What is making French pedestrians giggle this week and annoy police officer unions? The pun on this urban ad for free-ranging farm chicken with a gendarme driving a tractor. Poulet is the French slang equivalent for cop.
The nickname became rampant in 1871 after new Parisian police headquarters were built on the site of what previously had been a chicken market. According to an article I read in the Figaro newspaper, despite that some police unions are enraged by the summer ad campaign, a large number of French police officers have asked the Loué company for collector copies of the poster.
Vocabulary
un poulet fermier: a free-ranging farm chicken
un gendarme: a policeman
se gendarmer: to kick up a fuss (slang)
de façon moqueuse: tongue-in-cheek (literally
la langue dans la joue)
un poussin: a chick
un sobriquet: a nickname
©2012 P.B. Lecron
