TOUCH ME WHO DARES

Qui s'y frotte, s'y pique.

"Touch me who dares" is a satisfactory translation for the devise of Louis XII, who reigned as king of France from 1498 through 1515.

While a crowned porcupine was Louis XII's emblem, the animal is not exactly the friendliest of figures to use to greet visitors at the front door. This one in faïence is on a lintel of a maison en meulière built by the turn-of-the-20th-century Versailles architect, Léon Bachelin.

Vocabulary
un porc-épic:  a porcupine
frotter:  to rub
se frotter:  to cross swords with or to come against someone
piquer:  to prick; to sting; to sew; to pinch (steal)
une devise:  a devise, motto, watchword, slogan; also a currency
faïence:  earthenware

©2013 P.B. Lecron

GLAZED

One of the more popular gods among men and Immortals, Dionysus, spread merrymaking and the secrets of wine making far and wide in his mythical travels. Here the Greek god of grape harvests, revelry and theatre, is represented in an Art Nouveau bas relief embedded in the façade of a villa in Versailles' Montreuil neighborhood. The quarter has a treasure trove of glazed stoneware decorative elements, crowning jewels of the bourgeois residential building style created in the early 1900's by the Versailles architect and wealthy entrepreneur, Léon Bachelin. His historic houses, typically constructed in meulière with Art Nouveau ceramic ornaments on their façades, are concentrated in Versailles along the Avenue des Etats-Unis, the Boulevard de la République,  and their adjoining streets.

Vocabulary

meulière:  here, a stone used frequently in residential constructions in the Parisian area; characteristic of a regional architectural style when combined with Art Nouveau ceramic pieces

imbriqué:  embedded

un regard vitreux:  a glassy look (e.g., in the eye)

©2013 P.B. Lecron