FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

   
         The seaside town of Agay, near Fréjus and just east of St-Raphael.

gaver (gah-vay) verb

  1. to force-feed; to fill up (with)

...and in English there is the noun "gavage" (gah-vazh): a feeding for someone who will not or cannot eat.

Expressions and Related Terms:

en avoir jusqu'au gaviot = to be stuffed, to have eaten too much
gaver quelqu'un = to stuff someone with food
se gaver de = to stuff oneself with
une gavade = (a synonym would be "un goinfrerie" or piggery)
Tu me gaves = (I am fed up with you (talking)).

L'éducation ne consiste pas à gaver, mais à donner faim.
Education consists not in stuffing, but in giving one an appetite.--Michel Tardy


A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse

What? The French Pig Out? 

Eighteen transats are lined up across the Mediterranean seafront. We loungers sit in clusters surrounded by an arsenal of sun cream, stacks of magazines, and our twenty sand-cloaked offspring. Welcome to the rendez-vous Agay, where Jean-Marc and eight of his high school pals--and their wives--reunite once a year in a cozy seaside escape just east of Marseilles.

Two of the nine wives are wearing the top half of their swimsuit; the others are seins nus. We flip through Madame Figaro, Elle and Marie-Claire.

"Tiens!" my neighbor says, pointing to her magazine. "It seems one-pieces are à la mode this season."

I nervously adjust my haut. Just when I've set aside insecurites--and donned a two-piece--the fashion authorities are now touting one pieces! 

Never mind. I never know what to wear anyway. Might as well practice social skills. I turn to Sophie who is applying cream to her daughter. After a decade in France, I'm still tongue-tied when it comes to a natural conversation with my husband's high school friends. I wish I could be as breezy and as funny as the women in this group. I can always try....

"T'as vu comme on s'est jetté sur la nourriture hier soir? Did you see how we threw ourselves on the food last night?" I say to the mom next to me. 

"C'était une vraie gavade! It was a real pig-out!" Sophie laughed, recapping the sun cream and pitching the bottle into a wicker beach tote.

Ouf! I'd made my friend laugh and learned something in the process--a new French word: gavade. I recognized the delightful sounding noun as a Marseillais term (from the verb "gaver"--to stuff). I'll bet you didn't think such a verb existed in the French language what with so many figure-conscious Frenchies? Oh, si!

I was now laughing along with Sophie, thinking of the previous night when seventeen positively chic French citizens and one American "resident of France" turned into one spinning, clawing mass of arms and mouths--Hunger personified....

Panick had arisen after someone miscalculated the number of pizzas needed for all of us adults and our kids! That's when our normally laid-back friends became a human pizza tornado.

We had begun with our ethics intact, serving the kids first until somehow the lines between where the children's meal ended and our repas began became blurred. I noticed that 6 bottles of wine remained untouched as the French turned their attention to the boxes of pizza and to the few remaining pies inside them. Next, all pride was set aside.

When the unseemly gavade was over the French returned to their more disciplined selves--reaching for the sopalin and wiping the corners of their mouths. With all evidence erased someone popped a cork and, for most, memories of the pig out were washed away with the rosé.

*    *    *

More stories in the book Blossoming in Provence. Makes a great gift for a language learner or traveler. Click here to order.

French Vocabulary

le transat = deck chair
les seins nus = topless
tiens = take a look at this
à la mode = in fashion
le haut = top
Marseillais = from/of Marseilles
si = yes ("si" indicates a positive response to a negative question. Ex.: "Vous n'avez pas faim?" "Si! J'ai faim."
le repas = meal
le sopalin = paper towel
le rosé, rouge, blanc = rose, red, white

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The coastline, or le littoral, in the seaside town of Agay.

Le lever du soleil dans la baie d'Agay/Daybreak at Agay's bay

le lendemain (lahnd-man) noun, masculine
1. the next day, the day after
2. tomorrow, the future

Expressions:
du jour au lendemain = suddenly
des lendemains qui chantent = a brighter future
le lendemain de cuite = the morning after the night before (hangover)
triste comme un lendemain de fête = "sad as a day after a party," very sad
une aventure sans lendemain = a fling, a one-night-stand

Proverb:
Il ne faut pas remettre au lendemain ce qu'on peut faire le jour même.
Do not put off to tomorrow what can be done today.

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Citation du Jour
L'inquiétude ne chasse pas le chagrin du lendemain; elle prive aujourd'hui de sa force.

Worry does not chase away tomorrow's grief; it deprives today of its power.      --Corrie Ten Boom

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A Day in a French Life...

The story that originally appeared here is now part of this book!

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French vocabulary: le phare (m) = lighthouse; la dédicace (f) = inscription; la balade (f) = stroll, walk; la famille (f) = family; Salut, Maman. Bonjour, Chérie = Hello, Mom. Hi, Darling; une poignée (f) = a handful; la carte (f) = card; "Happy (Mother's) Day to the best of moms. We are so lucky to have you."; le va-et-vient (m) = comings and goings

       
           Read about today's image at Photo du Jour (below)

      
           Read about this photo at Photo du Jour, below

      
        Read about this photo at Photo du Jour (below)

For more about this photo, see Photo du Jour (below)

Words in a French Life: "...a heart-winning collection from an American woman raising two very French children with her French husband in Provence, carrying on a lifelong love affair with the language."

secouer (suh-koo-ay) verb
  1. to shake; to shake off; to shake out

Expressions:
n'avoir rien à secouer = not to give a hoot
secouer le joug de quelqu'un = to throw off (dictator, tyrant)

Read about this photo at Photo du Jour, below

le chiffre (shee-fre) noun, masculine
  1. figure, digit, number, numeral
  2. amount, total

Also:
le chiffre d'affaires = turnover (business)
le chiffre arabe/romain = Arabic/Roman numeral
avoir quelque chose brodé à son chiffre = to have something embroidered/monogrammed with one's initials

Expression:
en chiffres ronds = in round figures
faire du chiffre = to make a big turnover, to make a lot of money atteindre des chiffres astronomiques = to reach astronomical sums

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Citation du Jour:
Tout bonheur matériel repose sur des chiffres.
Material happiness rests upon digits. --Honoré de Balzac

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Day in a French Life...

       
          Read about this photo at Photo du Jour, below

lancer (lon-say) verb
  1. to throw, fling, cast, hurl; to shoot
  2. to fire, drop, launch

Expressions:
lancer une opération = to launch an operation
se lancer = to make a name for oneself; to give something a try
lance-toi! = Just do it! (to encourage someone who has a project)

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Citation du Jour:
Tu dois vivre dans le présent, te lancer au-devant de chaque vague, trouver ton éternité à chaque instant.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.--Henry David Thoreau

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A Day in a French Life...

(The story that originally appeared here along with the French vocabulary, below, is now a part of this book!)

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References: évidemment = obviously; s'il te plaît = please; le bouchon (m) = cork; faire péter le bouchon = to pop the cork; lancer = to fire, send off (the cork); Hey-oh! Fais péter le pain! = Hey! Pass the bread!; rouge-tomate = tomato-red; champers = (British) champagne

Photo du Jour:
Today's photo (of a classic "pointu" fishing boat) was taken along the French Riviera, not far from Ste-Maxime. Jean-Marc and I stumbled onto the little fisherman's cove where a dozen such boats were being lovingly fussed over by their owners.

Read about this photo in Photo du Jour, below.

naître (neh-tre) verb
  1.  to be born

Expressions:
être né pour quelque chose = to be cut out for something
être né pour l'autre = to be made for one another
être né sous une bonne étoile = to be born under a lucky star
être né coiffé = to be born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
son pareil est à naître = "his/its equivalent has yet to be born"
(when something or someone is unrivalled, matchless)

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Citation du Jour:
Il n'y a personne qui soit née sous une mauvaise étoile, il n'y a que des gens qui ne savent pas lire le ciel.

No one is born under a bad star, there are only those who do not know how to read the sky. --Dalai Lama


A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse

Ten years ago today I woke up in the cave* of a one-room fisherman's cottage overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

I pulled on the stretchy polyester ensemble that Tante* Marinette in Châteauneuf-du-Pape had given me, put on my canvas sneakers and carefully tied the laces. I told Jean-Marc that we had better go. "Now."  I crawled up the stairs--for the stairwell from the cave to the room above was like that of a boat, narrow and steep.

Upstairs, our combination kitchen, living- and dining-room was illuminated by the lights from Notre Dame de la Garde--the historical, hilltop Cathedral just across the vallon.* The church lights cast a warm glow across the tiny room where my mom lay, in full make-up, asleep on the sofa. C'était minuit.*

"We are going to the Renaissance," I said.
"We Marcuses are never early," she reminded me. You girls were each a week late. Go back to bed, honey, and get some rest."

After some hesitation, I said, "We're leaving. If you like I'll call you when the baby is born."
With that, my mom threw on her boots and her straw fedora and made it to the car in time to open the door for me.

"Look at the sky," she said. "All of the stars are out tonight! Let's go."

A few hours later, at the Clinique de la Renaissance, my mom broke into the salle d'accouchement.* "I can't believe they wouldn't let me in here to see my own grandson!" she complained.
(The French doctor had told me earlier that I could have one family member in the delivery room. When Mom stormed the salle,* he made an exception. Mom had been standing in the clinic's parking lot for over an hour, eyes fixed on the third floor window--the only room with lights shining from it. "I knew you were in there!" she said.)

"Mom! Where did you get that?"
She held up a single red rose, stared at it in admiration. Her eyes lit up.
"I swiped it from someone's yard."
"Did anybody see you?"
"Oh, it's raining out now. Besides, no one is up at 4 a.m."

To the newborn she said, "Hello, Max! It's your grah-mair* here! We are going to have A LOT of fun, you and me."

Max, less than an hour old, turned his head ever so delicately toward the fragrant, earthy gift, acknowledging the flower's scent. My eyes glazed over. I was so proud of him.

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References: la cave (f) = basement (ours was a converted basement); une tante (f) = aunt; le vallon (m) = small valley; c'était minuit = it was midnight; la salle d'accouchement (f) = delivery room; la salle (f) = room; grah-mair (pronunciation for "grand-mère") = grandmother

Photo du Jour:
The theme in today's story and photo is "delivery".  I took the "mailboxes" photo at the entrance to Les Arcenaulx (a historical, renovated arsenal in Marseilles) where you'll find a popular bookstore and restaurant (near the Vieux Port at 25 cours d'Estienne d'orves).