What is the song about?

The song follows a day of meals, from morning to evening. In the morning, you have tea or coffee with toast. At noon, you take a break for a sandwich and a soup. In the evening, you eat pasta, fish, or meat, followed by a chocolate dessert. The message is simple: eating together, sharing, and taking your time is important.

Useful words and expressions

  • le petit-déjeuner, le déjeuner, le dîner: the three meals in France (also written petit déjeuner without a hyphen). Note: in Belgium, Switzerland, and Quebec, people often say le déjeuner (morning), le dîner (midday), and le souper (evening).
  • le matin, le midi, le soir: the times of the day.
  • avoir faim / avoir soif: you use avoir, not être: As-tu faim ?
  • avoir besoin de: j'ai besoin d'un bon thé.
  • une tranche de pain grillé, le beurre, la confiture, un œuf, l'assiette
  • un verre de jus d'orange, un bol de soupe chaude: a quantity + de + the food item.
  • sucré / salé, lourd / léger: to describe a dish.
  • le plat principal, le dessert, la crème au chocolat
  • une pause s'impose: a break is necessary.
  • avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre: to want to eat more than you can really eat.
  • le soir tombe: night is coming.

Grammar

  • Partitive articles for an unspecified quantity: du poisson, de la viande, de l'eau. After a quantity, you only use de: un peu d'eau, un peu de vin.
  • Questions with inversion (slightly formal register): As-tu faim ? In everyday spoken French, people usually say Tu as faim ?
  • The imperative: Trouvons une table (nous), Bois, sers (tu), Apportez le dessert (vous).
  • The infinitive for a general idea: Manger tous ensemble pour tout partager, Prendre notre temps, c'est vraiment divin.
  • C'est + adjective: c'est très important, c'est vraiment divin.

Watch out: choices made for the rhyme

Some phrases are worded this way just to rhyme. Do not copy them as they are:

  • Un œuf sur l'assiette, la belle aventure rhymes with confiture. Nobody talks about a breakfast egg like this.
  • Sans faire aucune fraude is there to rhyme with chaude. It does not really make sense for a meal: you would simply say partager les plats.
  • Tant de saveurs à nous faire goûter is an unusual phrasing. People would rather say tant de saveurs à goûter.
  • Le soir qui descend is poetic. The common expression is le soir tombe, as in the second verse.
  • Ce désir du soir est un vrai gala is a free image chosen to rhyme with chocolat. It is not a French expression.