Category Archives: French language

Friday’s French – châtaigne, chestnut, marron, brun, brown

November 13, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 11 Comments

It’s roast chestnut season. If you come from Australia, you probably think there is only one kind – the edible sort you read about in English novels. Not so! In French, there are two different words: marron and châtaigne and the distinction is rather complicated.

There are basically two sorts: an edible sweet chestnut that is easiest to spot if it is still in its husk, which is spiny and needle-sharp. Its scientific name is Castanea sativa. It’s very distant relation, the toxic, inedible chestnut, also called the horse chestnut, has a husk that is much smoother, with only a few warts. Horse chestnuts are the ones commonly found in forests and backyards. Its scientific name is Aesculus hippocastanum.

So you would imagine it would be easy in French. Let’s start with the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). The tree is called a marronier d’Inde or marronier commun. It actually comes from the Balkans and has nothing to do with India. The fruit is also called a marron.

That’s the easy bit. Now we have the tree called châtaignier whose edible fruit is called une châtaigne. But people talk about eating marrons chauds and marrons glacés. Why? It’s because there are two kinds and the larger (and (tastier) cultivated châtaigne is called a marron!

The cultivated marron only contains one fruit in each husk whereas the wild ones have two or more, with an annoying skin called a pellicle between them. The ones in the photo as the wild ones. We had to discard half of them because they were too hard to eat. Next time we’ll make sure we buy marrons!

Marron is also the usual word for the colour brown.

Marron has, of course, given the colour maroon in English, which is not brown at all, but a dark brownish red colour, what the French call bordeaux. It you have ever seen a 20-year old bordeaux wine, you’ll understand where the colour comes from!

What about brun? I can hear you saying. Yes, you’re right, it also means brown. You say des cheveux bruns (brown hair), des yeux bruns (brown eyes), une peau brune (a swarthy skin), le tabac brun (dark tobacco), un ours brun (a brown bear) and bière brune (brown ale).

But brown shoes are chaussures marrons and a brown shirt is une chemise marron. Marron can also be used for eyes and hair. Some people argue that les yeux marrons and les yeux bruns are the same thing but others disagree. The same applies to les cheveux marrons and les cheveux bruns.

I’ve even heard les yeux noisette used to mean brown eyes, even though une noisette is a hazel nut. The problem with hazel eyes is that they are a mixture of green, brown and amber and the mix can vary according to the person, so two people can have hazel eyes that are very different.

What other examples can you think of? How do we say a brown dog in French? What about a brown horse and a brown coat? Or a brown car?

French language

Friday’s French – horloge, pendule, clock, réveil, watch, montre

November 3, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 9 Comments

We get up on Sunday morning after going back onto winter time and all the clocks are an hour out. “Il faut remettre les pendules à l’heure, c’est le cas de le dire”. “Resetting the clocks” is an expression in French which means to put the record straight or put things in their right place.

The town hall in Villiers-sur-Loir with its 2-metre diameter monumental clock — L’horloge de la mairie à Villiers-sur-Loir

Ce garçon devient impossible. Son succès lui monte à la tête. Il faudra remettre les pendules à l’heure. – That boy is getting impossible. Success has gone to his head. He needs to be brought down a peg.

Ce débat devient stérile. Il faut remettre les pendules à l’heure. – This discussion is getting out of hand. We need to get back on track.

So where does the French expression come from? Well, you know all those war and spy films where the characters all synchronise their watches so that their mission will be a success? That’s all it is!

Talking about pendules, the French have several different words for time-pieces: horloge, pendule, réveil, montre come to mind.

Horloge is used when it’s a big clock: l’horloge de la gare (station clock), horloge de l’église (church clock), horloge normande or de parquet or comtoise (grandfather clock), horloge astronomique (astronomical clock), etc.

Le buffet à horloge qui en fait est une pendule !

Pendule obviously corresponds to pendulum so is used for a pendulum clock and a cuckoo clock (pendule à coucou), for instance, but can also be used for any clock (except an alarm clock) as in remettre les pendules à l’heure. But when the pendule is in a grandfather clock, it’s becomes horloge!

An alarm clock is always called a réveil or réveil-matin (a morning wake-up clock). Il faut mettre le réveil à 8 heures – you’ll have to set the alarm for 8 (o’clock). A travel alarm clock is a réveil de voyage.

Watch and montre indicate the same object with a few variations according to type. A wrist watch is a montre-bracelet, a fob watch is montre de gousset (which gave our word gusset), a watch with a winder is a montre à remontoir and a diver’s watch is a montre de plongée. The others are vitually the same: montre analogue/digital/numérique/de précision/à quartz/à répétition = analog/digital/precision/quartz/repeating.

There are all sorts of expressions that revolve around the word clock that are sometimes rendered by montre in French and sometimes by horloge or heure or something else again!

A race against the clock = une course contre la montre

To keep your eyes on the clock = surveiller l’heure

To work around the clock = travailler vingt-quatre heures d’affilée

To do something by the clock = faire quelquechose en respectant l’horaire

To turn the clock back = revenir en arrière

I’m sure you have lots of other examples of time-related expressions to share!

Blogging, Books, Country living, Cycling, French language, Life in France, Loire Valley

Five Years of Blogging

October 30, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 20 Comments

I missed my 5th anniversary of blogging! My first post was published on 11th October 2011 just before my son went to live in Australia. He helped me set it up and regularly comes to the rescue when I have a problem. He also hosts me. I started my second blog, Blois Daily Photo (now Loire Daily Photo) in July 2013 in anticipation of moving to Blois. When I first started blogging, I posted nearly every day. I had a lot to say!

I then started posting every second day with regular features such as Monday’s Photo of the Week and Wednesday’s Blogger Round-Up where I featured 3 posts I had read during the week that I wanted to share. These days I don’t seem to have time to read many other blogs at all.

In fact, since we moved to Blois two years ago, I seem to have little time and energy to do much blogging apart from Loire Daily Photo. I still occasionally write a Friday’s French post (two this month!) and am currently trying to write a series on Secret Blois (two so far – it seems to be my magic number). During our cycling holidays, however, I have more inspiration and time and usually manage to give a fairly full report.

Two contrasting skyscrapers - the new One World Trade Center and one of the "wedding cake" skyscrapers from the 1930s — Two contrasting skyscrapers – the new One World Trade Center and one of the “wedding cake” skyscrapers from the 1930s

I would like to write more about our trip to New York and to Boston in September to see my son and daughter but after a full day’s translation I don’t seem to have much energy left!

My basic interests remain the same but have taken on different dimensions. Reading is still my favourite activity but not something I blog about very often. I like to read ALL the works of a given author plus a couple of biographies and my Kindle usually makes that possible. I am currently working my way through the Victorian novels and am now onto the lessor known writers such as Wilkie Collins and Elisabeth Gaskell.

The iconic photo in front of the Taj Mahal

Travelling is at the top of the list too and we’ve certainly done a lot this year – a total of twelve weeks in Australia, the Golden Triangle in India including the Taj Mahal, cycling in Italy and Germany, especially along the Romantic Road, and New York & Boston, not to mention a few short trips. And, believe it or not, I have nothing else in the pipeline at the moment, for the first time that I can remember! I need a break from holidays. And we are up to 13 home exchanges in 4 years which isn’t bad going.

Next comes cycling but unfortunately it stops from about mid-October until March. Mushroom picking usually takes over but there has been so little rain this year but there are no mushrooms. We’re hoping that next week’s expected Indian summer will have them popping up all over the place.

I love gardening but I have discovered it is almost as humbling as being a parent – so much to learn and those plants have a mind of their own! One year the petunias run riot and the next year they get leggy. The clematis that bloomed beautifully one summer sulk the next. Fortunately we seem to have mastered the wisteria, the roses, the hollyhocks and the raspberries which is more than we can say for the bignomias and the lettuces!

We still enjoy wine-tasting but have a tendency to stick to our favourites, particularly the local Loire Valley wines and our favourite chianti, especially in front of the fireplace!

Homemade foie gras and vouvray to see the New Year in before the fire

I love taking photographs with my iPhone 5S because it’s a great way to remember places and people and makes me look at things in a different way. I wouldn’t call it a hobby though because I know nothing about lenses and photographic techniques and I usually just take photos because something catches my eye. My iPhone isn’t very good at night or when there isn’t much light but the rest of the time, it’s perfect for my purposes.

But back to blogging. My most popular post remains “The Best Area to Stay in Paris” with about 3,000 clicks a month. Next, a long way behind, are “Friday’s French – biche, chevreuil & deer“, “Ten Top Châteaux in the Loire“, “The Oldest House in Paris” and “Visit the Loire without a Car Based in Blois“.

Chenonceau, undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the châteaux

Over one quarter of my readers live in Australia, followed by France and the US, each about 1/5, then the UK, Canada, Singapore, Germany, India, Italy and Malaysia. The last 1/5 is made of up a surprising 90 countries which means that people from about 100 countries read Aussie in France.

The thing I like best about blogging are the wonderful friends I’ve made among my readers, people whom I would never have been in contact with otherwise. Some comment regularly, others from time to time, while some write to me personally. Others have become close friends. I love to feel connected in such a unique way. So I think I shall keep blogging for a few more years yet …

French language

Friday’s French – Tout un fromage and other cheesy expressions

October 27, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 11 Comments

You would imagine that a country with more than 400 different cheeses would have a certain number of expressions involving the word fromage, but surprisingly, there are more cheesy expressions in English than in French.

I was rather disappointed recently to learn that Il en fait tout un fromage only appeared in the 20^th century. The explanation for its origin seems a little doubtful to me. Starting with nothing (a bit of milk), you can produce something as elaborate as a perfect camembert. Yet the expression in French is negative and corresponds to the English “to make a mountain out of a molehill” so I don’t really see the connection.

However, it set me thinking about other expressions involving cheese. J’ai trouvé un (bon) fromage means I found a cushy job which is sort of self-explanatory but not really.

On the English side, we have “say cheese” which obviously doesn’t work in French but dites cheese or even dites fromage for people in the know will bring about a smile or two. It is more common to say ouistiti which is a little monkey (a marmouset) and sometimes sexe!

To be cheesed off with something is less metaphorical in French. J’en ai marre is the most common expression you will hear, or simply j’en ai assez.

And what about “cheesy” as a derogatory term? Meaning cheap or inferior, it was first attested in 1896, perhaps originally U.S. student slang, along with cheese, meaning an ignorant, stupid person. In the late 19th century, in British slang, cheesy meant fine or showy (1858). The modern derogatory use may be an ironic reversal of this.

I used to have a translation student from Canada who was always coming up with amusing equivalents to French which she would qualify as “cheesy”. It’s translation into French varies enormously with the context. A cheesy song could be une chanson ringarde with the idea that it’s outdated. A cheesy grin = un large sourire. Perhaps a cheesy film might be un film de mauvais goût.

A big cheese in French is not a gros fromage but a gros bonnet. The French expression was developed in the 17^th century in reference to the 4-cornered hat worn by doctors, ecclesiastics, judges and other VIPs of the time. So why “big cheese” in English? It comes from a British expression meaning the best or correct thing, the best, a corruption of the Persian or Urdu chiz (or cheez), meaning “thing” that the British brought back from India in about 1840.

I think it’s very amusing that a pie chart in statistics is a camembert in French. So very appropriate!

Did you ever go to a French wine and cheese party? We used to have them all the time in the French department at my university in Australia. They don’t exist in France of course. About the closest thing is a buffet campagnard but it includes pâtés and other cold cuts as well.

One last expression: fromage de tête is pork brawn of all things!

Do you know any other cheesy expressions?

French language, Paris, Uncategorized

Friday’s French – Minute papillon

October 20, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 10 Comments

As we were driving through Paris recently in the rain, we saw a café called “Minute Papillon” which made me wonder about the origin of the expression which is roughly equivalent to our English saying “Hold your horses!”.

Some sources suggest it is simply a metaphor about butterflies which flit from flower to flower, which would also explain the verb papillonner which means to chop and change or flit from one thing to another.

Other sources also believe the expression came into use in the early 20th century but with a much more amusing origin. At the time, there was a café in Paris that was very popular with journalists. There was a waiter called Papillon who used to answer “Minute, j’arrive” when too many people were calling on his services at the same time.

So when customers wanted to tell him he could take his time, they would say, “Minute Papillon!” It seems the journalists spread the story.

Minute papillon has a second meaning which is an extension of the first i.e. I don’t agree, meaning that the other person has to stop talking so that they can place their argument.

Papillon by itself has several interesting meanings. It can apply to someone who is fickle. It also means a sticker and, by extension, a parking ticket on the windscreen (although I have never seen them in the form of a sticker).

Papillon is also used to designate a butterfly nut and butterfly stroke in swimming.

A noeud papillon is our bow tie. I much prefer the French expression.

However, you can’t have papillons in your tummy when you’re nervous the way you do in English. You have “le trac” instead.

And, by the way, there is no separate word for moth in French – it’s a papillon de nuit!

Do you have any other expression that revolve around butterflies and papillons?

French language

Friday’s French – Globalisation, mondialisation, global, overall

September 2, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 5 Comments

There is a perfectly good word for “globalization”in French – mondialisation which comes from monde meaning “world” – but they seem to be set on using globalisation instead.

In English, global is mainly used in the sense of worldwide, particularly in economic fields, in which case it is usually rendered by mondial in French:

on a global scale: à l’échelle mondiale

global capitalism: le capitalisme mondiale

There is one important exception: global warming is réchauffement de la planète.

In French, however, global has many different meanings, all revolving around the idea of total, comprehensive, overall.

Ils pratiquent un prix global: they have an all-inclusive price

Ils proposent une offre globale : they offer a package

Il faut adopter une approche globale à la question: a comprehensive approach to the issue is needed

La stratégie globale concerne toute l’entreprise: The corporate strategy concerns the entire company.

You can of course have a global strategy in English which corresponds to a stratégie mondiale in French.

When my children were small, there was considerable debate in France about using the méthode globale de lecture corresponding to the word recognition method to teach reading, which is perfectly logical in English where many of the basic words follow no set pattern in terms of spelling and pronunciation: were, where, once, their, there, etc. In French, however, although there are exceptions, most words are pronounced according to syllabic rules which makes the word recognition method a very slow and confusing way of learning to read. I understand that it has been dropped in favour of the méthode syllabique.

Enough digression

Globalement means overall/on the whole, and not globally.

Je suis globalement contente du résultat: On the whole, I’m happy with the result

Globalement nous sommes tous d’accord: On the whole we agree

Globalement, nos ventes ont augmenté: Our overall sales have gone up.

Je dirais que globalement c’est la même chose: I would say that, all in all, it’s the same thing

And the much-used “holistic” in English today can also be rendered by globalement:

Il faut traiter le problème globalement – A holistic approach to the problem is needed.

Holistique does exist but I’ve only ever heard it used in a therapeutic context:

Les thérapies holistiques sont souvent fondées sur des connaissances empiriques et des enseignements traditionnels de la naturopathie : Holistic therapies are often based on the naturopath’s empirical knowledge and traditional teachings.

Back to my initial comment on globalisation. The sentence I heard recently on France Info (my favourite radio station because it keeps repeating the same news all day which means I can listen to it while I’m cooking without having to concentrate), was:

La globalisation des constructeurs a poussé les équipementiers à se restructurer : The globalisation of car manufacturers has forced car parts manufacturers to restructure.

I really don’t see why they can’t say “La mondialisation des constructeurs a poussé les équipementiers à se restructurer”. It’s just a simple. But then, I’m not French !

French customs, French language

Friday’s French – Ecole Normale, normal, standard, norme, norm

August 25, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 1 Comment

The first time I heard the expression école normale was when I took up a post as an assistant English teacher in Nantes many moons ago. I soon discovered that it was a teacher training college. I then heard about the école normale supérieure which is one of the most prestigious and selective university and research institutions, in both the arts and sciences.

The école normale supérieure is run and financed by the State with the aim of training researchers, university lecturers, teachers of grande école preparatory classes and secondary school teachers.

So I was somewhat astonished when reading Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure to learn that Sue Brideshead had enrolled in a Normal School to become a teacher. It was the first time I had thought about the word “normal” used in this context.

Ecole normale was the term given to the institution set up in French in 1794 to provide teacher training to students selected by means of competitive examinations. Normal in this context refers to the fact that it was to serve as a model for other schools of the same type i.e. to establish teaching standards or norms. The English institution was modelled on the French école normale. The name “Normal School” was gradually replaced by “teachers college” or “teacher training college,” so called because almost all collegiate level education programs are sub-departments of larger colleges and universities.

In France, there are now 4 écoles normales supérieures (ENS) and admission is highly selective: 218 places à Lyon, 205 à Cachan, 191 à Paris Ulm et 50 à Rennes en 2014.

The ordinary école normale no longer exists. Both primary and secondary school teachers are now trained at an E.S.P.E. (Ecole supérieure du professorat et de l’éducation) which replaced a previous institution, the I.U.F.M. (Institut universitaire de formation des maîtres), in 2013. And, incidentally, a primary school teacher is now called a maître des écoles (literally school master) and not an instituteur or institutrice which is amusing when you consider that in English, the old school master has been replaced by teacher.

The word norm or norme in French comes from the Latin norma, meaning a set square in the concrete sense and a rule or standard in the figurative sense.

Norme is the basic word for standard in French:

normes de fabrication – manufacturing standards

normes de sécurité – safety standards

normes françaises (NF) – French standards

Hors norme(s) literally means something that isn’t standard, what we would call unconventional or unusual in English. C’est une voiture hors norme(s) – it’s no ordinary car.

The use of “norm” in English does not usually include the idea of an official standard but rather something that is usual or typical. Its use is more restrictive and much less common than the French norme.

Strikes were the norm – Les grèves étaient la norme.

The norms of good behaviour in the civil service – Les normes de bonne conduite dans le service public

Many teachers themselves believe that 70 hours a week is the norm. – Beaucoup d’enseignants pensent que 70 heures par semaine est la norme.

The French normal can often be rendered by the French “normal”, but not always.

De dimension normale – normal-sized, standard-sized

C’est tout à fait normal – It’s quite normal/usual.

Il n’est pas normal – he’s not normal/there is something wrong with him.

On the other hand, in the case of “ce n’est pas normal“, we would be more likely to say “there must be something wrong”.

Ce n’est pas normal qu’ils aient droit aux soins gratuits – It’s not right that they get free treatment/They shouldn’t be getting free treatment.

Revenir à la normale – to get back to normal

Ses notes sont au-dessus de la normale – His marks are above average.

Similarly, in the other direction, normal in English is not always normal in French.

She bought it for half the normal price – Elle l’a acheté à moitié prix.

Classes will be as normal – Les cours auront lieu comme d’habitude.

Do you have any other examples?

Accommodation, French language, Home exchange

Learning a Language with a Home Exchange

May 13, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 7 Comments

As you know, I am a keen home exchanger. We have just redeemed three home exchanges in Australia (Coff’s Harbour, Adelaide and Drysdale) and enjoyed hospitality in Melbourne with the home exchangers of French friends in Paris. Jean Michel, less of a linguist than I am, had been studying and practicing his English for a month or so before we left.

Irene and Paul, who kindly gave us hospitality in Melbourne

Although the basic aim of the trip was not to improve his English but to meet up with my friends and family and visit new places, I was able to observe his progress according to the different types of home exchange.

In Coff’s Harbour, we were in a resort and had very little contact with the people around us which offered little change of Jean Michel practicing his English. Although we had started speaking to each other in English before departure, we fell back into French in Australia.

In Adelaide, we were in a suburban setting which, once again, left little possibility of speaking English except to my nephew who came to see us in the evening.

Our beautiuful home exchange in Adelaide

Our third exchange in Drysdale, about an hour from Geelong, could have been the same except that we had Australian friends join us while we were there and our hosts were also in the vicinity as it was a non-simultaneous exchange. We invited them for an aperitif one evening and also participated in their wine pressing!

But it was Melbourne where we were generously invited to stay with the home exchangers of the Parisian friends who triggered off our first exchange with Drysdale nearly four years ago that offered a real opportunity for Jean Michel to improve his English. We had never experienced hospitality and I was a little worried about spending 3 days with people whom I had only met once.

We needn’t have worried! Irene and Paul were with us the first and third evenings and away the second. While they were there, they took us for walks and meals in Melbourne and we also met up with our Parisian friends’ son. The rest of the time they continued their own lives while we visited other parts of Melbourne.

I would say that hospitality provides the ideal opportunity to improve one’s language skills. If the hosts are able to offer accommodation where the guests have their own bedroom and bathroom as we did in Melbourne, I think it’s an ideal situation.

If hospitality is not a possibility, I would suggest that you choose a downtown area with lots of opportunities to interact with people. Choose a local café and go there every day so you can establish a relationship with the people who work there. Go to the local market or a small shop every day to buy fresh food and buy from the same vendors. Plan a trip to the hairdresser’s.

If your language skills are already sufficient to hold a proper conversation, check beforehand on the existence of local home exchange meet-ups. Join a Facebook home exchange group and try and find other people in the area. Let your host exchangers know that you would like to practice your languages skills beforehand. They will probably be happy to organize meetings with their friends.

At the market, you can easily talk to the vendors

For example, I sent out a Twitter message when we went to Barcelona on a home exchange to get some insiders’ information on the city. As a result, we met up with Roser who looks after blogs & testimonials on the Home Exchange website and a friend of hers in a local café and we talked about things to do and see in Barcelona. When we were at Irene and Paul’s we talked about some of our previous exchanges and they spoke of a swap with Barcelona. I couldn’t believe it – they exchanged with Roser!!!

Otherwise, choose activities that will allow you to talk to people such as visits to wineries and cheese makers. See if there is a local walking group you can join. Throughout France, for example, there is a meet-up group called “On Va Sortir” which exists in London and New York under the name of Urbeez and is a wonderful way to meet people during your stay. Membership is free of charge. Our local group, whom we came across by accident, meets up informally at the open-air coffee stand at our Saturday market.

Having coffee on a Saturday at the market with members of On Va Sortir

Don’t forget to visit the local library where you can read the local paper and magazines. Remember – you can’t speak a language if you don’t know enough words and you need to spend at least an hour a day widening your vocabulary by reading, watching television or listening to the radio. In France, the France Info radio station is perfect because it repeats the same news and items of interest throughout the day. If you don’t understand the first time, you will the third time round!

If you prepare your home exchange with these various points in mind, I’m sure that you will get the most out of your stay language-wise. My dream is to spend a couple of months in Italy after I retire so that I can have a proper conversation in Italian but even two weeks would make a difference!

French language

Friday’s French – Va te faire cuire un œuf ! and other eggy expressions

April 29, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 10 Comments

You’d wonder why “go cook yourself an egg” would have the meaning of “get stuffed” or more politely “go jump”, wouldn’t you? I googled it and am not convinced by any of the explanations.

You can insult someone by calling them an egg: Quel œuf ce type as in “What a blockhead”. In this case, I guess it refers to a person’s egg-shaped head. An egghead, as we understand it in English, however, is an intello! Quite a different concept.

Very boringly, everyone seems to put their eggs in the same basket – mettre ses œufs dans le même panier Now, I wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg ? or as the French say, c’est l’œuf et la poule.

And what do you think the English equivalent is of Il est à peine sorti de l’œuf i.e. he’s only just come out of the egg?

We can have our eggs scrambled (brouillés), soft-boiled (à la coque or mollet), hard-boiled (durs), fried (sur le plat or au plat) or poached (pochés). An egg-flip is a lait de poule (literally hen’s milk which sounds a bit odd). Who would have guessed that one ?

Surprisingly, an egg-timer is minuteur or sablier (hour-glass – from sable = sand) with no reference to eggs at all.

However œufs de lump are lump-fish roe (useful, that one) and œufs en chocolat or de Pâques are chocolate or Easter eggs (now, that’s better).

Un blanc d’œuf is an egg white and un jaune d’œuf is a yolk. Nothing fancy there. Les blancs battus en neige are stiffly-beaten egg whites (neige = snow).

Just one more – our very colourful expression “to egg on” comes out in French as pousser à or inciter à.

Do you have any more eggy expressions in English or in French ? And if you have a good explanation for the origin of “va te faire cuire un oeuf“, I’d love to hear it!

French language

Friday’s French – gens de voyage, Roms, gitans, Romanichels, Tsiganes, bohémiens, Manouches, gypsies

April 14, 2016 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Before I left Australia, gypsies for me were only characters in novels but in France, I learned that they were present in large numbers, lived in caravans (often large and expensive) and travelled around the country following seasonal work such as fruit picking, and mostly parked on otherwise vacant land on the outskirts of town. They were synonymous with begging and theft. I also heard them called nomades and forains, from foire (fair) as many were fairground people.

Sign pointing to an "aire d'accueil des gens du voyage" — Sign pointing to an “aire d’accueil des gens du voyage”

In 1969, a law was passed introducing a legal category called gens du voyage (travellers) concerning “the exercise of travelling economic activities and regulations applicable to persons in France without fixed abode”, often used in administrative circles and in the media to designate Roms, the now more politically correct term for Romanichels, Tsiganes, Manouches, gitans, etc., even though most of them are sedentary.

The law introduced a so-called livret de circulation and “home municipality”. The livret de circulation was a compulsory booklet for all persons over the age of 16, whether of French or foreign nationality, without a fixed place of abode for at least six months of the year. The livret was absolished in June 2015.

Another law was passed in 1990 making it compulsory for towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants to provide designated parking areas (aire d’accueil) for gens du voyage, which of course created complex situations for municipalities just below the limit. The rules are now defined by the law of 5th July, 2000.

In March 2003, the so-called domestic safety law increased penalties for the illegal occupation of land by gens du voyage to six months’ imprisonment and 3,750 euro fine, possible confiscation of vehicles and suspension of driving licences.

In 2005, the taxe d’habitation, a local tax paid by all French residents, was extended to people living in mobile land vehicles.

Roms are obviously a very touchy subject. My aim here is simply to present the vocabulary not to make a comment on their lifestyle.

In France they were originally referred to as bohémiens from Bohemia in today’s Czech Republic though it is difficult to know why. The term has been used since the 15th century.

Gitan (originally gitain which first appeared in the 17th century) is the traditional word that corresponds to our gypsy. It comes from the Spanish gitano derived from Egiptano (Egyptian) because it was believed that the Spanish gypsies came from Egypt which is also the origin of the word gypsy. In fact, it would seem they came from India.

Romanichel, a derogatory term, actually comes from an erroneous transcription in 1828 of a German Tzigane word which literally means Tzigane people. The first part romani is derived from Rom meaning “man, husband”. The Tziganes are from Hungary.

The term manouche is a slang term that appeared around 1900 and was taken from the Tzigane manuch, man.

However, the French Tziganes claim that they are different from the Roms, who are no longer nomads, and their languages are different. The Roms, however, are migrants who want to move to countries with better economies where they can continue to live sedentary lives.

This post was inspired by the fact that several camps of gens du voyage have suddenly appeared in our area with the coming of spring.

from the Tropics to the City of Light