Tita (21 page)

“I’ll ask Ginette to take Coralie to and from school,” Mother says. “They’ll be fine. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll go to Narbonne and buy them everything they need for the
rentrée
.”

But I already have everything I need. I have a Latin book, an English book, eight books in all for the
sixième
. No more worries.
An auspicious wind has blown them all away.

On Monday, I’ll get up at seven and bicycle, between the vineyards, to Feris Delteil.

TITA’S GLOSSARY

à demain
to tomorrow = see you tomorrow.
Demain
comes from Latin
de mane
, “in the morning”.

Âmes vaillantes
valiant souls. A weekly Catholic magazine for girls, founded in 1938, nine years after
Coeurs vaillants
, “valiant hearts”  a magazine for boys – in  French
âme
is feminine,
coeur
masculine.

apéritif
something that opens the appetite. From Latin
aperire,
“to open”.

Arago, François
a Catalan mathematician who became a Minister for Marine Affairs and Colonies in the Provisional Government of 1948. He abolished flogging in the French Navy. 

Au ciel dans ma patrie
in heaven, my fatherland. From a hymn about the Virgin Mary which starts with “I’ll join her one day in heaven”.

avant-propos
foreword.

aventure
what happens to someone unexpectedly; love affair. From Latin
advenire,
“to happen”.

bac or baccalauréat
the exam you take at the end of secondary education; you need to pass it if you want to go on to university etc.

belle-mère
beautiful-mother = mother-in-law or stepmother. The adjective
beau
or
belle
is used in French for all step and in-law family relationships, probably in order to encourage good feelings that might not arise naturally.

biens paraphernaux
the property of a married woman that she can use as she likes because it isn’t part of her dowry (Greek
phernē
).

bigarreau
large, juicy, firm-fleshed cherries, with partly white, partly bright-red skin. From
bigarrer
, “to give contrasting colors”.

Bon appétit!
Good appetite! It’s polite to say this to people who are eating or getting ready to eat, whether you’re sharing their food or not, whether you know them or not.

Bon Coin
good corner; good spot. A very usual name in France for cafés and restaurants.

bons points
a
bon point
is a small piece of cardboard with the school stamp on it, which stands for a good mark.

bouillabaisse
a traditional fish stew from Marseille. From Occitan
bolha-baissa
, “boil and reduce”.

Boum, Quand notre coeur fait Boum, tout avec lui dit Boum
Boom, When our hearts go boom, everything around says boom, and love is on its way... That’s the beginning of a very popular Charles Trenet song (from 1938) with a lot of onomatopeiae as well as depictions of everyday sounds: the clock goes
tic-tac-tic-tic
, the birds
pic-pac-pic-pic
, the broken dishes
cric-cric-crac
, the wet feet
flic-flic-flac
, etc. 

Bourbons
a family of kings who ruled over France, from Henri IV (1589), to Charles X (1830) with some revolutionary and napoleonic interruptions. Several European countries were governed by the same dynasty, and Bourbon kings are still on the thrones of Luxembourg and Spain. 

bourgeoises
feminine plural of
bourgeois
, which originally just meant “free town dweller”, as opposed to aristocrat, clergy or peasant. 

C’est le mois de Marie
This is the month of Mary. So begins a hymn that continues “it’s the most beautiful month, to the blessed Virgin, let’s give a new song.” May has long been linked with the Virgin. Special month-long ceremonies started in Rome in the 18th century and, through the Jesuits, spread all over Italy and France. The word
May
comes from Latin
Maius [mensis]
, “month of Maia”. Maia was an Italic goddess of spring, warmth and fertility. 

cabinet de toilette
a small room with a washbasin and a mirror; it might also include a shower, but never a bathtub (in that case, it would be called a
salle de bain)
.

Café de la Gare
is the name of many French cafés that happen to be near a railway station (
gare
). Almost every town has one. A café or restaurant inside the station itself is usually called
Buffet de la Gare
.

caillou
stone.

Caprices de Giselle
(
Les
) Giselle’s tantrums. A novel by the comtesse de Ségur, published in 1867. Giselle is an obnoxious six-year-old who manages to get her own way by throwing tantrums. Nobody can stand her, but her parents think she’s perfect.

cartagène
a
mistelle
from Languedoc. A
mistelle
is a drink made by adding grape spirit to grape juice that has just started to ferment. The fermentation is stopped, so the juice keeps its fruity sweetness. From Occitan
cartagena,
from the name of the Spanish city.

cassoulet
a traditional dish of white beans and goose, from Castelnaudary in Languedoc. From Occitan
caçòla
“earthenware dish”.

Catalonia
a territory where the Catalan language is spoken, and which has been part of Spain and France at various times. The area that’s now part of Spain became in 1979 a nationality, or autonomous province (capital: Barcelona), where Catalan (with Spanish and Aranese) is one of the official languages; most of the French area, also called northern Catalonia, is now part of the département of Pyrénées-Orientales.

Cers
our northwestern wind.
From Latin
cersium
or
cirsium
. The way Cato describes it in the 2nd century BC is beautifully accurate:
Ventus Cercius, cum loquare, buccam implet; armatum hominem, plaustrum oneratum percellit
, “When you speak, it rushes into your mouth; it knocks over an armed man, or a loaded wagon” (
Origines,
quoted by Aulus Gellius). In the 1st century AD, Pliny (
Natural History)
calls it “the most famous wind in the province of Narbonne, and as violent as any.”

Champs-Elysées
I wondered how Jean Santeuil could go and
play
on the Champs-Elysées, which is an avenue with a lot of luxury stores, crowds and cars. But Justine told me that there’s another part of the avenue that has beautiful gardens. Then I remembered that
Jean Santeuil
takes place in the nineteenth century: at the time there were only horse carriages.

chou
cabbage; puff pastry in the shape of a cabbage; sweet person. From Latin
caulis
, “stem”.

cobla
a Catalan music ensemble that plays sardanas. It usually consists in eleven musicians and twelve instruments, played in two rows, with only the double bass player standing on the right of the band. There are: two trumpets, a trombone, two fiscorns (baritone saxhorns), two tibles and two tenores (all rather like oboes, but louder). The same person plays the
flabiol
with the left hand and strikes the
tamborí
(attached to the elbow of his left arm) with the right, striking it with a drumstick called
broqueta
. The word
cobla
was already used by the troubadours to denote a group of two or more musicians. Probably from Latin
copula
, “link, chain”.

Coeurs vaillants
a French magazine for boys. Cf
Âmes Vaillantes.

cogitatione
in thought; ablative case of Latin cogitatio, from
cogito
(cum + agito), “to intend, mull over”. 

Confiteor
A prayer starting with the words
confiteor
, “I confess”.

Conti
short for
Continental
. The name of many cafés and hotels in France. I have no idea why. At least in England it could mean that the place evokes mainland Europe. But in France?

coudre
to sew.

Crédit Lyonnais
A French bank started in Lyon in 1863.

culture physique
physical exercise.

dames de charité 
ladies of charity. Their organization was founded in 1617 by Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul to help the poor and the sick.

De Profundis
a prayer for the dead starting with
De profundis,
“out of the depths”; from Psalm 130.

dentelle rebrodée de ruche
ruffle-embroidered lace.

département
The territory of France is divided into
départements
: 96 of them. There are five more French
départements
in the West Indies, South America, and the Indian Ocean. Father and his friends all learned the alphabetical list of
départements
by heart in elementary school. At the time, there were only 89.

des enfants du commun
ordinary children.
Le commun
means “the common people” as opposed to the elite.

Domus aurea
, house of gold.

école laïque
non-religious school, state school. In France, practically all private schools are Catholic.
Laïc
(feminine:
laïque)
means “not a priest” and also “independent from all religions”.

école libre
free school, a French expression for “private school”, i.e., most of the time, “Catholic school”. In France, before the Revolution, all schools were Catholic. Then there were various visions and projects of a totally secular education system. This never quite happened but, at various times, religious orders were forbidden to teach, or even exiled. At other times, like now, the state chose to help Catholic schools financially and control the quality of the teaching.

Ecole Polytechnique
one of the most prestigious higher-education schools in France and even in the world, founded in 1794 by mathematician Gaspard Monge. It specializes in science and technology.

faillir
almost do; as in
j’ai failli m’évanouir quand on m’a servi du foie de veau,
“I almost fainted when I was served calf’s liver”.

falloir
need; must, should. Defective verb, which (like, for instance,
bruire, concerner, découler, échoir, pulluler, résulter
) can only be conjugated in the third person singular.

félicitations
congratulations. From low Latin
felicitare,
“make happy”.

Fillette
little girl, young girl. The magazine
Fillette
was founded in 1909 by Publications Offenstadt. It features the comic series
L’Espiège
Lili
, “mischievous Lili,” about a girl whose parents have to go into exile; they leave her in the care of an absent-minded philosophy teacher, monsieur Minet
.

Filochard
one of the three cartoon characters in
Les
Pieds Nickelés
, the quarrelsome one with a black patch over his right eye. Slang
filocher,
“to shirk”.

flabiol
characteristic instrument of the sardana
cobla,
that was already used by the troubadours. It plays the
introits
(introductions) and counterpoints. Its sound is thrilling, birdlike; it makes you want to dance.

Galeries Modernes
a typical name for a store.
Galerie
comes from medieval Latin
galilaea,
“church porch”.