A Wise Old Owl That Can Only Speak French

For a while now I have been wanting to give Poppette a soft toy that could only speak French. I have been on the lookout for the perfect one.

Yesterday I found him in the guise of Monsieur L'Hibou (Mr Owl). He's totally adorable and thankfully Poppette seems quite taken with him (I would run out of fingers if I tried to count how many times I have bought her what I think is the cutest soft toy on the planet only for her to pick up an empty Evian bottle and play with that instead!).

So, the plan is that, as Poppette grows and interacts more with her toys, she will (hopefully) always interact with Monsieur L'Hibou en français. For now, I will start to bring that alive for her by singing Dans La Forêt Prochaine with her whenever we play with him. It's a really cute song, whose lyrics are as follows:-

Dans la forêt prochaine,
On entend le coucou.

Du haut de son vieux chêne,
Il répond au hibou.

Coucou hibou, coucou hibou,
Coucou hibou, coucou.

A rough but not nearly as poetic translation would be:-

'In the nearby forest you can hear the cuckoo sing.
From high up in the old oak tree he is responding to the call of the owl.
"Hi there Owl", "hi there Owl", "hi there Owl", "hi".'

This version on YouTube is slightly different to the one on Poppette's nursery rhyme album (Toutes Mes Chansons Préférées) but the tune is the same.

I have also been thinking of creating un coin français which was suggested to me by another blogger...an area in our apartment where only French can be spoken.... even by Papa or friends and family. . . . I think that could be really good fun for everyone.