Bonjour,
I hope you had a good week.
It’s been a regular winter week here but without the snow we usually get this time of the year. What’s a normal winter week? Well, it means keeping our wood fire going most of the day (we don’t have central heating). Making soup and stews on the oven, hot chocolate with a splash of Baileys as a treat, and power cuts and this week the water was cut off for half a day as there was a power cut to the town pump. We had a couple of small trees come down and a bit of the fence fell over which enabled some of the ducks and chickens to elope into the field at the bottom of the garden. So there we were running around chasing after them trying to get them back in as the wild wind whooshed around us making the birds feathers flutter, our hair wriggle as if trying to escape, and taking our breath away. I love every season in rural France but winter is special!
Bread Man finally returned from his 10 day holiday and informed me he was feeling “rehashed”.
Not to be out done I am now practicing some of my French back at him.
“Are you feeling comme un coq en pâte?” I asked feeling pretty pleased with myself at this newly learned phrase, which means to feel comfy, happy and pampered though technically it translates as to be ‘like a cockerel in dough’.
Bread Man looked at me with one eyebrow raised.
“Hmm” he said, pulling at his moustache as he contemplated my efforts.
“’Ow you say that in English?”
“Maybe we’d say happy as a pig in muck” I said, thinking it’s near enough, and he furrowed his brow thinking about it. We’ve been chatting away in English for quite some time now and he’s got a lot better but some words still catch him out – like muck, which I explained as mud.
“Does my bread make you “‘appy as a pig in muck?” he said as he thrust my crispy golden baguette out of the window of his van. I was tempted to tell him it was “yum yum pig’s bum” but resisted as I have found out he has other English speaking customers and I could just imagine him yelling that at them as he drops off their cakes and bread.
“Oui, oui” I said “You’re simply the best” which put a smile under his moustache as he drove off to my neighbours, humming the tune as he went…
Wherever you are I wish you a bon and happy weekend
Bisous from France,
Janine
Editor
Photo: Mimosa trees flowering in the hills of Provence – a hint that spring is on the way…
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