I apologize for the radio silence, and I assure you we will be back to regular programming as soon as possible. It has been a very busy week with 3 young visitors. We brought our 5year old granddaughter, Nola, and my twin 13-year old nieces back with us from Vancouver on Sunday. The twins headed back yesterday, but Nola will be with us until the weekend.
And I’m heading off to work every day before Nola wakes, so my favourite computer is off limits to me as little girl’s using my office as her bedroom. When I get home, of course, I’m spending my time with her, knowing my blogging friends won’t mind. . . You’re an understanding crew, right?
And since you’re all being so patient, I thought you deserved an amusing photo, one I took in Paris last year. The cheeky name rendered in the traditional architecture and sign styling cracked me up. Hope it makes you chuckle as well. . .
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Oh, have fun with Nola! You can blog anytime but the moments with your little loved ones are precious.
Enjoy this time with Nola…I'm sure you two are having lots of fun together!
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Savour every moment….they grow up so fast.
What a funny shop! It is amazing how quickly little ones grow up. Have fun with Nola!
Tomorrow we are off to Paris.
Ah, I'm travelling with you in my imagination. . .
Time with little ones is far more important than blogging, however much that activity is enjoyed. Love the store name. I wonder what the owners were really thinking – to do something "les doigts dans le nez" is like saying "it was a piece of cake" or "easy-peasy" in English, whereas we English speakers think of something entirely different with that expression. Language is fun!
I never knew this! So it's a bit like "I can do that with one hand tied behind my back" — although perhaps it's more sanitary to tie the hand . . . 😉
Five, already!
Always surprised how many English signs one sees in Paris. Here the English point size on signage must be smaller than the French, and all-English signs are not allowed.
Yes, she is! Halfway through kindergarten, unbelievably.
And I am surprised at the rapid encroachment of English into Paris, much of it amusing but still . . . Such a difference I've noticed since our first visit 20 some years ago. . . The whole signage thing in Montreal seems a non-issue to me as a visitor, but it certainly stirs up strong feelings, doesn't it?!
I think it is the snobbish appeal in France like everywhere else, and also they could be using Google translate (!) I think it sounds better than “les doigt dans le nez” don’t you think? You know where the French expression came from? It came from horse racing. Here it is: “L'expression serait apparue en 1912 dans le langage des courses hippiques : le jockey est arrivé premier les doigts dans le nez. C'est une image amusante qui montre la facilité, l'insouciance qu'a eu le jockey à gagner, puisqu'au lieu d'avoir l'esprit complètement préoccupé par sa course, il a pu prendre le temps, comme les enfants insouciants, de se mettre les doigts dans le nez.”
In the case you don’t speak French, it means something easy, not requiring effort, like innocent children playing. But in the case of the shop they use it because it is in English. It is the same here. I miss speaking French (I am originally from Paris, 9ème arrondissement) so a friend suggested that I find all the blogs with a French title and write a comment in French, in case they are bilingual like in Canada and would answer me in French. Well, in the last week I must have found at least 33 blogs with a French name and wrote comments in French. I keep finding them, and do you know that none of them were French? Most were from the US, about 3 from Canada, but a couple from England, a couple from South Africa, one in Holland and two in Poland – isn’t that bizarre? Anyway I am still searching …. and frankly I don’t know why they take a French name if they don’t speak French .. why not Norwegian or Flemish? It seems weird to me.
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C'est bien amusant, l'image d'un jockey sur son cheval, les doigts dans le nez. You see above, that Lorrie, an English speaker who has a degree in the French language and teaches it at the high school level, has caught me up on the meaning, but I like the additional information you provide.
I do wonder if the shop owners realize that in English, the connotation is simply of a child picking its nose. . . .pas si charmant!
Interesting that you are finding blogs that have adapted French names because of their love for a language they don't necessarily function in, and the same thing happens in reverse in Paris. . . .
I'm wondering if writers opt for French names for their style blogs more because French is shorthand for chic – they did invent the word after all – than anything else. Of course, chic people can be found travelling on all passports and a wander down any street in France will turn up a bunch of people who look just as lumpy, bumpy, frumpy as those back home.
And the use of English in non-English native speaking countries? Cultural imperialism, alas, which I am rather conflicted about.
I think you've got it, on both counts, Ceri. French signals chic and many want to channel that, even knowing that the stereotype has its limitations. And yes, Globish, as the phenomenon has been called (a useful book on the topic, by Robert McCrum, has that name in its title)
Globish – excellent term, hadn't come across that before. Thanks for the McCrum ref
Happy Grandma Time! Blogging can wait.