Potential pied-à-terre…. if only in one's dreams! Read on, in today's fictional foray.
une histoire à dormir debout
: a tall tale
The origin of the term "une histoire à dormir debout" comes from Olden Times–from the early days of aviation when navigators, or nap-igators, needed to stay awake during a wearisome round-the-world voyage. In those days, each pilot was assigned his or her own storyteller, whose job it was to keep the would-be slumberer conscious, this, via a phantasmagoric fictional account designed to do for a snoozer what caffeine (Starbucks was not yet invented) could not. Those storytellers who failed in their mission were not executed outright, but went down, vraisemblablement, with the pilot and the doomed vessel, er… aircraft.
(For another tall tale, read on, in today's story column.)
French Christmas Music: "Mon Beau Sapin", "Saint Nuit", "La Marche des Rois", "Petite Ville Bethléem", "Il est né Le Divin Enfant". Order CD here.
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
"A Tall Tale in under 199 words"
How is it, it recently occurred to me, that I have never mentioned that we live in a tree?
Mais évidemment! Of all the yellow-bellied yarns about life on a grape farm, I have left out the most original fact: where it is we live—and in an arbre at that!
Fallen acorns at my feet, I stand beneath our towering oak tree, shaking my head tsk-tskedly. I've said so much but of all I've said… not a mention of our tree or of the tree life we have led!
I stare up at our teetering house, perched high on the tree's limbs and spread throughout. I gaze at our front door (part of a trunk—one that's been cored!). I am wondering about forgetfulness… the older I get and the thoughts are more but the memory is less. Oh, it's not such a bad thing. For in the absence of recall I might spin a story, however short, however tall.
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:: Comments Box ::
Talk about today's word or stories here, in the comments box.
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Meet Jean-Marc… in Belgium, December 10th, 11th, and 12th! He'll be at the Salon des Vins et Métiers de Bouche(Centre Sportif de Soumagne, Tel 04 377 98 11)
French Vocabulary
le pied-à-terre = second residence
vraisemblablement = most likely
Mais évidemment = Why, yes! (why hasn't it occurred to me!)
un arbre = tree
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Salut Kristin,
As a farm boy growing up in Northern Illinois, I had a tree house in a large oak tree. Over the years I think it has become more grandiose in my memory. In reality, it was a platform on a couple branches about ten feet above the ground with a ladder made of slats nailed to the tree trunk.
À bientôt
My leafy abode was in a cherry tree in Michigan. It was quite handy for picking the tart pie-fruit that grew on the huge tree. My father built the first floor and my friends and I added two floors above when we were allowed to use tools. The teeehouse was my first stop every day when I came home from school. I remember the day I discovered that I had grown too big to really use the magnificent structure and that it was up to the next generation to take over. Later we moved to the house next door and the new owner, a psychiatrist, cut the tree down to make room for a home office. I thought it was he who should have had his head examined.