FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Voting time is just around the corner in France...

Water to "spare" in the French Alps at Villeneuve-la-Salle

Check out SmartFrench --"the smart way to learn French"

le rab (rab) noun, masculine
  1. seconds, second helping
  2. spare, extra, extra time

(from the military (slang) term "rabiot" (surplus / what remains after distribution)

Example Sentence:
Malgré 9 minutes de rab, Perpignan ne pouvait marquer de nouveaux points... In spite of 9 minutes overtime, Perpignan could not mark any new points... --Rugby recap from the journal "Sport 24"

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A Day in a French Life...
by Kristin Espinasse
                                                           
Every French kid sprints when the chef cries out "Il y a du rab!"* (that is--when it is a matter of greasy, crispy frites*). Like the French, I sprinted when the cook shouted "Seconds!" only it didn't matter what was leftover. I loved canteen food and adored cafeteria culture. From selecting an ice cold carton of whole milk to watching the ladies in hairnets plonk another helping of mashed potatoes onto a divided tray, steam rising up and giving the women's round faces a healthy glow. They looked as if they enjoyed mashed potatoes too.

The French women that my son sees behind the thin glass partition are petite, fragile-nerved and wear long faces. "Du calme!"* they shout. "Ça suffit!"* While I don't remember any hollering back at my canteen, it seems to me those soft-spoken servers from my childhood wore halos above their hairnets (or maybe love is coloring my memory, as I did and still do adore mashed potatoes and
ice-cold milk).

You won't find cartons of fresh milk in France, but tall glass pitchers of eau potable,* and my son doesn't get to break apart one of those starchy commercial buns but enjoys a golden crisp baguette with his meal, the latter a handy French utensil for pushing scattered pois* onto the fork and for soaking up vinaigrette (just as a soft bun, to be fair, is convenient for sopping up creamy ranch dressing).

Come to think of it, the only thing our cafeterias have in common is that which divides us: namely the glass window after which either mashed potatoes or frites were (are) sometimes on display. I never saw a chocolate éclair beyond that window, and my son, Max, should he ever discover a square of Jell-O beyond the smudged glass, wouldn't know how to order it let alone what to do with the jiggly mass.

Speaking of dessert, it just may be one more thing my childhood has in common with my son's: that is, when the famous chef's call "Il y a du rab!" "Seconds!" came, there may have been extra frites and a surplus of patates* for the taking, but there was never any leftover dessert.


...................................French Vocabulary....................................
Il y a du rab! = Seconds! (There's extra for the taking!); les frites (fpl) = French fries; du calme! = calm it down!; ça suffit = that's enough!; l'eau potable (f) = drinking water; les pois (petit pois) (m) = peas; la patate (f) = potato

Audio Clip: Hear Jean-Marc pronounce the French word for extra in this sentence: Download Rab.wav Malgré 9 minutes de rab, Perpignan ne pouvait marquer de nouveaux points...

Terms & Expressions:
en rab = to spare (Avez-vous une gomme en rab? = Do you have an extra eraser?)
faire du rab = to do (or work) extra time (military)
coûter du rab = to cost extra
avoir quelque chose en rab = to have extra
un rab de temps = extra time
quelqu'un veut du rab? = anyone want seconds?

Les Arcs-sur-Argens, where our story begins....

Rosetta Stone French (CD-ROM) -- "an award-winning method used by NASA and the Peace Corps"

un baffle (bafl) noun, masculine
  speaker (stereo)

Abbé Pierre's "holy anger" drove him to fight for the rights of those "sans-toit," without a roof over their head

Jean-Marc who earned the title "Chief Grape" after years of caring for his precious "babies". Read about them, in the following story. 

Lots of dough behind these beaded curtains. Italian bakery in Ceriana, Italy.

French Before You Know It Deluxe--quickly learn to understand and speak 1,000 common French words and 250 essential phrases.

la pâte (pat) noun, feminine
  pastry, dough, batter, fritter mix

(...not to be confused with the masculine noun "pâté" [pa-tay])

les pâtes (lay pat):
  pasta, noodles, spaghetti

Les nations ont besoin de héros et de saints comme la pâte a besoin de levain.
Nations need heroes and saints just as dough needs leaven. --Gustave Thibon
                                                
                                                      *     *     *

Those normally reserved French get all mushy when speaking to our golden retriever. I listen to their praise, translating the French words correctly or incorrectly as I hear them. "T'es une PAT,"* I hear.  While I get the gist of the Gallic word that is pronounced "pat" (gentle, sweet, easy...) I still
wonder just what exactly the French are calling our pup?

"She's a paw!" they seem to say, goochy-gooing our puppy, Braise.
"A real noodle!" they insist.
"What a rag!"* they coo.
"Oui, t'es gentille," Yes, you are nice, they assure her. "You are a real PAT!"

I vow to ask the next pat utterer, who turns out to be my unsuspecting sister-in-law, just which French "pat" (pâte or patte) they are referring to. "Oui, t'es une patte!" Cécile says, ruffling the soft fur on Braise's head, unknowingly stepping into my language trap.

"Would that be 'patte' or 'pâte' -- 'paw' or 'pasta'?" I inquire, before getting a little testy: "...or maybe you're calling her a "rag"! Is that what you're implying?!"

Cécile, my belle-soeur,* looks pensive. "A paw," she confirms, only to change her mind. "No, a dough...je crois."*

Dough! That's it--they're calling our dog a "dough". Now this makes sense and I couldn't agree more that Braise *is* like dough: soft all around like a dough boy (or girl), with a disposition sweet as cookie batter (indeed her coat is cookie-dough colored), but mostly she is pliable, stretch- and pullable as pâte à pizza.* And one could, not that one would, toss her up into the air after a
few pizza dough spins for nary a complaint on her part, sweet, supple chienne* that she is.

Then again, those French may be calling her dough as in dodo or noodle brain, but that is only because our pup hasn't yet learned how to offer a paw (or patte). And did it ever occur to the name callers that maybe Braise herself, bilingual dog that she is, was confused and that that is why she still doesn't lift a paw when asked to "donne la patte"?* And all this time she thought we had
mistaken her for a noodle cooker. "Give us a noodle! Give us a noodle!" we seemed to be saying, convincing her--and in our own words!--that we had truly lost our noodles.


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References: PAT = the sound of "patte" (paw) ant "pâte" (dough); rag = la patte (second meaning); la belle-soeur (f) = sister-in-law;je crois = I think; la pâte à pizza (f) = pizza dough; la chienne (le chien) = dog; donne la patte = give me your paw

Audio Clip: Hear Jean-Marc pronounce the French word for "dough": Download Pate.wav
Les nations ont besoin de héros et de saints comme la pâte a besoin de levain.

A take-out pizza parlor in Marseilles' eighth arrondissement

French With Michel Thomas: "The Fastest Way to Learn a Language". More language learning software here.

blondinette (blohn-dee-net) noun, feminine
  blond- or fair-haired girl, woman

blondinet = blond- or fair-haired boy, man

Example Quote:
Une dame vint un jour me demander de donner des leçons à son fils, blondinet de cinq ans, joufflu comme un chérubin et espiègle comme un démon. One day a woman came to ask me to give lessons to her son, a blond-haired boy of five, chubby as a cherub and mischievous as a devil.

--French text from the book "Pour développer notre mémoire par l'audition, la vision, l'idée." by Georges Art

                                                *     *     *

My nine-year-old woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and things went from bad to worse at the breakfast table when she scolded her brother for helping himself to the last of the Choco Pops. I wondered what the French equivalent of "first-come, first-serve" was but, given my girl's moodiness, decided not to ask. Instead, I mentioned there was plenty of oatmeal left but that I had polished off the Weetabix.

When my daughter directed her wrath at me, defenseless there in my plush robe and puffy slippers, I snapped back, regrettably so.

Half an hour later Jackie came into the bathroom, asking sweetly for a hair pince.* "Ah! Does this mean that you are speaking to me now?" I replied. Strike two.

In the car on the way to school we were silent, listening to the symphony that is the sunrise, golden rays playing against the vine fields, dew drops coating the earth, amplifying the orchestral morning light. I could hear the music. Did the scene sing to my daughter and bring as much peace?

I drove up to the elementary school and turned off the motor, remaining quiet as the engine was. Jackie rested her head on my arm and it was then that I noticed a shiny streak on her cheek underlined by another just-fallen tear.
"Tell mommy everything," I said, pulling my daughter close.
"Elle m'a traité de blonde!" She treated me like a blond! Jackie sobbed.

Jackie's so-called "Pire Ennemie"* was at it again, taunting her this time for the color of her hair. This explained the moodiness back at the breakfast table as well as the pince, which my daughter has been using to tuck away most of her blondinette* locks.

This also explained the temporary (brown) hair color kit that she talked her dad into buying a few weeks back. I spent last weekend struggling over the French instructions (until Jean-Marc tugged on one of my own blond locks, pointing out that the instructions could also be read in English...just one column over...).

Back in the car, I sympathized with my daughter. "She treated you like a blond!" I said, hiding my amusement at the "insulting" accusation. Apparently at my daughter's school, to ruffle someone's feathers you don't treat them badly, you treat them blond.

                                         *     *     *

Post note: Picking up Jackie from school, I asked how things went at recess (referring to the One Who Bullies Blondes). "C'est réglé," it's under control, Jackie assured. I found out later that Jackie's Pire Ennemie now had wheat-colored streaks painted into her own brunette locks. I wonder if she had been "traité de brune"?*

...........................................................................................................
References: une pince (f) = hair clip; pire ennemi(e) = worst enemy; blondinette (adj.) = light colored; traité (traiter) de brune = treated brunette (or teased for being brunette) and, literally, to call someone a brunette (as traiter de blonde means to call someone a blond)

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Related Terms & Expressions:

la blondeur (f). = blondness, fairness
blondasse (adj.) = insipidly fair, washed out; dull, dishwater blond
blondin, blondine (adj.) = blond
blondir (verb) = to bleach, to go blond
blondissant (adj.) = yellowish, golden
une bière blonde = lager beer
cheveux blond doré (golden hair), blond ardent (auburn hair), blond vénitien (strawberry blond), blond platine (platinum blond), blond cendré (ash blond)


Audio Clip:
Listen: Hear the French word for "fair-haired" in the following quote: Download Blondinet.wav

Une dame vint un jour me demander de donner des leçons à son fils, blondinet de cinq ans, joufflu comme un chérubin et espiègle comme un démon.

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In Books & Gifts

Savoir-Flair: 211 Tips for Enjoying France and the French

Le Creuset Stoneware Oil and Vinegar Set, Blue

Poster:  Les Hommes Préfèrent les Blondes / Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Fallot Dijon Herbed Mustards - Set of 4 French Mustards

Today's totally unrelated to the word or story photo: Wayward Sanglier. (We'll just have to call this little guy--observed trotting through my neighborhood, cares to the wind--"Bahut".

SmartFrench CD-ROM --"the smart way to learn French". More language learning software here.


le bahut (ba-ew) noun, masculine
  1. chest, sideboard
  2. (slang) school, high-school
  3. (slang) truck, car, taxi, cab
  4. the low wall that forms a base for a wire fence

De coffre transportable, le bahut devint un meuble fixe.
From transportable trunk, the chest became a fixed piece of furniture.

  --from the book "Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilier français de l'époque
    carlovingienne à la Renaissance" by Viollet-le-Duc
.

Monsieur and Madame D., in taking pains not to track dirt inside the house, all but left their shoes out on the bristle paillasson.*
"Ne vous inquiètez pas. No worries. Please, come in!" said I.

I took Madame's coat, then Monsieur's, turned on my heels and, along with my guests, paused before the busy coat rack--the one place I'd forgotten to unclutter. Eyeing the heap, which included Jackie's wool scarf, the dog's laisse,* Jean-Marc's three-quarter manteau,* Max's K-way,* a beret, a casquette* and my own camera bag, I realized I had but one trick left up my sleeve: A great toothy grin which drew my guests' attention away from the mess as I invited them over to the next room.

In the salon we gathered around the laptop to listen to Jean-Marc read aloud from the promesse de vente.* A lot of "Ça veut dires" and "bien entendus" were explained and confirmed before my husband printed out four copies of the promise papers on which sixteen sets of initials along with sixteen signatures were penned across the pages.

Business out of the way, we took seats around the table basse* where champagne and my belle-mère's* not-to-be-rivaled spicy black olive tapenade* were set out.

Relaxed, our buyers began to arrange their furniture.
"Your mother's armoire would go nicely there," Monsieur D. said, pointing a glass of bubbly to the wall beside the cheminée.*
"Tu as raison," You're right, Madame agreed, adding that they might place the bahut* along the wall off the kitchen.
"Très bien. J'allais dire la même chose!" Very good. I was about to say the same, Monsieur D. enthused, complimenting his wife. Next, they puzzled over where to place the television....

As Monsieur and Madame D. mentally arranged their future nest, I lost myself in my own reverie and pictured a cozy living room, Monsieur in his warm-up suit, Madame setting aside her knitting to check on that wild asparagus quiche turning golden-brown in the oven; Monsieur exclaiming "Ça sent bon, Cherie!" that smells lovely, Darling, Madame returning to the room, to the acajou* bahut and selecting a few of her grandmother's Limoges dinner plates with which to set the table, Monsieur setting aside the morning paper, Var Matin, to assist his once blushing bride....

Monsieur and Madame stood, with Madame feeling a bit "light in the head" from the champagne. Waking from my bucolic dream, I noticed the longing* that I had felt earlier had vanished; in its place a welcome feeling of detachment. My home would be their home.

                                   *     *     *

One hundred more stories from this French life, here.

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References: le paillasson (m) = doormat; la laisse (f) = leash, lead; le manteau (m) = coat; le K-way (TM) = cagoul, waterproof coat; la casquette (f) = cap; la promesse de vente (f) = promise to sale; ça veut dire = that means; bien entendu = well understood; la table basse (f) = coffee table; la belle-mère (f) = mother-in-law; la tapenade (f) = pureed olive spread; la cheminée (f) = fireplace; le bahut (m) = sideboard; acajou = mahogany; longing = (subject of the last story)

Audio clip:

Listen: Hear the French word for chest pronounced in the following sentence: Download Bahut.wav
De coffre transportable, le bahut devint un meuble fixe.


In Books & Gifts:
Modern day bahut -- Antiqued Chest

Bake great pies /quiche /scalloped potatoes in this oversized pie dish.

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking

Clothespins wishing for something to hold on to.

Rosetta Stone French (CD-ROM) -- "an award-winning method used by NASA and the Peace Corps". More French language software here.

souhaiter (sweh-tay) verb
  to wish for

Tous les changements, même les plus souhaités, ont leur mélancolie.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy. --Anatole France
.

Monsieur and Madame D. walked up the stone-flanked Chemin St Claude, stole under a narrow bridge beside which poppies burst in springtime, and made the hairpin turn leading to an old mill, its wooden wheel having done one last tour* sometime in the last century. Behind the giant roue,* where water falls over a stone wall and splashes across the moss-covered slab below, droplets hit the ground where figs once fell in summertime, coloring the earth purple.

Having passed the sleeping fig tree, Monsieur and Madame took up a single lane road which leads to the thyme-scented garrigue* and its forest beyond, to a south-facing villa they might soon call home. Having reached a shallow fossé* along which wild asparagus grow and are snapped up each spring by local gourmands,* they turned right and walked along a field where a great parasol pine and an old stone cabanon* have held their ground, resistant to the restless tractors and newly laid cement blocks of the surrounding lots. There they made one last turn, walked to the end of a stone path and knocked on a door the color of which could be described as somewhere between the green of a neighboring olive grove at daybreak and the hard-to-crack shell of those heavenly almonds that grow at the top of the hill at Saignon.

"They're here!" Jackie shouted and I hurried over to my daughter, smoothed down my chemise (drying the sweat from my palms) and opened the front door to welcome our buyers. As I wished them "bienvenue"* I wished a bit, too, that I were in their shoes.

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References: le tour (m) = turn; la roue (f) = wheel; la garrigue (f) = moor, wild mediterranean scrubland; le fossé (m) = ditch; le gourmand (la gourmande) = one who is fond of food; le cabanon (m) = stone cottage, shed (also hut, cabin); la bienvenue (f) = welcome


Hear French:
Listen to my son, Max, pronounce the French word for "to wish for" in this quote:
Tous les changements, même les plus souhaités, ont leur mélancolie.
Download souhaiter.wav

Selected Terms & Expressions:
souhaiter la bonne année = to wish somebody Happy New Year
souhaiter la bonne chance à quelqu'un = to wish someone good luck
souhaiter à quelqu'un de réussir = to wish someone success
ce n'est pas à souhaiter = it is not to be desired

Though we still don't know if our loan has been approved, or if our home will be mortgaged, Jean-Marc has gone ahead with the plans for his wine cellar.

hypothèque (ee-poh-tek) noun, feminine
  mortgage

Une dette flottante est un navire hypothèque.
A floating debt is a mortgaged vessel. --Jean-Charles (French humorist)
.

At the Crédit Agricole bank I tugged on the perfect green leaf of a benjamin ficus tree. The plant looked real enough but just as I was about to stick my finger into the terracotta pot to check, the banker returned.

"Thanks and we'll be in touch," the banker said, handing us back one French and one American passport, just-copied documents to be added to a five inch thick folder full of information on our vineyard project.

Jean-Marc had spent the last hour trying to convince Monsieur Thomas to lend us the money for the viticole* property. Though we have signed promise papers to buy the vines and handed over the five percent down payment, we are unable to write a check for 95% of the purchase price, due sometime in March.

"If we find a buyer for our own home in the next week, will you reconsider the hypothèque?"* Jean-Marc asked, trying to avoid the short-term mortgaging of our home and the astronomical fees involved. Considering our house had been on the market almost two months it wasn't likely to sell anytime soon, certainly not in off-season. I stared at the hopeful expression on my husband's face, surprised by his wishful thinking. The banker seemed positively amused.

Not five days later, as Bacchus is my witness, a man and a woman walked onto our property and offered to buy our home. On December 30th we signed papers promising to sell it to them.

Until the ink begins to dry on the final contract, the bank loans having come through, we won't know if this vineyard dream is for real or if, like the perfect green leaves of the banker's tree, illusory. Only Bacchus, god of vine and wine, grinning up there in the Ste. Cécilian heavens beyond, knows who will collect those sweet grapes come harvest time.

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References: viticole (adj.) = wine, wine-growing; une hypothèque (f) = mortgage

:: Audio clip ::
Hear the French word for mortgage in the following expressions: Download hypotheque.wav

lever l'hypothèque = to take away the obstacle
prendre une hypothèque sur l'avenir = to mortgage the future
hypothèquer = to mortgage, hypothecate, to secure (by mortgage)
une hypothèque à taux variable = variable rate mortgage
une hypothèque de deuxième rang = a second mortgage
une hypothèque sur les biens mobiles = chattel mortgage
un contrat d'hypothèque = mortgage deed
purger une hypothèque = to pay off a mortgage

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In books and gifts:
Monet's House: An Impressionist Interior

Travel accessories: silk money belt for travel.