FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

While this weekly chronique is on break, I’m celebrating a meaningful anniversary. More in this story published recently in France Today magazine.

TODAY’S WORD: POMPETTE
"Pompette" is a colloquial French term that refers to a state of mild intoxication or tipsiness, rather than being fully drunk. It's often used to describe someone who has consumed alcohol and is slightly under the influence.

THE DANCE OF LIFE by Kristi Espinasse

On the terrace of a stately mas outside St-Rémy-de-Provence, amidst fields of lavender, I was sipping sparkling water and chatting with another wedding guest when the band came on. Suddenly, my high-heeled, gold-sequined-wearing interlocutrice set down her second glass of bubbly and shimmied over to the dance floor. “Allez! On danse!” She called, over a bare shoulder.

Oh to have such confidence in my own dancing shoes! But this was no time for wishful thinking. An invitation was dangling in the lavender-scented air and it would be impolite not to respond. Worse, it would dishonor les mariés who, by tradition, were the first on the dance floor and were presently waiting for the wedding party to join in. I watched as les invités set down their champagne glasses and let their bodies catch the rhythm of the beat. Easy for them after a few glasses of champers, but for me, having recently celebrated 20 years of sobriety, I couldn’t be swayed by inebriation. Stone sober, I entered the dance floor, hoping my awkward arm-swinging “deux pas'' went unnoticed.

The problem with the French, or any terpsikhore (there is actually a name for one who loves to dance), is they don’t wait around for weddings to shake their booties. Soccer stadiums, parking lots, and restaurants are all potential dance floors. This reminds me of a hip-shaking night out with friends in St. Tropez years ago. As we perused the menu, one of the women began humming along with the background music, got the urge to Get Down On It, and soon our dinner party of 8 was dancing beside our dinner plates.

While my mind is usually convinced that everyone on la piste de danse is a disco king or queen except me, in reality there are some disco dorks on every dance floor, and it is thanks to those Missing-the-Beat-but-Feelin’-Dynamite types that I am learning to let go. Twirling across the room, my husband is often there to catch me, and my clumsy deux pas is now a near-synchronous pas de deux.

When I stop to think of it, I owe my life in France to dance. For it was here, dans une boîte de nuit in Aix-en-Provence, that I spied my future partner. And by no cosmic coincidence, it was the first time I ever partied sober in a nightclub. As daunting as those first steps to sobriety were, I ventured out onto the dance floor and, this many years later, feel eternally blessed for that mighty move…and the series of steps I continue to perfect “one day at a time.”

FRENCH VOCABULARY 
pompette = tipsy 
un interlocuteur, une interlocutrice = conversation partner 
Allez, on danse! = come on! Let’s dance! 
les mariés = the newlyweds les invités = guests 
deux pas = two step 
la piste de danse = dance floor 
pas de deux = “step of two”, a dance duet
une boîte de nuit = night club 

REMERCIEMENTS/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Heartfelt thanks to readers sending in a donation to my French word journal. 

Dick F.
Kerry L.
Alice W.
Laurie F.
Renee H.
Rosalie I.
C-Marie P.
Cynthia K.
Marie-Louise L.

I have so enjoyed your books and look forward to your weekly stories and pictures. I have been reading for a couple years now and thought I better send you a little something. God Bless, Renee

Outside the nightclub where we met 33 years ago.

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