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Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. FWT: "Putain, a caille !"
(Nov 24, 2005)
The universal cry this week this side of the Channel.
Literal meaning: "Whore, it is curdling!"
Real meaning: "Jesus, it's freezing!"
To intensify, the more rhetorical : "Mais qu'est-ce que a caille!"
= But how it is freezing!
The "c" is hard like cake. Approximate sound : kye.
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Latest reply: Nov 25, 2005)
Paris, November 24, 2005
(Nov 24, 2005)
Snow tomorrow on the ële de France!!! We'll have Aiberdeen weather next. I don't know what the world is coming to. And I had two geraniums on the balcony still in bloom (surreptitious cuttings from Chenonceau).
Spent all day looking after sick grand-daughter ( a little fever and sniffles), though she was still going strong when I left tonight, totally bushed. But nursery school is making her so articulate now that we're having real conversations, rhetoric even. There was a delicate stage when I had to argue the case for taking her temperature (the continental way of course) but she finally submitted with good grace.
In the intervals of painting, rolling on the floor, singing, dancing and so on, I had a few very instructive hours in the Bull. It never fails to amaze me, this thing I can't define, this je ne sais quoi, perhaps due to the sentimental nature of this jewel set in a silver sea (not mentioning nations here...).
What I mean is that on one side you had Jont being sat on for resenting being pressured (he felt) to swear on the Bible for the probate procedure, and then in another thread (I'm wrapping you see) people giving Christmas boxes to explicitly Christian groups who were having doubts about possible proselytising going on.
Christians and the Communist Party are supposed to make converts. That's what they do. Period. I'm probaby missing something here. I must discuss this with Dagesh.
Back home, I have just had fresh pasta and an apple. Not everybody can have the Lucullean feasts of ourr Scottish brethren.
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R, November 21, 2005
(Nov 21, 2005)
Lovely evening yesterday. We had booked seats for the closing concert of a series, Les Musicales de St Cosme, held in Ronsard's last home, the St Cosme Priory in Tours. Ruins of an old 12th century cathedral, lit against a clear night sky. The concerts are held in the refectory which still boasts a stone lectern. Fantastic acoustics. We went there with two old friends who have retired in the area with whom we used to go to the opera in Paris, when we still had the time and the stamina.
Anyway the programme was as follows: Elgar's serenade for strings, which I had never heard before, and Britten's Simple Symphony for strings (opus 4) as appetisers. The came Mozart's clarinet concerto ; the soloist was a cult figure in French music, both jazz and classical, Michel Portal, 70 this week. He was endearingly nervous and it was like listening to a young soprano, wondering if she'll manage to hit that top E. I've never heard the clarinet played as if it was a voice. A spiritual experience. The encore was the last movement.
The last piece was Mozart's Symphonie Concertante, with Gérard Caussé conducting as well as playing the alto and a young violinist, pretty and demure. They played together with gazes locked (purple passage alert), it was an incredible performance.
And then since it was the last concert there was a cocktail for the audience, as well as a celebration of Portal's 70th birthday. We put the chairs away so that the caterers could display their wares and we tucked in, lovely nibbles and sparkling Vouvray. We fairly pigged it. Portal gave a very touching speech,saying that every time he was on stage, he felt 12 again. Also he said that jazz audiences tend to clap rather weakly and it's hard on the musicians' morale.
We circulated and met a dignitary from our village and his lady wife, with whom O/H is on a "tu" basis (not I). We all fantasized a bit about holding such concerts in our lovely little church but the figures he quoted were impossible.
We got home safely (a 30 minutes' drive) and then tucked in again, cold chichen, hot roast potatoes, salad and baked apples, washed down by Beaujolais nouveau (not me I hate the stuff).
The beauty of this from my point of view was that I've realised that live music acts on my nervous system and I didn't suffer from the restless legs syndrome which is making my days a misery at the moment (and for eternity I believe). So that means we can go out in the evenings again...
Back to the grindstone now, piles of essays, etc...
Have a good week all!
Still waiting for those pictures annie.
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Latest reply: Nov 23, 2005)
FWT :"ça va pas le faire!"
(Nov 20, 2005)
Lieral meaning: it's not going to do it
Real meaning: it's not going to work/ it's far short of what is needed
A particularly obnoxious new phrase which I would die rather than use but which has spread like wildfire in modern French.
Example
A - Il aimerait bien sortir avec elle...
B - Ah oui, à mon avis , ça va pas le faire.
Translation
A - He'd like to go out with her
B - I don't think so!
Still struggling to find where it comes from, probably pétanque...
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Latest reply: Nov 20, 2005)
FWT :"se prendre la tête"
(Nov 14, 2005)
I bet you won't find this in many dictionaries...
Literal meaning : "hold one's head"
Real meaning: get obsessed, get stuck with a situation, a problem
Age-group: the young (and those in contact with them...)
Substandard
Examples :
Poster A - Cette histoire de DNA, ça me prend la tête...
Poster B - C'est sûr, ce nouveau forum, c'est une vraie prise de tête. Mais demande à Peet ou Jont, ils t'expliqueront.
Poster A
"This DNA business is doing my head in/driving me crazy"
Poster B
"You're right, the new boards are a real pain. But ask Peet or Jont, they'll have answers."
Any resemblance to any living person is purely unintentional. No offence meant to any denomination. Just a learner-centred approach through the use of familiar situations.
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