Le marais salant: salt marsh in the Camargue.
: to lie idle; to be idle, inactive
:
to be unemployed, out of work
[from the Latin "caumare": "to rest during
the heat"]
(To celebrate
an occasion by rest, by not working.)
Below a Mediterranean sky emblazoned with a rainbow of kites…
there in the turquoise sea, beneath the swooping cerfs-volants,* a
half-kilometer out from the coastline (or so it seemed, for it took a
thousand steps before the water hit waist-level), je flottais.*
Now
and then I glanced back to the shoreline, where my extended French
family salt-and-peppered the sandy beach: the aunts collected pretty
jackknife clams or "couteaux," the cousins worked on their tans, the uncles
played pétanque,* and the kids ran circles around the portable picnic tables,
which were lopsided from the weight of French gastronomy: there were fresh-baked
olive cakes, home-grown canary melons, grilled sardines, chocolate cake, et
encore!*
At a safe distance from the kitesurfers and floating peacefully,
I thought about our gathering. Hadn't we all returned from vacation last
week–so why were we taking another day off work? Just what public holiday
was this one? I wondered, too embarrassed to ask. What did August 21st
represent? Surely some historical event in French history took place on this
day. Or maybe we are commemorating something saintly? Then again, does
Grandmother's Day exist in France ("La Fête de Mémé" perhaps)?
several rice factories, a few salt museums, a field of lethargic Camargue
bulls, rambling rice pastures, plenty of pampas grass, hot-dog shaped
"cattails" and those knobby-kneed and long-legged flamants roses*… before
reaching this, the tipping point of the continent (all those home-baked goods
piled high on one French picnic table).
Retracing that same scenic
path on the way home last night, fed, full, and facing another workday, I
asked my brother-in-law, Jacques, just what public holiday we had been so
patriotically observing.
"Ce n'était pas un jour férié,"* Jacques
answered, and I noticed his guilty grin.
"I managed to get off work," he
added, as if an explanation was needed. Well, it looked like the rest of our
French clan, all thirtysomething of us, had "managed" the same.
language… or share your own language savoir-faire, here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
le
cerf-volant (m) = kite; je flottais = I floated; la pétanque (f) = a popular
French game played with metal balls a.k.a. "boules";
et encore = and more; le flamant (m) rose = pink flamingo; ce n'était pas un
jour férié = it wasn't a public holiday
Vacances Provence & The Cote
D'Azur: Including The Camargue: The French on France
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related
Words and expressions:
le chomage = unemployment, joblessness
une période
de chômage = layoff
l'allocation de chômage = dole, unemployment
compensation
chômable = non-working
un jour chômé = public holiday
un
chômeur = unemployed worker
les chômeurs = the
unemployed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shopping~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ultimate
French Beginner-Intermediate (CD/Book)
Fleur De Sel De Camargue French Sea Salt
Red
Camargue rice – a.k.a "riz rouge"
Horses
of the Camargue http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/0810935457/frencwordaday-20
Words
in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language…
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La “fête des mémés ” existe vraiment, on dit “fête des grands mères” c’est au début du printemps je crois!
Marie-Pierre
What beach was that, Kristin?
I was at la plage de Piemançon yesterday!
Salut Nathalie! We were at “Beauduc” (near Saintes Maries de la Mer) – a kitesurfer’s heaven: http://www.kitesurfatlas.com/surf/france/beauduc
Hi Kristin! Do you happen to have the recipe for the olive cake? Sounds yummy! I think the pleasure of having a large family to gather makes the day a holiday in and of itself. Sounds more delicious than the olive cake! PS, where I live here in the Pacific Northwest, petanque is known as bocci ball. Seems to be played the same. I have a petanque court in my backyard!
Wish there had been a better photo, showing the birds and horses and magnificence of the Camarque.. Can you email me other pictures?
Ah memories! We visited the Camargue last year, and the Parc Ornothologique (pardon any spelling errors), and couldn’t get enough of ‘le flamant’. Only the occasisional one or two in the zoo here in Oz, to see so many gathered was fantastic. Regards Christine
Kristin, after a friend of mine chastised me for not acting more on my desire to keep up with my French, I found the link to your site on Yahoo! I’ve been reading your site for about a year and finding other ways to shake the rust off my French. About a month ago, I arranged to take an extension on a business trip and spent 2 days in Paris. I barely spoke English! That and being able to see the 3 museums with Monet works (Musee d’Orsay, L’Orangerie, Musee Marmottan) were highlights of my trip. After 35 years away, I was very happy to be back in Paris. Thanks for helping to inspire me to “go for it”!
Salutations, Nancy (Fairport NY)
I am new to French and I have to say that j’AIME this site. 🙂 I thank you for doing this on behalf of French-learners everywhere!
You’re so right – any day can be a holiday in France. I agree with Nancy in Fairport, NY (maybe because I’m from East Rochester, NY!)your site is an inspiration for all of us.
I too would love the recipe for olive cake.
Perhaps you can do a column about it and give us the recipe???
I’m sure it would go well with all the Rouge Bleu wine we’ve been drinking lately! 🙂
Merci!
Candice in NYC
What a lovely day! I felt like I escaped my never ending piles of laundry and fussy little one for a minute or two, as I read about your picnic. Eagerly anticipating the next word, and mini escape.
Help! I have a new (old) 69 Mustang rouge decapotable…..thinking I was terribly creative I ordered a vanity license plate, deciding on CAMARQ….the ue and e not fitting within the 7 letters allowable and being unheard. I was very pleased to use a wild horse of southern france for my wild horse in the southwest US. This week more than one person wanted to know why I would put CAMARO on a MUSTANG!!!! Permanent marker in hand,I (probably illegally) made sure the Q is a little more distinct, only to find now that it is correctly spelled with a G not a Q!!!!
Thankfully having nothing more important to fret over in my perfect little world, I’m devastated that I’ve screwed this up!
However when I look up the word online, I find it spelled both ways…although more often with the G. Is there ever an occasion where it is correctly spelled with a Q????
Tammy/Lake Powell