The Valley of Adventure

[Chrissie777]

Anita, I was young and it didn't bother me too much.
I remember a French forumite, Aurélien (sp?). Maybe he has some insider knowledge about the conditions in French publishing houses way back then.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Aurélien is from New Zealand but we have had a few forumites from France - I recall Serge (who was also active on the Blyton Yahoo Group), Pebe and Chrisolive69 (Christophe). However, none of them have posted for ages.

[Chrissie777]

Sorry, Anita, I totally over-looked/missed the fact that Aurélien is from New Zealand.
It's a pity that the others from France no longer participate.
For me it's always interesting to hear different opinions from people from other countries.
Serge must have been active before I joined the Blyton Yahoo Group in the summer of 2008, I don't remember his posts .
Also I miss Nanny's posts, but we are sometimes in touch on Facebook.

[Wolfgang]

Anne Picard has also French roots but hasn't posted in ages...
Serge started a forum in French, but my French is by far too bad to post anything there...

[Chrissie777]

Serge started a forum in French, but my French is by far too bad to post anything there...

Wolfgang, that's hard to imagine!
After all, you've just finished reading the French version of "Valley of Adventure"!

[Wolfgang]

Reading is one thing, but I don't have a feeling for the grammar (yet). Actually there's a lot of guess work involved when I read the books, but I don't really want to use a dictionary for the time being. At least I know enough French to recognize significant changes compared to the English text.
When I asked Serge about "bibliothèque idéal", we ended up both using Google translate to sort things out.

[Chrissie777]

When I asked Serge about "bibliothèque idéal", we ended up both using Google translate to sort things out.

What is "bibliothèque idéal"?

[Wolfgang]

The publisher Hachette runs several "bibliotheques", I'd describe it as publishing houses. As it seems "Bibliotheque idéal" is the one for de luxe editions of books, they have much more coloured illustrations inside and it seems they have more text than other bibliotheques like "rose", if the book is publlished in more than one bibliotheque. It's something I'd like to discuss with someone who knows far more about French editions than I do. I had asked Serge if the first two adventure books had also been published by bibliothèque idéal, but according to his knowledge that wasn't the case.

[Chrissie777]

That's interesting.
Are luxe editions hardcover versions of the Adventure/FF series?
My French FF sequels (the first four volumes) and the one from FFO & Dog (maison au bois) are Hachette Jeunesse paperbacks from 1990 and 1992 which I must have found and purchased in 1993 on Corsica. I really like their illustrations.
But I've never seen any Adventure books in French!
I don't think that I could handle reading them. To read the first 4 FF in French FF was fairly easy, because I'm so familiar with the plots, so I was able to guess the words i did not know. But the Adventure series icontains much more text and more is more advanced than FF, definitely for older readers/children.

[Wolfgang]

You can see (some of) the covers of the French adventure series here: http://serge-passions.fr/adventure_seri ... 0d%27aigle, the ones with the pink around the title are paperbacks. Bibliotheque idéal books come with a dw, the cover of the book itself is criss-crossed, within the squares there are stars.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Wolfgang. It's interesting to see the covers. My favourites are the ones by Jeanne Hives and François Batet as they're bold and striking yet dreamy, with attractive colours and realistic-looking characters.

Some of the others are okay too, but not particularly eye-catching. Françoise Estachy's cover is the most peculiar in my opinion as the children look unnaturally long and thin and "stretched".

[sixret]

Having checked on the internet, Le Mystère de la Cascade appears to have been published for the first time in 1962. I wouldn't have thought the French would have considered the topic of the Second World War too sensitive by that time.

That's just my personal impression after having watched lots of British, but also many French documentaries on WW II and people Klaus Barbie, Beate Klarsfeld etc: I know the British suffered at least as much from the Nazis as the French did, but they seem to be more forgiving than the French (I was still called a boche (sp?) in 1985 on vacation in France).

I have searched for the word using Google but could not find the meaning. I am very curious to know the meaning, Chrissie. Could you please let me know the meaning in pm?

[Chrissie777]

Here it is, sixret.
The online translator was not helpful.
For decades I believed it's derived from the company Bosch, but Wiki has a different explanation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... or_Germans" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[sixret]

Thank you, Chrissie.

[Moonraker]

Split from another topic.

I am now reading Valley. One thing I have never previously noticed is that it is explained by one of the children that the ferns keep the cave completely dry, although in the winter when they die down, the spray enters the cave, soaks the floor and the moss can grow.

What does Jack (or Philip) do? Ties back the ferns so that the cave gets more light. Surely, it will get more spray, so soaking the inside!