Le bacchu-ber du poisson

La gifle atterrit // The slap is landing

A few days ago we went for a short walk along seaside promenade towards San Cristóbal. When coming back, I suddenly felt something wet and cold touching my neck. Turning, I discovered a very embarrassed-looking fisherman with a small stripy fish on the end of his line. It was obvious that I was subjected to fish slapping as a result of an over-enthusiastic pull of the rod. He was very relieved when we started laughing instead of berating him.

The episode made me think of The Fish-Slapping Dance, of course. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article doesn’t have a French equivalent, so I looked around a bit. Clearly, the fish-slapping dance is a variety of weapon dance (no French equivalent either). But I did find one French weapon dance — Bacchu-ber, name origin unknown. So, here we go: Le bacchu-ber du poisson, le style de Las Palmas!

Alors, vous parlez français?

ça va? -- Alors, vous parlez français? --Non, mais je peux dire "ça va?" // How are you? -- So, you speak French? --N o, but I can say "how are you?" :))

Yesterday on a hike (une randonnée) with Arawak there was a French guy who speaks very little Spanish (He might well speak perfect English, but I didn't ask). At some point, when we were trudging up a slope, I asked him how he was doing (ça va?). He asked if I spoke French, and, lamely, I replied "yes, a little" (oui, un peu). 

Later I thought that Non, mais je peux dire "ça va?" would have been somewhat less  lame, and also more truthful, thus showing L'esprit de l'escalier. 

In Russian, this "staircase wit" will be"задний ум" - sort of "back mind", or even "back brain", like what the dinosaurs (not) used to have.

Il n’existe pas de règles officielles

Il n’existe pas de règles officielles. Celles-ci se transmettent entre enfants //
There are no official rules. They are passed on from one kid to another.

Inspired by today’s French word of the day “la marelle” (Les enfants français jouent très souvent à la marelle pendant la récréation // French children very often play hopscotch during recess), I read a bit about the game in various languages.

The English Wikipedia article has a brave go at explaining the rules, and gives a few examples of possible variations. The “Popular culture” section mentions the novel Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar. I looked because I expected to find it there.

The French version is much more circumspect about the rules, as you can see from the phrase I used as a caption to the picture. The rules, it says, can vary between regions, towns and streets. Still, they do give “Règles les plus communes” (you can work out what that means). There is no “Popular culture” section at all.

And finally, the Russian article explains the rules in a (patchily) detailed fashion. Problem is, these rules are quite possibly applicable to just one place and one particular childhood (the author’s). The Cortazar’s novel, together with its Russian-only wordplay* contained in the title, is sadly missing from the article.

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* In Russian, the novel is called «Игра в классики», which is quite literal translation of Hopscotch (or Rayuela). The word “классики” in Russian means “hopscotch” or “classics”. The title, therefore, can be read as “The Game of Hopscotch” or “The Game of Classics”. I must add that when I heard of it first, I assumed the latter.

Je suis exténué

Je suis exténué ; je ne peux plus rien faire ! // I am exhausted; I can not do anything anymore!

And once again, French Word of the Day to the rescue!

I am not sure why the cat is exhausted, I think he is just pretending to have a good long snooze.

I myself, on the other hand, feel exhausted since this week was dedicated to all things bureaucratic, and that takes it out of you. I even wanted to do a picture about the only two certainties in life, but couldn’t think of how to tax a cat. Cats are essentially untaxable, aren’t they.

Pictures related to cats @ Shutterstock.

néanmoins je l'ai écouté; story of my life

J'étais pressée ; néanmoins je l'ai écouté pendant une heure // I was in a hurry; nevertheless I listened to him for one hour.

And once again, Transparent Language word of the day holds the stage.

What a strange word "nevertheless" is, don't you think? French "néanmoins" is no better, same sort of combination of complete negation and an adverb "moins" (less), making it what? Less than nothing?

Come to think about it, Russian "тем не менее" is not exactly logical either.

In other news, this is the last leaf of my sketchbook which I started  back in November.

Cave à vin

Mon ami qui habite à Bordeaux a une impressionnante cave à vin. //
My friend who lives in Bordeaux has an impressive wine cellar.

Today’s phrase is from the same source, Transparent Language, with a slight change. I was perplexed by the lack of spatial preposition à (as in à Bordeaux) in the original phrase (Mon père qui habite Bordeaux a une cave à vin impressionnante).

Google translate also thinks that à is required, so let’s have it. I am still at such a basic level of French that I can’t be sure if both variants are correct (or one of them, or none). So... let’s just concentrate on cave à vin (wine cellar), shall we?

Pictures related to cats, bottles and wine @ Shutterstock.

Il a un problème (he has a problem)

Son vin chaud n'est pas assez épicé // His mulled wine is not spicy enough

Today's phrase is from Transparent Language again.

The cat claims his drink is not spicy enough, but I'd say it is. Judging by the look of him.

joli bébé potelé

Oh quel joli bébé potelé! // Oh what a cute chubby baby!

Today's phrase comes from Transparent Language email.

I am not sure who is the kitten (chaton) on the photo. Considering how smug cats usually are, I tend to think it's the cat himself.

Le chat est libre

Le chat est libre // The cat is free!

Our French course is over. I passed, not with flying colors, but pass I did.
As usual, the end of something is accompanied by a mixture of feelings. One is definitely that of profound relief (Master has given a sock! Dobby is free!). And another is of sadness, of course. It was fun and difficult at the same time.

Sometime in November I realized that I made a mistake by enrolling in two language courses at once. Two not-yet-internalized languages - French and Spanish  - started to fight over the all-important "who comes out first" question, occasionally leaving me speechless in both Spanish and French classes. Considering that I am now in the last year of Spanish and want to finish it on a high note, I decided to make a pause with intensive French course till next academic year. 

I won't stop practicing completely, of course, so the pictures will continue.

The steaming brown something in the background are churros.
French wikipedia tells us : 
Les churros sont des pâtisseries espagnoles. Ils se présentent sous la forme d'une pâte frite en forme de « gros spaghetti »
(Churros are Spanish pastries. They come in the form of a dough shaped as "fat spaghetti" and fried).
I would argue that spaghetti are never ridged and churros always are, to make hot-chocolate dunking easier.

We went for chocolate con churros (chocolat avec des churros) to mark the end of course.

Now all the objects in the picture are well and truly explained, I feel.

 

Shanti

Le chat a trouvé Shanti // The cat has found inner peace

It’s the last week on my French course and we have exams (lotsa them). It is important to find inner peace at these trying times, and the cat has found it.

“Shanti est un mot sanskrit qui signifie paix, calme, sérénité” (Shanti is a Sanskrit word meaning peace, calm, serenity).

Good for him, shame that I can’t find it.

I have till Thursday though.

The little pic is done in Harmony (quite appropriately, I think)

More photos related to Yin and Yang @ Shutterstock.

"Almost" doesn't count

Le canapé entre presque dans la voiture // The sofa almost fits into the car

Today, another delightful phrase from Duolingo.

Everybody who ever moved house knows how frustrating it is when things almost, but not quite, fit into other things.

Here is the cat, helping his friend (on the right) to move house (déménager). His friend feels rather sorry she has asked for this small favour.

Judging by the general fit and by one ear sticking out, the pictured vehicle must be Fiat 500 with a sunroof.

PS: Je joins une photo que j'ai prise du balcon de l'hôtel

PS: Je joins une photo que j'ai prise du balcon de l'hôtel. Ce sont mes chaussettes préférées // PS: I attach a photo I took from the hotel's balcony. They are my favourite socks

Today i discovered that there were at least two homeworks of which existence I was not aware. There are very few lessons left, so I decided I'd better hurry. One of them was to write an email to a friend in France, supposedly for a hotel in Nice, describing what you did so far and what your plans were.
Last line of the task was to "attach a photo from your travel and describe what's on it".  Somehow I immediately thought of a pair of socks hanging from a balcony railing.

I am not going to describe that in my homework, no.

In case you are wondering : I do possess a pair of very similar over-the-knee socks.

Three wise cats

Le texte évangélique ne mentionne ni leur nombre ni les noms de ces «sages» //
The evangelical text mentions neither number nor names of these “sages”

Today is El Día de Los Reyes Magos, i.e. “the Three Kings’ Day”. Everything is closed and we run out of fast internet till Monday (I hope).

So, here is a pic with a feline version of these guys. Since neither number nor names were originally mentioned, I took a further liberty — one of the guys is, in fact, a gal.

Pictures related to cats and Los Reyes Magos @ Shutterstock.