KIF-KIF

Kif-kif is an amusing alliteration of the Maghrib word "kif" which means "like" or "same." French soldiers returning from North Africa introduced it to France during the 19th century. Kif-kif bourricot, which means "it's all the same to the donkey," became a popular and lilting variation of kif-kif. This resigned pack animal, tethered outside of a panoramic restaurant and souvenir shop at the Grand Ballon in the Vosges Mountains, knows what it means.

Vocabulary
un bourricot:  a small donkey
un âne:  a donkey, an ass; a fool
kif-kif:  it's all the same
pareil (-le):  same

Recommended reading
Les Mémoires d'un Âne (Memoirs of a Donkey) by the Comtesse de Ségur

©2012 P.B. Lecron

BLUEBERRY-PIE EYES

Wild blueberry pie is best eaten outdoors with a view of cattle grazing on grassland slopes in the Vosges Mountains, at the Ferme-Auberge Molkenrain. At an altitude of 1,040 meters, on the Route des Crêtes near Wattwiller, the Alsatian inn for backpackers is accessible by car via a bumpy, winding dirt road; or by any of several hiking trails between Saverne and the Vosges summit, the Ballon d'Alsace. 

Vocabulary
une tarte aux myrtilles:  a blueberry pie
sauvage:  wild
une ferme:  a farm
une auberge:  an inn


Expressions
Ce n'est pas de la tarte.
It's not a piece of pie; it's no picnic; i.e., it's not easy.

On n'est pas sorti de l'auberge.
We're not out of the woods yet.

For the curious French reader
Listen to and read along with Eddy Mitchell's French lyrics of Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill. Then tell me how this version wandered off onto the subject of HLM's. Click here.

©2012 P.B. Lecron