Yesterday we took a break at lunchtime to have a picnic in Parc Lafontaine with a friend and her little daughter. This friend, G., recently bought an old VW microbus, known here as a "Westphalia", an item quite desireable and hip. When we arrived, carrying our contributions for the picnic - wine, bread, a vegetarian pate, some cold tortellini - she was parked, and sitting on the floor of the van, cross-legged, with the sliding door open, cutting avocados for a beautiful salad that was in a dark mustard-colored ceramic bowl in front of her. A small glass full of just-picked lilacs was on the "kitchen" table above her head, and her daughter was happily running around the van, from one mud puddle to another, roaring like a lion.
We made our usual greetings, in French, with the double kisses on both cheeks, and then J. said, affectionately, "Did you know that you are really a hippie chick?"
"No!" she said. "Really?"
"Yes," we both insisted. She is at least fifteen years younger than we are, and certainly missed the 60s, but she would have SO fit in. G. took a skeptical look at our faces, and decided it was a compliment. I went over and watched the salad preparation - she was just then sprinking the greens with roasted sunflower seeds (as if we needed more proof!), and the little girl leaned against my legs. J. took pictures, and then looked up from the camera. "It's always been my dream," he sighed. "Three hippie chicks in a microbus." We all looked at him indulgently, unable to pretend to be offended.
"Do you have that word in French?" he persisted.
"Yes," said G., blushing a little, and adding some fresh fiddleheads to the salad. "Poulette." Everybody laughed.
"Does it have the same meaning? Is it basically affectionate, but women get sort of annoyed by it?"
"Oui," she said, smiling shyly as she cut up a peach.
"Mes trois poulettes," he said, grinning.
what is this with the chicken in Montreal? WordReference (via foreignword.com) comes back with "spring chicken" in English for "poulette" ... and the other day, the potholes were "chicken's nests" ...
Such an affectionate post!
Posted by: pzicari | May 18, 2005 at 12:24 AM
Oh that is so sweet. Mes trois poulettes. C'est parfait.
Posted by: Pica | May 18, 2005 at 01:36 PM
:-)
Posted by: dale | May 18, 2005 at 06:59 PM
Well, guess what... I have a Westfalia too!!! It's the van. The thing we go on holiday in. But in our case it's one old broiler and a great flock of roosters.
Posted by: qB | May 23, 2005 at 05:00 PM
Westfalia rules!
Which year was it? (microbus, it's very likely the old bus (pre-80's), all round shapes). I have an square one (1987).
True! it's very bourgeois-bohème, but who cares!
There are so many of them on the Plateau!
Posted by: Raoul | May 23, 2005 at 06:13 PM
Mine is 1973 Wesfalia conversion with the hinge at the front (for the roof)... they were only made that way in that year for the UK market, and following years the hinge was at the back.
I'm trying to find a picture of it to link to.... no... will have to provide later.
Posted by: qB | May 24, 2005 at 08:52 AM