Friday Fun: Get Your Quotes Where You Can!

The Revillon chocolates in papillote form are the chocolates of choice for a festive meal during the Christmas/New Years festivities in our part of France. There are many variations now on the original mix of dark and milk chocolates, but what they all have in common is that they are the French equivalent to the British Christmas crackers or the Chinese fortune cookie: you find a joke (in the children’s versions) or a quote wrapped neatly around every chocolate.

 

Here are the three quotes or aphorisms which particularly attracted me this year, my ‘motto’ for 2015, if you will, coupled with some of my favourite images of the place where I currently live.

Rester, c’est exister; mais voyager, c’est vivre. (Gustave Nadaud)

[To stay is to exist but to travel is to live. – Nadaud was a 19th century French songwriter, who died in poverty]

Mer de Glace, Mont Blanc.

Lire, c’est voyager: voyager, c’est lire. (Victor Hugo)

[To read is to travel; to travel is to read.]

Jardin des Cinq Sens, Yvoire.

Ecrire, c’est une façon de parler sans être interrompu. (Jules Renard)

[Writing is a way of talking without getting interrupted. – Jules Renard was a 19th century French writer renowned for his witty epigrams – a slightly more earnest Oscar Wilde.]

Botanical Gardens, Geneva.