Vive la France
When I realized that there’s more to the country than ‘la bise’ (traditional French peck on the cheeks) or calling the English ‘rosbif’ (roast beef), I promised myself to visit and gain first-hand experience about the country of chateau, perfume, fashion and more importantly, one of the Romance languages.
Many foreign language words have found their way into regular English usage over a period of time. Significantly Latin, of which French is a direct descendant. There’s some truth to the statement ‘language molds people as much as they contribute to it’.
French is considered an extremely ‘rule-based’ language. The original Gauls probably laid the foundation for a set of people who turned out to be condescending and snobbish from a global perspective. Whether or not the strict set of language rules contributed to being snooty is a matter of conjecture.
I would like to narrate a few incidents witnessed in person during the jaunt. They are from the early days of travel when it was not a very organized sector. Form your own opinions.
This was on landing in Pari(as the French call it) at Charles de Gaulle airport. I saw an elderly couple trying to pull the trolley from its line. After a few futile attempts, they looked nonplussed. The guy was asking for assistance in English but no help was forthcoming.
In countries like India, cart service at airports is free of cost. In Europe, the service has to be paid for. With my restricted vocabulary, I reached out to a young guy, “Monsieur Aider?”
Whether he was a nicer human or it was the language connect, regardless, he offered help by pointing out the slot to activate the trolley operation. He also went a step further, “non change”, “non problem” and indicated the vending coin machine which spilled coins in lieu of bills.
Some start to a vacation! Blame it on France or the French!
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Geneva in Switzerland is predominantly a French-speaking population. If you plan to visit the French Alps, Mont Blanc, Geneva would be the ideal base.
After the customary greetings and introduction, our chatty tour guide spoke in length about the nuances of the French language. Intermittently, he also narrated about Aiguille du midi and how the triangular shape of Toblerone chocolate was inspired by the Swiss Alps.
He put up a general question to the group composed of international travelers. “What mode of transport would you take if you want to reach the hilltop?”
The Americans in the group said cable car, the British said ropeway, gondola said the Italians. I innocently replied aerial tramway, just to be different, not that I disagreed with my predecessors — each answer was greeted with scorn and ridicule.
“Are these even terms?”
“Which car drives on a cable?”
“From which angle does it look like a rope?”
“Is this a waterway in Venice for the gondola?”
He gave me the notorious ‘French Stare’ and said, “is that salvation to heaven?”
The group went silent and that goaded him to eloquently rant about how ‘tele’ should be the prefix for distance followed by ‘feri’ for transport and thus, how appropriate the word tele-feri is.
That evening we were richer with not only the Alps/Chamonix experience but also a refresher course in French.
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The existential crisis of alphabets. Who will pronounce us? 🤔
Rendezvous
Bourgeois
Repondez S’il Vous Plait
Bonjour
Au Revoir
My family was at the breakfast table in a smaller town close to Disneyland, Paris.
The spread was limited, especially for vegetarian options. Hot beverages were served on the table. The waitress appeared periodically with a kettle in either hand calling out something that sounded like, “cafe oh thea”.
When she approached our table the tone changed to cafe-thea-oh — shokla. The only Shukla I was familiar with was the Hindi tutor for my girls. Left with no other choice, we just ignored the whole mumbling, as the kids, then school-going were all agog for the rides and encounter with the cartoon characters.
The next morning it was the same ritual. My wife, who is the wiser one between the two of us pointed out that the waitress’s poetic recitation is more only at family tables occupied by children. She also noticed that the ‘goras’ across got cups of hot chocolate for their kids.
Voila! So, that was the catchphrase! Shokla meant chocolate. I realized that most of the later syllables in French are silent and not pronounced.
During the rest of our tour, my kids enjoyed their breakfast with hot sweetened shokla.
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The fact of the matter is there’s a France for the French and a France for the tourists.
