Elyse and Pierre, the parents of la famille Valentine, had six enfants— four filles and two garçons. These were their names and ages: Annalise (An-na-leez), ten; Brigitte (Bree-zheet), nine; Claire (Clayr), eight; Dagobert (Dag-oh-bayr), seven; and Eugenie (Uh- zhay-nee) and Etienne (Ay-tyee-en), six-year-old twins. Nearly every enfant Valentine had a different couleur (ku-lœr: color) of hair. Annalise had noir hair. Brigitte had brun (brunh: brown) hair. Claire had roux (roo: ginger/red) hair. Dagobert had chatâin (sha-tunh: chestnut) hair. Eugenie had blond hair, and Etienne’s hair had the same couleur as Eugenie because they were twins. Les enfants were all beaux (boe: beautiful), but Annalise was so belle that everybody who saw her fell in love with her.
Les enfants always dreamed of aventures (ah-von-tur: adventures) in Carcassonne with faraway looks in their eyes. They could see the tops of les remparts (lay rom-par: the ramparts) of Carcassonne. Because they were too young to travel to la cité alone, they used their imaginations to play, and invented games about the walled medieval cité. One game was hide-and-seek. Les enfants pretended they were hiding inside the walls of Carcassonne, and they had aventures there.
Madame Elyse had a favorite child: Dagobert. She favored him because he had greatness in him, or so she thought. He was also brilliant and very clever. She wanted him to become a politician, and he liked the idea.
Dagobert liked mathematics and loved working on crossword puzzles. Dagobert was named after a very good king who helped make Paris (Pah-ree: Paris) the capital of France many centuries ago.
King Dagobert was so beloved that for generations he was called Good King Dagobert. His trône (trone: throne) is kept in the trésor (tray-zor: treasure) chamber of an abbey near Paris where many of the kings and queens of France are buried. Les enfants sometimes sang a song about Good King Dagobert. French enfants sang the song for many years. 
Sometimes Madame Elyse gave les enfants old coins to play with. These coins were rare, although Madame Elyse did not know that. Fortunately, after playing with them, les enfants always brought them back to Madame Elyse to keep until the next time.
Dagobert was the banker. He handed out the coins to the other enfants. Dagobert would say, “Annalise will go first this time because she is the eldest.”

Annalise asked for coins so she could purchase a ballerina dress because she wanted to be a famous dancer. Annalise said, “Thank you, Monsieur Banker. I hope I find a belle dress to wear or maybe go to the ballet.” Annalise was enchanting but demanding, because she felt she needed the most money for ballerina clothing. If Monsieur Banker did not give her enough coins, she got sharp and said, “Oh, bleeding hearts, I need more coins.” Bleeding hearts were belles flowers that are in bloom only a short period of time. Brigitte was the second to receive her coins. Brigitte wanted to look for the blancs, (blõn: white) wild chevaux (shuh-vo: horses) nearby on une ferme in the countryside. She wanted enough money to take Eugenie with her. They could bring a picnic lunch or have lunch out at a fancy country restaurant. She said, “Eugenie, please stop fidgeting. Calm down. We will have a wonderful time visiting les chevaux.”
Eugenie said, “I want to pet them! Maybe I could ride un (uhn: one) cheval. Maybe we could bring home un cheval for Puccini.” She followed Brigitte on la ferme.
