Le Bon Usage the proper usage. Also called Le Grevisse. A unique descriptive grammar of the French language by Maurice Grevisse, first published in 1936. Grevisse, a Belgian, gives many examples and counter-examples illustrating the life of the language: evolution, regional differences, complications and inconsistencies. According to André Gide (in Le Figaro, February 8, 1947) “he doesn’t legislate; he observes”.
Le Chanteur de Mexico (1951) the singer of Mexico City. An operetta by Francis Lopez, then a film by Richard Pottier (1956), both starring Luis Mariano.
Le Midi Libre free south. A daily newspaper founded in 1944 in Montpellier. Its motto: “From the Alps to the Pyrenees, from the Auvergne to the sea”.
le mois le plus beau the most beautiful month. Cf C’est le mois de Marie
Léonie veut aller à la fête Léonie wants to go to the party.
Les femmes sont charmantes women are charming.
Les Petites Filles modèles (1858) perfect little girls. A novel by the comtesse de Ségur.
Les Quatre Filles du docteur March (1880) Dr March’s four daughters. The French title of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.
Les rois qui se sont succédé sur le trône the kings who succeeded each other on the throne.
librairie Honoré Champion a bookstore (on the quai Malaquais in Paris) and publishing house founded in 1874.
Lisette an illustrated weekly magazine for girls, dedicated to stories and serialized novels. It was founded by Editions de Montsouris in 1921. Lisette is a girl’s name, short for Elisabeth.
Luis Mariano French singer of Spanish Basque origin, born in Irun in 1914, famous for his parts in many Francis Lopez operettas and films based on them.
maman what little children usually call their mothers in France. It’s okay for children (other than Coralie and me) but the trouble is, some adults go on calling their parents maman and papa. As a term of address, I’ll bear with it: if someone wants to remain a baby, who am I to object? But you have to cringe when people use these words when talking to and about someone who’s no longer a child. As in “poor man, his papa just died”, or “her maman will come from Brittany to attend her wedding”.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) was a Roman emperor and a Stoic philosopher. He wrote his thoughts in Greek while leading a long campaign against Germanic tribes. His book was later titled Meditations, but what he called it was To Myself. And he did write for himself, trying to be “free from passion” and not to busy himself “about trifling things”. He died in Vienna, which at the time was called Vindobona. From Gaulish vindo, “white”, and bona, “bottom”.
Marin (short for vent marin) a southeast wind blowing on the Mediterranean coast from Perpignan to Toulon. Mild and moist, it is more frequent in autumn and in spring.
Maxence & Fils Maxence & Sons. In France, Maxence is a masculine first name as well as a family name.
Mickey (full name: Le Journal de Mickey) a French weekly magazine for children, founded in 1934 by Paul Winkler, of the Press Agency Opera Mundi. It introduced American comic strips into France.
Monsieur 100 000 Volts a nickname for singer Gilbert Bécaud, who created an electric atmosphere in French music-halls, smashing his piano to pieces while enthusiastic fans tore up their seats.
monsieur le curé the priest (term of reference); Father (term of address).
mourir to die.
mousseline de soie silk muslin. The word mousseline, like muslin, seems to derive from Mosul, a city in Iraq.
Nous Deux the two of us. A romantic magazine for women with a lot of photo-romances and some housekeeping advice. It’s published by Cino del Duca (also a film producer), who launched many other magazines of the same kind, like Intimité, and comic strips for children.
Nous n’irons plus au bois we’ll go to the woods no more. A circle game song, going on with les lauriers sont coupés, “the laurels have been cut”.
Occitan a Romance language spoken in southern France and parts of Spain, Monaco and Italy since the Middle Ages. Its literature, starting with the troubadours, was the first to be written in a Romance language. The language is also called provençal, languedocien, or langue d’oc. Most of us, in the south, can speak it, and in villages it’s the main language.
Occitania a region of southwestern Europe where Occitan was the main language until World War I. It includes the southern half of France, Monaco, and small parts of Italy and Spain.
Occupation The period of German Military Administration in France, from the armistice of June 22, 1940, (which resulted in a division of the country into an occupied zone and one administered by the Vichy government) to the liberation after the Allied landing of June 1944. From November 1942, the “Free Zone” was also occupied.
omissione by omission.
opere by action.
ouf an onomatopoeic interjection, of relief after effort, fear or discomfort. A bit like phew, except it’s never about disgust; or like whew, except it can’t express surprise.
Parce que c’est comme ça Because that’s the way it is.
pâtisserie pastry shop. From Latin pasta, “paste”.
patronage, or patro, youth club. From Latin patronus, “patron, protector”, derived from pater, “father”.
patronne feminine of patron. From Latin patrona, “women protector”.
Péguy, Charles (1873-1914) French poet and essayist. His mother was a widow and a chair mender. He edited a literary magazine, Les Cahiers de la Quinzaine. He was a socialist. He loved the Virgin, Joan of Arc, the Beauce region, and Orléans, where he was born. He despised money and the modern world. He died in battle in World War I.
pétanque a game where you throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called cochonnet, “piglet”. It’s played mostly in the south of France, and there are many complicated rules. From Occitan pè tancat, “foot rooted”.
petit suisse little Swiss. A cylinder of fresh cheese about the size of a bobbin. It came from the idea of a Swiss cowherd working on a farm in Picardie.
Pétrole Hahn a petroleum-based lotion that’s supposed to make your hair irresistibly shiny, and get rid of dandruff. It was invented by Charles Hahn in 1885.
Pieds Nickelés nickel-plated-feet. A comic series started by Louis Forton in the magazine L’Épatant. The three protagonists’ feet are too heavy, or too precious, for work, so the the poor men have to become crooks.
place du marché market square.
plate Beauce flat Beauce. The Beauce is a region between Paris and Orléans, with a lot of wheat fields and the cathedral city of Chartres in the middle. Probably from pre-Latin belsa, “plateau”.
pou louse.
promenoir standing room area in a theater, for which you can get cheap tickets. From promener, “walk” – originally the area was for all spectators to stretch their legs during intermission.
propriétaire owner; landowner.
propriété property; estate.
Quel amour d’enfant what a dear little child.
ramonet in parts of southern France, an overseer or foreman who looks after workers on an estate. His wife, the ramonette, organizes the women workers and cooks for everybody. The ramonet receives a yearly wage from the estate owner.
religieuse a nun; a cake consisting in a small cream puff above a larger one, with chocolate or mocha inside and on top, that’s supposed to look like a nun in a habit.
rentrée return from summer vacation; beginning of the school year. It always takes place on the first of October.
Requiem aeternam eternal rest.
Ribouldingue one of the cartoon characters in Les Pieds Nickelés, the friendly fat one with a beard. From ribouldinguer, “to party”, probably from franco-provençal riboule, “harvest festival”.
roman-photo (or photo-roman) romantic story that looks like a comic strip, except it uses photos instead of drawings. From Italian photoromanzo. The genre was invented in Italy in 1947 and soon became very popular in France. It’s part of t
he presse du coeur, “press of the heart”, a derogatory expression for romance magazines.
Rosa mystica mystical rose. From Greek mystos, “mysterious, hidden”. One of the names in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
rossignol de mes amours nightingale of my loves.
rouille a sauce made of garlic, chili peppers, bread crumb and olive oil, eaten with bouillabaisse.
Sabaoth a Hebrew word meaning “armies”. So, Deus Sabaoth is the God of Armies, but nobody seems quite sure whether these are the armies of Israel, the angels, the stars, or the whole universe.
saint-honoré a cake consisting of creampuffs with a lot of cream and caramel around and on top of them.
Sainte-Trinité Holy Trinity. A mystery: three persons (Father, Son, Spirit), one essence. No women or girls.
Sans Famille without family. A French novel published in 1878 by Hector Malot. Translated into English as Nobody’s Boy by Florence Crewe-Jones in 1916.
sardana the traditional circle dance of Catalonia; the music written for the cobla that accompanies it. The word (probably from Cerdà, “inhabitant of Cerdanya”) dates from the 16th century; the dance was codified in the 19th century during the Catalan Renaissance. From the beginning it was linked to republicanism, and it was repressed during the dictatorships of Primo de Rivera and Franco. Most Catalan composers have dedicated part or most of their work to the sardana. It is popular throughout Catalonia and beyond, with hundreds of groups organizing each year thousands of gatherings, festivals and competitions.
Sciences Po shortened name for Institut d’études politiques de Paris, “Paris Institute of Political Studies”, a French school specializing in social science and international relations.
Ségur, comtesse de (1799-1874) a celebrated writer of children’s fiction. On the cover of her books, she made sure that “née Rostopchine” was always added under her married name. Sophie Rostopchine was born in St Petersburg and grew up in Russia. Her family went into exile in Paris, where she married Eugène, comte de Ségur, when she was twenty. They had eight children. Sophie started writing in her fifties, for her grandchildren. Her novels are mostly dialogue, and the most interesting parts are about bad, inventive children as opposed to their nice, sensible friends. The author doesn’t openly encourage bad behavior, but she describes it with gusto.
Série Noire an imprint founded in 1945 by publisher Gallimard for non-conformist crime novels and directed by translator Marcel Duhamel. It started with Peter Cheyney and James Hadley Chase, going on to Raymond Chandler, Horace McCoy, David Goodis. The first French title was Albert Simonin’s Touchez pas au grisbi.
sixième sixth. It’s the name of the first year of secondary education. In France, the last year of secondary education is called terminale, the last but one is première, and so on. Yes, we start from the end.
Soir de Paris Evening in Paris, a perfume created by Ernest Beaux in 1928 for the Bourjois brand.
sou a currency unit no longer current in France since 1947 but still remembered: older people call one franc vingt sous, “twenty sous” and five francs cent sous, “a hundred sous”. From Latin solidus, “solid”.
Stella matutina morning star.
surexcitation overexcitement.
tabernaculum tabernacle; Latin tabernaculum, “tent”, from taberna, “hut, shop”.
tamborí a small percussion instrument which is part of a sardana cobla. Cf cobla.
tartine a slice of bread covered with butter, honey, jam or another spreadable ingredient.
Touchez pas au grisbi (1953) Don’t Touch the Loot, a novel by Albert Simonin, who also wrote the screenplay for the Jacques Becker film (1954). Grisbi is a slang word for “money”, from the name of a coin, the griset, from gris, “grey”, from Frankish, a Germanic language.
Trénet, Charles An extraordinary singer and songwriter, born in Narbonne in 1913. His father was a lawyer and a composer of sardanas. Trenet is sometimes called le fou chantant, “The singing madman”, perhaps because he always sounds so happy. He tells stories about a man who’s left his horse at a nightclub’s cloakroom, about Canadian pharmacies where you can buy toys and ice-cream but you can’t see any medications, about a garden where ducks speak English, about a missed appointment between the sun and the moon. Sometimes he starts speaking, sometimes he makes noises; you never know what baroque juxtapositions and bouncing alliterations he’s going to come up with.
Turris eburnea ivory tower.
une diablesse a she-devil. From Christian Latin diabolus, “devil”.
Vaillant: le journal the plus captivant Valiant: the most captivating magazine. A comic weekly published by the French Communist Party. From medieval Latin valens, “strong, energetic”.
verbo in word. Ablative case of Latin verbum, “word, expression”
Violettes impériales (1953) Imperial Violets. A Franco-Spanish film by Richard Pottier, music by Francis Lopez, with Luis Mariano, Carmen Sevilla, and Simone Valère. It includes the song L’Amour est un bouquet de violettes, “Love is a bouquet of violets”, where we learn that we’d better hurry to pick these little flowers before they wilt.
voiture French word for “automobile” and “horse-drawn carriage”. From Latin vectura, “transportation”.
zibeline sable. From Middle French sabelin.
Acknowledgements
For their generous help with various chapters and drafts of this novel, many thanks to Nicola Keegan and Laurel Zuckerman; to Reine Arcache Melvin, Laure Millet, Hannah Davis Taieb, and especially to Georgia Smith; to Mary Ellen Gallagher, Gwyneth Hughes, Dimitri Keramitas, Barry Kirwan and Christopher Vanier; to Janet Skeslien Charles; and to Linda Healey, who turned copy editing into an adventure and, for me, an education.
For encouragement and inspiration, thanks also to Pansy Maurer-Alvarez, Rose Burke, Dylan Brie Ducey, Florent Faguer, Manolita Farolan, Mathilde Fleury, Alystyre Julian, Anne Korkeakivi, Claire Lecoeur; to Julie, Boris, Léonie and Samuel Lojkine; to Alassane Ly, Ken MacKenzie, Lori Soderlind, Lesley Valdes, Evelyn Walsh, and Katharine Weber.
About the author
Marie Houzelle grew up in the south of France. Her work has appeared in the collection Best Paris Stories (Summertime Publications), in Narrative Magazine, Pharos, Orbis, Serre-Feuilles, Van Gogh's Ear, and in the chapbook No Sex Last Noon. "Hortense on Tuesday Night" was chosen by Narrative Magazine as one of the five top stories of 2011. "Belle-famille", a story in French, came out in Kindle Single in July 2013.
After Toulouse, Liverpool and Berlin, she now lives in Ivry, near Paris.
Q & A with Marie Houzelle
1 ENGLISH
Why do you write in English?
My first (defensive) reaction: “Why not?”
I know, English is not my “first language”, (“native language”, “mother tongue”), the one that’s supposed to be mine. As a child I spoke French, Occitan, Catalan, and Spanish. French was the language of Parisians and suchlike. Of my mother. Of school. Not ours, particularly.
I wrote my first journal in Spanish. English came a bit later. Latin (a lot of it) in schools, for ten years, starting when I was nine. Swedish, through university classes. German, when living in Berlin in my early twenties. Then a few others.
None of them ever felt mine, but they all allow me to swim in them, more or less clumsily – clumsiness, hesitation, uncertainty being part of the enchantment.
After the secret Spanish journal, there were some literary efforts in French. I was not happy with the results. Meanwhile, I was writing in other languages, for pleasure. On the train to work, watching my children in parks, spying in cafés.
And most of my reading was in English. So when I heard about a week-long Paris Writers Workshop, I signed up. Recklessly.
I brought my latest journal pages. The instructor, Jake Lamar, was energetic and encouraging. Rose Burke gave me a magazine article she’d just written about Alice Notley and Douglas Oliver’s weekly workshop at the British Institute. I didn’t join until t
he spring semester — I was a bit shy. But I immediately felt at home. There I met several congenial writers. We co-edited a magazine. Soon, there were more groups and more friends, supporting and inspiring each other. Paris is a good place to write in English.
2 CHILD
What challenges did you face writing from the point of view of a child, and not just any child, but a precocious child?
I believed in my narrator from the start. In her voice. Friends told me that brainy children are annoying. That Tita sounds too smart for her age, that I should make her two years older. Or four. Or six. But I wanted a chapter about her first communion, so she had to be seven. Anyway, she’s weird. She wouldn’t sound less weird if she were older. She’s precocious in some ways, backward in others. She’s Tita.
3 PÉLICAN
What inspired the character of the terrible mademoiselle Pélican?
My characters usually have models. At least, to start with. Then, as I write and things happen, most of them travel pretty far from the actual people who inspired them (or, more precisely, from my impression, my memory of these people). And there are a few I make up on the way, as if from scratch.
But mademoiselle Pélican is (as far as I know) very much like the remarkable teacher who, for a few years, dominated the school part of my life; who taught me a lot; who made me want to check everything she said, and learn as fast as I could in order to get away from her.
4 BOOKS
Books are very important for Tita. Why? How do books change her life?
Tita Page 22