Paris at a Certain Age

en Deuil

 Patricia Moran

We knew it would happen - that Patricia wouldn't be able to live as long as she deserved, that it was amazing she triumphed as long as she did, and that we would lose her too soon. But knowing it intellectually did not lessen the impact of her death. Words are inadequate for grief, that must be why so many synonyms involve the sheer physicality of mourning: bemoaning, bewailing,  lamentation, etc. And why some cultures rely on keening and ulalation, rather than the insufficiency of words.

I tried French, wondering if they might have les mots justes. Alas....le deuil, le chagrin, la détresse,  la désolation, la douleur...they don't do grief better than we do in English. But then I realized I should be more Buddhist about this. Life is suffering, we will all die, etc. And I realized that I should really be celebrating Patricia and the gift she was to all who knew her. And French does have words for that:

Patricia was:

époustouflante

passionnée

cultivée

sage

attentive

formidable

méditative

altruiste

bienfaisante

gentille

sympa

secourable

douce

gracieuse

réfléchie

rassurante

profonde

sereine

décontractée

drôle

ordonnée

patiente

comique

sociable

tolérante

doué

I could go on and on.  Describing her feels better than mourning her. Hug someone you love today, while you can, and give thanks for the opportunity to have them in your life.

Birth Order

Recently I watched the French film A Christmas Tale by director Arnaud Desplechin with actresses Catherine Deneuve and her real-life daughter Chiara Mastroianni. The film did not make a big impression on me, but one word in it seized my attention: cadet.

They made reference to the birth order of the troubled film siblings and used the word benjamin to refer to the youngest. Okay, I've heard that before. Ditto aîné, the oldest. But then they called the middle child the cadet. Hunh? I thought cadet was the youngest, like benjamin. I was so certain that I let it slide  till it came up a second time and sent me running to my favorite on-line dictionary/translation site: WordReference. In their French/English Forums, I discovered nuances that had I hadn't realized existed.

Yes, aîné/e means the oldest, elder, first-born. And benjamin/e means the youngest, the baby of the family. Next, I looked up cadet and aha! There it was: the younger, the youngest, the baby of the family, a synonym for benjamin. I gave myself a pat on the back, but then I wondered what do they call the middle child in French? Back to the dico. No specific word appeared and I figured they must use an adjective the way we do in English, like au mileu de famille or some such construction. But then I scrolled to the bottom of the page and there in the Forums was an entry for middle child. And Voila - a discussion on the topic of how to translate 'middle child'.

And I learned that cadet is the second child (also called puîné) and if it's a two child family it's also the youngest child, or the benjamin. But if there are more than two children, cadet can refer to any other child except the oldest. And to make matters more confusing, benjamin can also refer to the favorite child, in which case it could refer to any of the children. Are you confused yet?

Let's examine some examples:

The Smothers Brothers

Tommy is the oldest, the aîné. Dick is the younger and assuming there aren't any less famous siblings he's also the youngest, so he is the cadet. According to Tommy, Mom always liked Dick the best, so Dick is the benjamin by virtue of being the favorite and the youngest.

The Simpsons

Bart is the oldest, so he is the aîné. Maggie is the youngest, so she is the benjamin. Lisa is the middle child, so she is the cadet. But I haven't watched enough of The Simpsons to know which is the favorite child.

I need help!
Francophones: is this indeed the correct understanding of birth order in French?
Simpson fans: who is the favorite child of Homer and Marge?

Madame de Staël - Free!

Good news! Thanks to DailyLit.com, it's now possible to read the biography Madame de Staël, The First Modern Woman, by Francine du Plessix Gray for free through January.  According to Booklist:

"Intelligent, enthusiastic, and eloquent, Madame de Staël was a legendary conversationalist, brilliant writer, and courageous liberal activist. She was also a romantic passionate about politics and women’s rights, a perfect subject for du Plessix Gray, the biographer of the Marquis de Sade, Louise Colet, and Simone Weil. This page-turning brief life begins with vivid tales from de Staël’s privileged if demanding childhood as Germaine Necker, the daughter of Louis XVI’s minister of finance. With art and efficiency, du Plessix Gray then tracks de Staël’s remarkable evolution over the course of a messy marriage of convenience, many conspicuous affairs, motherhood, exile, and a long, terrible battle of wills with Napoléon Bonaparte. Ruthless in her portrayals of de Staël at her most ludicrously theatrical and of de Staël’s colorful lovers and enemies, du Plessix Gray crisply analyzes de Staël’s pioneering books and commends her heroism during the Terror."

DailyLit recently became an all free service through which it's possible to receive installments of a book via email or RSS on a computer or mobile device such as an iPhone or Blackberry. It's possible to adjust settings to receive it daily or on specific days you prefer. You can also choose delivery time, serif or sans serif type, font size and length of installments. If you've been curious about ebook readers like the Kindle, this is a perfect (and free!) opportunity to try out this new ebook venue.

I'm finding that I prefer receiving these short 5 minute excerpts to downloading an entire ebook. They trickle in each day ensuring that I don't download a book, read a little and then forget it's there on my iPhone or computer. It's a form of benevolent pressure conducive to my personality. Many of their titles are in the public domain and more recent titles are provided via support from publishers or sponsors. The fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is sponsoring Madame de Staël through January 2010, so you should sign up for it now before its free status expires. Or check other titles like The Grammar Devotional: Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl or House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. For Francophiles, DailyLit has 69 titles in the 'French' category. Happy reading.....

The ruler of rue de Buci

He may be a small Toto-like dog, but he's a big (and familiar) presence at Café Le Conti where  his owner is the patron.

Orson the dog rules over rue de Buci with a benevolent paw. His café is at a busy intersection of five streets: rue St. André des Arts, rue Dauphine, rue Mazarine, rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, and rue de Buci with fast traffic, big buses and motorcycles zipping around. Yet the little pooch navigates it all safely. As a serveur said, "Il part et il revient" (he leaves and he comes back). He trots off down Buci with a busy look on his  face as he patrols his neighborhood.

 

And after he inspects his territory, Orson's back at his café, peacefully surveying the hubbub of cars and pedestrians.

 

 

 

 

Long Live the King!

Trompe-l'œil

Seen in the 15th:

 

 

 

It's true....

Paris is romantic. You really do see more people kissing in the street (like this couple at a bus stop) than in other cities.

What do you do in Paris when it's chilly and raining?

You eat cassoulet!

Cassoulet is a traditional meal from southwestern France made from beans and meat (usually sausage, pork and duck). It's hearty stick-to-your-ribs food and was perfect for the wet day.  So we headed over to restaurant Thoumieux (famous for its cassoulet) in the 7th arrondissement.

Only one slight problem....
When we entered, a well-dressed, young, and horrified maître-d immediately rushed towards us, waving his hands with a classic French 'non-non-et-non' gesture, before we even said anything. However, we went ahead and asked if they were serving cassoulet that day on the menu. He explained that the restaurant was recently under new management and that they no longer served food from the campagne (countryside). And, indeed, the restaurant was all glittery brass and chandeliers and quite more upscale than the reviews led one to believe. Apparently we reeked of the campagne, not nouvelle cuisine. But pas de problème, because we walked to nearby rue Cler and found restaurant Tribeca serving cassoulet and instead of the stink eye, they gave us a wonderful meal.

Clck here for Saveur's recipe.

a BIG petit problème

I have a big problem with the word petit in French. Such a little word to cause me such grief. Somehow along my French language path I developed the bad habit of pronouncing it PETT-ee. And it's grating to French ears. That's IF they understand what I'm trying to say.

And the word is everywhere. It's #242 on the list of the two thousand words most commonly used in the French language. It's in books, like this one about Tom Thumb, known in France as le petit poucet:

 

It's in stores and restaurants:

 

I'm trying to think of it as having only the briefest of first syllables. In fact, you often see it written as such:

 

But I continue to backslide. I've taken to listening to the Serge Gainsbourg song, Le Poinçonneur des Lilas, over and over again because of its refrain of "...des petits trous, des petits trous, des petits trous..." Listen to him pronounce it correctly (the video has an English translation on it). The French lyrics follow below it.

• J’ suis l’ poinçonneur des Lilas
• Le gars qu’on croise et qu’on n’ regarde pas
• Y’ a pas d’ soleil sous la terre
• Drôle de croisière
• Pour tuer l’ennui j’ai dans ma veste
• Les extraits du Reader’s Digest
• Et dans c’ bouquin y’ a écrit
• Que des gars s’ la coulent douce à Miami
• Pendant c’ temps que je fais l’ zouave
• Au fond d’ la cave
• Paraît qu’ y a pas d’ sot métier
• Moi j’ fais des trous dans des billets
• J’ fais des trous, des p’tits trous, encor des p’tits trous
• Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous, toujours des p’tits trous
• Des trous d’ seconde classe
• Des trous d’ première classe
• J’ fais des trous, des p’tits trous, encor des p’tits
• Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous, toujours des p’tits trous
• Des petits trous, des petits trous,
• Des petits trous, des petits trous
• J’ suis l’ poinçonneur des Lilas
• Pour Invalides changer à Opéra
• Je vis au cœur d’ la planète
• J’ai dans la tête
• Un carnaval de confettis
• J’en amène jusque dans mon lit
• Et sous mon ciel de faïence
• Je n’ vois briller que les correspondances
• Parfois je rêve je divague
• Je vois des vagues
• Et dans la brume au bout du quai
• J’ vois un bateau qui vient m’ chercher
• Pour m’ sortir de ce trou où je fais des trous
• Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous, toujours des p’tits trous
• Mais l’ bateau se taille
• Et j’ vois qu’ je déraille
• Et je reste dans mon trou à faire des p’tits trous
• Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous, toujours des p’tits trous
• Des petits trous, des petits trous,
• Des petits trous, des petits trous
• J’ suis l’ poinçonneur des Lilas
• Arts-et-Métiers direct par Levallois
• J’en ai marre j’en ai ma claque
• De ce cloaque
• Je voudrais jouer la fille de l’air
• Laisser ma casquette au vestiaire
• Un jour viendra j’en suis sûr
• Où j’ pourrai m’évader dans la nature
• J’ partirai sur la grand-route
• Et coûte que coûte
• Et si pour moi il n’est plus temps
• Je partirai les pieds devant
• J’ fais des trous, des p’tits trous, encor des p’tits trous
• Des p’tits trous, des p’tits trous, toujours des p’tits trous
• Y’ a d’ quoi d’venir dingue
• De quoi prendre un flingue
• S’ faire un trou, un p’tit trou, un dernier p’tit trou
• Un p’tit trou, un p’tit trou, un dernier p’tit trou
• Et on m’ mettra dans un grand trou
• Où j’ n’entendrai plus parler d’ trou plus jamais d’ trou
• De petits trous de petits trous de petits trous

Paris Dog of the Dog

This little guy is on duty at his  lunette (eyeglass) shop.

Toussaint

November first is La Toussaint, All Saints Day, a far weightier holiday in France than is Halloween. It's a day for commemoration of the dead, and this is done primarily with chrysanthemums. If you didn't know about Toussaint, you'd think France was having a huge Fête de Mums, because the marchés and fleuristes are full of them.

 

 

 

Relatives take mums to the graves of their loved ones. Since the apartment where I'm staying has a bird's eye view of cimetière de Montmartre:

I've had a chance to watch the growing accumulation of colorful mums.

 

 

To mark the holiday/holyday, we took a walk through the cemetery, which is a peaceful and beautiful spot.

It's filled with old tombs:

 

 

and new tombs:

 

 

The famous dead:

 

 

 

and the unknown and forgotten dead:

There's a museum's worth of artwork in the cemetery:

 

 

and then there are cats....lots and lots of cemetery cats:

 

 

 

I kind of like being able to live with a cat even after death.