FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Early morning in the bay of La Ciotat. Happy Saturday to all. Jean-Marc and I have a surprise for you in the sound clip below: he reads the French term and I pronounce the English.

TODAY'S WORD: "se faire avoir comme un bleu"

    : to be fooled, to be had, to fall hook, line, and sinker, 

EXAMPLE SENTENCE & AUDIO FILE
Listen to all the French words in today's story via the sound file below. Then scroll to the vocabulary section and check your language comprehension.

Click here for the sound clip

A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE by Kristi Espinasse

Last week, while opening Christmas presents, our 27-year-old thanked us for the money. "I need to buy an oven and this should help...un peu." 

Un peu? I wondered, but before I could question Max, he hinted: "Appliances are expensive these days."

"Well, just how expensive?" I asked. Just what does un four go for nowadays?

“3900 euros.”

"What?! Thirty-nine hundred euros  for an oven? That's crazy!" It must be due to all the shortages at the moment. Prices have skyrocketed! Mentally going over the price of milk, eggs, hamburger, and now ovens, I was about to elbow Jean-Marc, to signal to him that we needed to cough up some more Christmas cash if our son was going to be able to cook for himself over at his new digs. That's when Max began to snicker. 

“Tu m’as eu! You really had me going, Max! You are SUCH a turkey!”

Or maybe I'm the turkey--the birdbrain for falling for it. The upside to all this trickery is that when I finally learned the cost of the oven Max is interested in, the price seemed like a steal. Un bon coup.  A real bargain! One I personally wouldn't want to see him miss out on. 

(Maybe that was my son's plan all along?)

I'm not sure when our son will buy the oven. Yet I know there will be many more meals for us, chez Max, once he is better equipped to feed his birdbrained investors. But I'm no dummy. I'm bringing a very big plate and lots of Tupperware to steal away with leftovers. What a bargain that will all add up to one day.

***

Thanks, Ana, for this picture 

Max invited us over for dinner Thursday night. No oven yet but he was a dynamo with his frying pan! He loves to cook and is a natural host and entertainer. Here he is with his godfather, Fred, left, wife Béné, and a few “investors” on the right. I forgot my Tupperware so I guess I’m not that smart after all. We devoured Max’s homemade spring rolls, and his fried Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) and some simplified Jambalaya. Jean-Marc made bananes flambées for dessert, comme d’habitude.

FRENCH VOCABULARY
se faire avoir comme un bleu = to be had
un peu = a little
un four = oven
un bon coup = a great deal, a steal
la banane flambée = Bananas Foster
comme d’habitude = as usual

HISTORY of today’s  French Expression
The expression "se faire avoir comme un bleu" goes back to the XIXth century and comes from a military environment where the "bleu" (blue uniform) signified a young recruit without experience. Se faire avoir comme un bleu = to be had (like a new recruit).

(Another) SWEET OF THE WEEK, No. 6: La Galette des Rois. January 6th is Epiphany. Throughout France you will see the King cake in all its glory (or variation). Here is a traditional one just out of the oven where it was reheated. Photo taken years ago at Mas des Brun, with our golden, Smokey, looking in. Missing his innocent and sweet presence at our window.

Back to this traditional cake, reader Laurence S. shared some nostalgia in the comments:  “La Galette des rois. So delicious with its buttery phyllo dough and marzipan filling. And so fun also the tradition to have a little charm hidden inside. The one who gets it, is crowned with a golden paper crown. On January 6 the French celebrate the arrival of the Three Wise Men to Bethlehem and it is also the day, we used to take down the Christmas decorations in my family. Happy New Year to all.”