Last Thursday we celebrated the very American holiday ofThanksgiving* here in the United States. And while Thanksgiving isnot typically celebrated in France, some of my best memories from my times in France happened on or around Thanksgiving time.

First some vocabulary

After dinner Thursday, I entered a state lovingly referred to in the US as a “food coma”. The French you will no doubt not be surprised to learn, do not have a word for this condition! The closest equivalent I’ve been able to find issomnolence digestivewhich I would translate as “sleepiness brought on by digestion” … which is an accurate definition of a sleep coma, but much less evocative.

As you can tell from the photo, my sleep coma knocked me out onle canapé(the couch)où je me suis endormi**(where I fell asleep)***.I was well rested after an hour or so,mais je me suis réveillé** tout courbatu / avec descourbatures(but I woke up all stiff (or achy) / with muscle aches).

The verbs’endormir (to fall asleep)comes from the verbdormir (to sleep)and is conjugated similarly in the present tense.
Je dors / je m’endors	I sleep (am sleeping) / I (am) fall(ing) asleep
Tu dors / tu t’endors	You sleep (are sleeping) / You (are) fall(ing) asleep
Il/elle/on dort / s’endort	He/she/one sleeps (is sleeping) / falls asleep
Nous dormons / nous nous endormons	We sleep (are sleeping) / We (are) fall(ing) asleep
Vous dormez / vous vous endormez	You sleep (are sleeping) / You (are) fall(ing) asleep
Ils/elles dorment / s’endorment	They sleep (are sleeping) / They (are) fall(ing) asleep

Et un peu d’histoire / une petite histoire(And a little history / a little story)****

Many years ago when I was away from home onmy first trip to France, my mother tried every way she could to make sure that I didn’t forget where I was from. One thing she did was to send me little care packages full of American-themed goodies. My host family had heard about Thanksgiving from their own son who was spending the year in the United States. So when my mother’s latest package arrived, they decided to use it to throw me my own French Thanksgiving. Coming up with the turkey and all the fixings was a trick (turkey isn’t often on the menu for dinner in France), but thanks to Mom (and her Hallmark shopping) we all got a little taste of America on a cold French November Thursday.

Pour finir/And finally

Enjoy this classic Frenchcomptine(childrens song)that features the verbdormir… and which might just help youdormir aussi!

* Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving (known in Québec asl’Action de grâce) but in October (octobre).Thanksgiving in the United States is always on the fourth Thursday of November (le quatrième jeudi de novembre）.在加拿大,l’Action de grâce à lieu le deuxième lundi d’octobre (the second Monday in October).
** ‘s’endormir’and ‘se réveiller‘ are examples ofreflexive verbs.
***Many people are familiar with the Spanish expressionsiestawhich refers to the afternoon nap/rest time. In French they say “faire le sieste”to refer to a nap. Example:Après le repas de Thanksgiving, j’ai fais un sieste. / After the Thanksgiving meal, I took a nap.
****I’ve always loved how the French word forhistoryis the same as the word forstory.