GO AHEAD, BE A GOUJAT

A bounder and a cad 

When asked to strike a pose to interpret the word goujat, famous French cat Pompon, who is by no means a saint, assumed this disregardful posture...

Pas de commentaire.

No comment.

Vocabulary

un goujat:  a bounder, a cad
les actualités:  news reports



©2014 P.B. Lecron

LET HIM STEW

Laissez-le mariner

For comfort and emphasis famous French cat, Pompon, poses on an oven mitt to illustrate another great French colloquialism, laissez-le mariner. Let him stew in his own juice.

Vocabulary
mariner:  to marinate
laisser mariner:  in cookery, leave to marinate; figuratively, leave to stew in one's own juice
une manique:  an oven glove or mitt


©2013 P.B. Lecron

LONG LIKE A DAY WITHOUT BREAD

Learn more French with Pompon

Sacré de Birmanie Pompon stretches out to give meaning to the French expression, "Il est long comme un jour sans pain."  He is long like a day without bread. It can either mean something is very long in physical length, or (not in Pompon's case) endlessly boring.

NO DOUBT

Famous French cat Pompon is unequivocal about today's expression:

Tout le monde a des yeux et des oreilles; mais tout le monde n'a pas de discernement. --Madeleine de Puisieux,  Les Caractères (1751)

Everyone has eyes and ears; but not everyone has discernment.

©2012 P.B. Lecron

HOW DO YOU SAY 'TO HAVE A CRUSH ON' IN FRENCH?

Avoir le béguin pour...

A crush----- on Pompon, resident French cat and blog mascot.

Portrait photo by Pierre Lechanteux.

Expressions

avoir le béguin pour quelqu'un:  to have a crush on somebody

avoir un béguin:  to be in love

©2012 P.B. Lecron

                                              

©2012 P.B. Lecron

LOOKS LIKE RAIN

Pompon predicting the weather, right on the mark. We should have named him Torricelli, even his whiskers are frizzing.

Vocabulary
un Sacré de Birmanie:  a Birman cat, one of France's favorite cat breeds
la pluie:  rain
la prévision météo:  weather forecast
les moustaches:  whiskers
friser:  to frizz or curl
un baromètre:  a barometer

Expression
Lorsqu'un chat se lave derrière l'oreille, c'est qu'il pleuvra bientôt.
"When kitty washes behind her ears, we'll soon be tasting heaven's tears."

Photos of Pompon by Marianne Lecron
©2012 P.B. Lecron

More cameos of Pompon?
Vive La Sieste
A Taste for Luxury
A.K.A. Pompon

AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE

La veille de Noël -- Christmas Eve

©2011 P.B. Lecron

A.K.A. POMPON

The naming of cats is a difficult matter--T.S. Eliot, 

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

It was indeed a holiday game coming up with a name for this little, soon to be big, Birman.  I had suggested Pierre-Henri, Paco, Diego and Blaise; Yo-Yo, Sparky, Maximo and Enzo--but his young mistress settled the question, and for family purposes the chocolate-nosed ball of fur curls his tail to the sound of Pompon.

Vocabulary

un pompon:  a pompom

pomponner: to doll up; to dress up

Popular Expressions

à vous le pompon:  to you the advantage; you win

avoir son pompon:  to have too much to drink; in times past, simply to be happy

décrocher le pompon: to win, to be first place; literally to detach the pompon, as on a merry-go-round to win a free ride

C'est le pompon:  It's the last straw.

Il tient le pompon:  He takes the cake.

C'est le pompon de la pomponnette :  It's the end-all.  That beats everything.

French Canadian Expressions

en avoir ras le pompon:  to be exasperated, fed up

se calmer le pompon:  to calm down

More

It used to be said that to touch the red pompon on a French sailor's beret brought good luck.

By the way and quite coincidentally with the title of this post,  Aka Birman is a set of conditioning movements in Burmese martial arts where the combat sequence is performed without an adversary, with or without arms. Our Pompon is a chocolate-point Sacré de Birmanie, or Birman, and practices this sport.

For T.S. Eliot's poem, The Naming of Cats, click here.

French drama

A seven-minute film clip from the 1967 Marcel Pagnol film, La Femme du Boulanger, where the reconciliation beween the baker and his younger, errant wife coincides with the return of his black cat, Pomponnette. To view, click here.

Text& photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron
  

THE CAT'S PAJAMAS

"Le moindre des petits félins est déjà en lui-même un vrai chef-d'oeuvre." --Léonarde de Vinci
(The least of little cats is already in himself a masterpiece.)

A silky, gregarious and playful pasha--who could ask for more? The white-mitted Sacré de Birmanie is one of the three most popular purebred cats in France. The dream kitten, here, is a chocolate-point Birman and the new bébé in our family. In his walking papers he's officially named Fadji des Grands Saphirs. At home he's known as Pompon, but he must surely sport a secret name, imagining himself to be Guy l'Eclair, i.e., Flash Gordon, dashing through an intergalactic adventure to defend the universe between the back bedrooms and the kitchen sink.

I, and millions of French people who have a predilection for any and all cats, agree with author Colette who said, "Il n'y a pas de chat ordinaire."  There are no ordinary cats. (Less than five percent of the domestic cat population in France is purebred.) By common accord, alley cats or chats de gouttière are most respectfully denominated chats de race Européen by the Fédération Féline Française and, like a seigneurial privilege, are attributed a category in cat shows for which no particular standards dare be imposed.

Vocabulary
les pyjamas du chat: the cat's pajamas
éclair: flash

Expression

La nuit tous les chat sont gris: At night all cats are gray; in the obscurity, the difference between people or things becomes indistinguishable.

Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci spent the final three years of his life in France in the service of François I, and is entombed in the Chapel de Saint-Hubert at the Château d'Amboise on the banks of the Loire?

For a history of the development of the Sacred Cat of Burma or "Birman" in France, click here; for a timeline of the breed, in French and with vintage photos, click here; or for the story envelopped in a charming legend penned by Marcelle Adam, click here.

Text & photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron