Dans les coulisses d’une cabane à sucre géante
B1 French listening practice · Québec French · Picked for people who know some
What is a Quebec “cabane à sucre”?
Cabane à sucre translates as “sugar shack,” but in Quebec it’s a whole spring institution: a maple-grove cabin where sap is boiled into syrup, and where families pile in for temps des sucres meals of pea soup, fèves au lard, oreilles de crisse and tire sur la neige (warm syrup poured onto fresh snow). Schoolchildren get the day off; restaurants close to host trips.
In this clip, host Eric Arnaud visits Saint-Robert-de-Bellarmin, a town of 800 with a million tap-holes and one of Quebec’s largest cabanes à sucre. The Pépin brothers run 160,000 entailles and ship to 53 countries. Canada produces roughly 80% of the world’s maple syrup; Quebec produces roughly 90% of Canada’s.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B1 French listening practice video?
How common in written French
How common in spoken French
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · Lexique 3.83 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In temps des sucres coverage by La Presse, Le Devoir and Radio-Canada
- ▸At named producers: Érablière au Sous-Bois, Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon and Sucrerie de la Montagne
- ▸In tourism material from Bonjour Québec and the Producteurs et Productrices Acéricoles du Québec (PPAQ)
- ▸In food shows like Curieux Bégin, Les Chefs! and L’Épicerie on Radio-Canada