Is Innocent, a French band who had its 15mn of fame in the late 90s before a comeback in 2004, and whom I've already mentioned, recently released a new album (Gazoline), for those interested in noise.

Lapalisse

une lapalissade = a truism

Not to be confused with la palissade = a fence, this word derives from Jacques de la Palisse, of whom, legend has it, people said "a quarter hour before his death, he was still quite alive" (un quart d'heure avant sa mort, il était encore en vie) - more details on the true story here, in English this time

TGV

TGV = Train à Grande Vitesse, literally High-Speed Train, the French version of the bullet train that made the news today. Of course, it also stands for Tequila-Gin-Vodka.