s'en foutre
Godasse - a French synonym for shoe

parages

Mont_ventoux
The Gallic "giant" (Mont Ventoux) in our parages.

Our Seattle wine tasting event is sold out. If you are in the Seattle area and did not get tickets then we'll hope to meet you at Abraxus books. Please stop by and say bonjour! Click here for more information and to see more cities in our west coast visit.

parages (pa-razh) noun, masculine, plural
  1. waters, region(s)
  2. vicinity, area

dans les parages = in the immediate vicinity, neighborhood

:: Audio File  ::
Listen to the sound of the French word "parages". Hear Jean-Marc pronounce this sentence: "Coco est sûrement dans les parages." Download parages.mp3..Download parages.wav

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Column
After our cat, Coco, went missing last week, the kids decided to take a few precautions. A computer chip embedded beneath a furry wrist seemed too futuristic (as well as unfeasible and unfriendly) so my daughter settled for a more old-fashioned solution: jingle bells.

The kind of bell that jingles from a French cat's collar is not a "cloche" but "un grelot"* and while the latter only tickles a pet owner's ears, the sound is enough to assure us that kitty is near. In fact...

"Il est toujours dans les parages,"* my son points out. And to think we feared that Coco's spirit had a bicoastal bent. Instead, it seems he is ever in the environs.*

Speaking about being "in the vicinity," and changing subjects completely, I've been following the Recipe Poll, which is underway. Thank you for voting on what you would like to see baked or burned or blogged* about next. Looks as if luck is on my side as:

1) it is the Beginning of the Month and ....
2) those "End of Month" Croquettes are currently in the lead!

Back to luck and lieu*: absent from the near vicinity, or "parages," are a few key ingredients for the favored "End of the Month Crunch" recipe. (I suppose these ingredients are things that tend to collect in one's fridge over the course of the month, things that, by the 4th of February, haven't appeared yet
but that, by the end of February, one will be scraping together in an attempt to make edible ends meet.) Enough speculation. There is still time to vote! Please choose from the list below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
References: un grelot (m) = little spherical bell; il est toujours dans les parages = he is always in the area (around us); les environs = surroundings; blogged = (see my fledgling food blog, click here
http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/recipe; le lieu (m) = place (area)


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For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety