Photo by Erica Simone
Parler Paris Nouvellettre®
Your taste of life in Paris and France
ParlerParis.com
Monday, August 23, 2010 • Paris, France
Dear Parler Paris Reader,
I'm back in town and it's obvious to see that little by little the Parisians are trickling back in. Still, many of the cafés along rue de Bretagne were closed Sunday afternoon and Chez Omar's renovation is still underway, so no chance for a "Filet au Poivre" for a bit longer.
One thing you might notice between now and about the third week of September is that even if the weather turns cool, women will still be wearing their summer dresses (and shivering) just so they can show off their Riviera tans (beauty before comfort). This year I just might be among them since 10 days on the beaches of Corsica will definitely turn one brown as a berry -- which it did me.
Upon arrival Saturday and after unpacking and re-organizing life in the City of Light, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a dinner party with seven friends, all of whom except one was a writer. This makes for a special kind of gathering, since what excites a group like this is the written word, perhaps even better than sex.
Immediately upon arrival, the host, a freelance journalist of the highest caliber, plopped a tabloid on the table with a headline in French using an English word (which has a French origin) that one wouldn't use often in mixed company, and which means "an individual who has an over-inflated sense of self worth, compounded by a low level of intelligence, behaving ridiculously in front of colleagues with no sense of how moronic he appears." (www.urbandictionary.com)
The host couldn't wait to show it to everyone, how the tabloid had translated the article from English to French and in the process used the word which has no equivalent in French, thereby introducing it into the French language! Oh Lord, here we go again, bastardizing the beautiful French language!
What ensued was a hilarious debate over the true meaning of the word and how of course, we might see its use (or misuse) in the future, once the French had their tongues on it. (I leave it to you to guess the word.)
On another cultural enigma, the kind we non-French and particularly North Americans ponder on a regular basis, it seems that in late July, the France.fr flagship Web site crashed within 16 hours of its launch on Bastille Day thanks to an unstable host server. Because August is a sacred vacation period in which no one in their right mind works or does anything much at all of significance, the site wasn't predicted to reappear until late in August. Would it even be possible in our minds to let that happen? Nonetheless, we can happily report that it's back on line, at a cost well over 860,000€. Have a look -- it's in English (and five other languages)!: www.france.fr/en
A la prochaine...
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
Share this article with a friend...
Respond to Adrian
P.S. A few reminders...
* August 25th is the 66th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris. Read more about it at http://www.paris.fr/ (in French).
* Join us September 4th for the Parler Parlor French-English Conversation Group "La Rentrée" FREE lunch (scroll down for more information or visit www.parlerparlor.com).
* Mark your calendar now for September 14th when we reconvene for the Parler Paris Après Midi "La Rentrée" gathering. Visitparlerparis/apresmidi.html for more information.
