Almond trees, "lemons", or jalopies… near the town of Orange, France.
fugueuse (foo geuhz) noun, feminine
: a runaway
=> the masculine is fugueur (foo guer)
=>Also: la fugue: running away ; faire une fugue or fuguer = to run away ; le fugitif (la fugitive)
Sound File: Listen to American-accented French… in today's audio file (the Francophones in the house are doing la grasse mat* or "the sleep in"…):
Download MP3 or Download Wav
Braise, "la fugueuse", est rentrée avant hier après un l-o-n-g périple!
Braise, the runaway, returned day before yesterday…. after a l-o-n-g journey
*faire la grasse matinée = to sleep in
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
"A Sensational Walk in the Country"
There's plenty of time to collect a branch or two of almond flowers alongside the path, or sentier… for our dog, Braise, is dragging and I have to slow down and turn around several times to egg her on.
"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a, Fugueuse?" I tease our 5-year-old runaway. "Trop fatiguée? Et ben, je me demande pourquoi?!"
Our dog's recent escapade was enough to tire out my very tear ducts! Who knew that tear ducts could ache? A day and a half! One entire night! It was her longest disappearance.
What is sure is that our golden girl needs more exercise, more adventure… and it is up to us to get her out and about every day… else suffer another anguishing all-nighter!
"Come on!" I call, heading out to the river. The surrounding grapevines are leaf-bare and a blurry man is pruning them. I squint my eyes but he still won't come into focus, and so I do the wave: the big friendly whoever-you-are-I-salute-you! wave. It works and the stranger returns the greeting!
Braise would like to be even more amicale… she'd like to mosey over and discover just what's in the farmer's casse-croûte… but her roaming days are over (!) and I shout for her to follow us (not that Smokey is following along any better: he's taken along a picnic of his own in the form of one chewy oreille de cochon).
Between Braise's dragging feet and Smokey's smokey treat (he is obliged to pause every two minutes to lie on the ground and chew), ours is a slow stroll.
There is time to collect several branches of wild rosemary, the purple-blue flowers looking unusually true. After a despairing night, my senses are strangley "bright", so that when the noisy mallards glide out of the ruisseau… I am thunderstruck. I stop to watch in awe as the ducks fly off.
Quickly, I step over to the stream, which is filled with irises — soon the yellow flowers will pop out. But I am no longer searching for first flowers… it is the canetons that I'm interested in. When will the baby ducks appear?
Ma and Pa Canard are now circling cautiously above our heads and I understand only too well their concern…
I call after our furry fugueuse and our trio walks on amid flowering trees and morning song. It is time for us to return home from this sensual balade. So much to be grateful for. Yes! Thank God, Braise is back!
Le Coin Commentaires
Join us here, in our community corner. Respond to today's story, offer a correction, or ask each other questions about French or France! Click here to enter the discussion or simply to learn from it.
And here's a recent comment from the What to do in Lyon edition. Margie writes: Wow! This was wonderful reading and many fabulous ideas for Lyon. Could we possibly ask same question but substitiute Strasbourg for Lyon?
Hi Margie. Yes, definitely! Stay tuned for the What to Do in Strasbourg – Que faire à Strasbourg edition 🙂 Meantime, Readers, get your ideas ready… and save them for the upcoming post!
Jean-Marc's USA Wine Tour: Meet Chief Grape and taste his wines in New York this Monday March 7th at Vestry Wines from 4 to 7 PM and in many other US cities !
French Vocabulary
le sentier = path
qu'est-ce qu'il y a = what's up? what's the matter?
fugueuse (fuguer) = runaway
trop fatiguée? = too tired?
et ben, je me demande pourquoi? = well! I wonder why?
amical(e) = friendly
le casse-croûte = snack
une oreille de cochon = pig ears (dog treats). These, and more pet supplies here.
le ruisseau = stream
le caneton = duckling
le canard = duck
une balade = walk, stroll
***
The Paris Wife: Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Read the reviews, here.
Also see:
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Since Smokey, below right, gets most of the blog space… it is time to shine the light on his Mama Braise! Here she is above, in Sept 2009, with Smokey and sisters…
And though she lets others jump higher… she is the strongest of all!
She saved her son… on that fateful day in October, when two dogs attacked and left him for dead. She barked and barked, chasing them away.
But that doesn't mean she's not une chipie, or "a little devil", ever ready to elope with Smokey's dad, Sam (and ain't he "glam", that Sam (above, left)? Don't miss the story "Lost in Marseilles", when she and her boyfriend almost… almost took the train to Venice for "une fugue amoureuse", or elopement. Click here for the story.
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I’m sorry to have to tell you but there is a big mistake in your “words” today. the spelling is “fugueuse” and “fugueur” (nouns). “Fuguer” is the verb.
I really love your writings, Kristin, they are a taste of honey when they arrive in my inbox … thank you ♥
I feel your pain, Kristin. I learned this word when I adopted a beagle! His name was Beagle Joe, but I quickly nicknamed him my little postman – neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night…his nose would take him off and running.
Vera, many thanks. And, yipes! that is a big mistake (when it is the very WORD of the day!) Funnily, I kept staring at the spelling, thinking: somethings missing. Then I stared at the u….well, I guess its there… and yet… And yet yet another u was missing.
Gwenellyn, oh, what a character your little postman is 🙂 I can just see him now. In fact… is that him moseying on up our driveway?….
I think it should be un long périple, not une longue périple?
Merci, Chris… off to fix that one, too. Any others? …
Merci, Chris… off to fix that one, too. Any others? …
Thank goodness Braise came back. I would’ve been sick with worry, too. The photo of her (or Smokey?) running in the river is wonderful!
This is a good post, and Kristin, your pronunciation is getting better every day.
I was going to point out the misspellings, but Vera beat me to it. Here are a couple of notes:
In French, as in many English words, G can be “hard” (as in “go”) or soft, like a “j” sound. To keep the G hard, one must put a “u” after it, which was in the Word of the Day.
To have the “eu” sound (as in peu, jeu, etc. – very common in French, and hard for native Anglophones to pronounce), on needs a “u” after the “e”.
Therefore, one has to have 2 “u”s, as odd as they might look: “fugueuse.” The first is only there to harden the g, and isn’t pronounced. The second is there to blend with the “e” to create the “eu” sound.
There are other words that have this same combination of letters, such as “longueur.”
As long as we are looking closely at French words, on the side of the blog, there is an ad for “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” in French. It says “Prisonnaire.” But isn’t “prisoner” in French “prisonnier”?
Kristin,
I’m glad that Braise made it back home OK!
I’m also happy to report that my wife and I will be able to attend Jean-Marc’s wine dinner on March 9 in Asheville, NC, after all. It’s been sold out for a couple of weeks, but the restaurant (“Bouchon”) has added space for the people on the waiting list. We’re looking forward to meeting J-M and enjoying his wines as well as possibly meeting some other FWAD fans.
Kristin,
Today’s post makes me long even more for spring. Here in NJ it is the goslings that we see more than ducklings. The yellow irises you describe sound as lovely as the yellow autumn crocuses that are so prevalent in Provence. It will be in the 50’s here tomorrow so I plan to do some bulb assessment … just how many of them have pushed up I wonder.
Marianne,
I really appreciated your explanation of the need for the “u’s” for pronunciation. A good lesson which I hope I’ll remember!
HI Kristi,
I’m enjoying your stories as always! I, too, have suffered the anguish of having a wandering dog- a fugueuse.
I think it should be “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a ?” to mean what’s the matter.
Of course it’s pronounced the way you wrote it. I don’t know how to write it the way it sounds in spoken language- Qu’est qu’y a ?, maybe?
I, too, am glad Braise made it home safely. My sister’s dog kept her up all night this week, too. crying and wanting to roam. Maybe it’s the approach of Spring?
Your descriptions of everything you saw on your balade are beautiful, too — the perfect read on an early spring morning.
Hey, Kristin –
So sorry to hear that Braise had taken a powder, and so glad to hear that she’d returned. I can well imagine how distraught you were.
Thank you for not sharing the story with us until after her safe return. That went a long way toward keeping down the worldwide angst level.
Marianne, thank you for the very helpful explanation.
Marcy, good to have this correction (theres another case of staring at the phrase… and wondering why it didnt look right!). So many errors today… I guess after Braise ran off… French Spelling tried to do the same!
Charles, thats great news to know you and your wife will be at the Asheville meet-up! Anyone else here going to that one?…
Ophelia, so dogs may get spring fever too? An itch in their paws to amble off…
Bruce, Exactly. While Braise was away, I decided to write the FAQ edition instead of sharing any news… as we did not have any at that point!
Hi Kristin,
I’m so glad that Braise came back. She just wanted to do some exploring. Love the pictures of the pups!
I downloaded The Paris Wife on my Kindle yesterday.
Have a great weekend!
Hi Kristin
Another couple of spelling typos, I’m afraid!
‘strangly’–do you mean ‘strangely’?
‘irisis’–plural of iris is irises
Nick, thanks for these edits. On my way to fix them now…
TGIF, too many spelling errors. I need to blame it on something: why not a busy week? 🙂
Great to see the pictures of Smokey and Braise again. I’ve mentioned before that our dear, long gone Golden Theo disappeared one day when I was out of town. He came home around 9pm very tired and thirsty. His paws were a little raw but otherwise he seemed OK. Then about a month later we were watching a parade on the U of MN campus and one parade car got too close to another and squealed their brakes – Theo dove behind us and started to shake. The only thing we could figure out was that when he was gone for the day he almost was hit by a car, or maybe was hit but not hurt by a car. The car must have squealed its brakes trying to avoid Theo.
Ah, the misadventures of wayward pets! They make us crazy, n’est-ce pas? Perhaps her nickname could be “MissAdventure” 🙂 I had a pound puppy I had rescued whom I nicknamed “Houdini”. I swear she could find every possible way to get out of the yard. I would spend hours patching it up and head to work, and there she’d be-in the driveway-when I got home! She drove me crazy!!!! Then, I put up an electric fence and VOILA! that solved the problem. But I would catch her looking longingly at the gate . . . 🙂 she is running her little heart out in doggy heaven now. (No electric fences there, I’m sure!) So glad Braise is home.
Oh, Kristin. When I saw on FB that Braise had gone missing I felt your pain. My dear Millie had a mix of beagle and Husky and Australian shepherd. The first summer we had her she escaped practically every time we opened the door. Her hound nose took her exploring and her Husky/shepherd endurance kept her always one step ahead of me as I chased her. I first trained the family to exit through the back door into the fenced yard so she couldn’t escape as often. Then I took her to obedience class so I wouldn’t have to worry that she would be hit by a car. But the biggest lesson was mine. I figured out that she had a strong need for adventure so almost every day for the next 12 years, rain shine snow heat, I took her on a long walk. We went a different route every day so she would never get bored. I loved experiencing the world through her eyes.
And on a final note, during her last summer I left the gate open when working in the front garden one day. I guess Millie was tired of waiting for me to take her on a walk, so twenty minutes later I realized she was gone. I raced up and down the sidewalks, looking in back yards along the alley. I was just getting ready to jump in my car and search further afield when a car pulled up with Millie in the back. We live in a dog-loving neighborhood, and even if we don’t know all the people, we recognize all the dogs that walk up and down the sidewalks. These wonderful people saw her loose and heading up to a very busy street (she must have been trying to get to the park she loved), so they corralled her and brought her back to me. Dog love is great.
That picture of Braise running down the river is great. What a feeling of exhilaration and the joy of being alive! We can learn a lesson about enjoying life from our dogs.
I like the minor typo in Marianne Rankin’s comment above: “on needs a ‘u’ after the ‘e’.” Clearly, she meant “ONE needs a ‘u’ after the ‘e’.” But in French, that ‘ONE’ is ‘ON’, and of course, when you write ABOUT French, sometimes it turns INTO French (I’ve had the same thing happen to me).
Ahhhhh…Spring seems to be coming to Provence! Not here in Connecticut yet, but what glorious photos of colorful buds and green grass. Winter has been harsh this year and I am grateful for this glimpse of green!
Salut Kristin,
A poem for the occasion:
Dog gone! It was quite an event
Help! Our Braise has done went
Looked high, low and around
She’s gone! Nowhere to be found
Darkness sets in, as does fear
Still not a word do we hear
Where will she choose to sleep?
What company will she keep?
Finally the saga began to unfold
And the real story could be told
With no remorse, this dog just gloats
“Hey, I was just feeling my oats!”
Kristin,
So glad Braise is back. It is so hard wondering what happened. Our
little girl Sox who is 16 now always got a lot of exercise and never wondered. As a matter of fact in our front yard she would stay for hours not going past our property line. She doesn’t move as well now, still longs for her time outside but cannot walk far. Pets are such a joy! xoxo
Hi Herm! My children and I met you at the FWAD meetup/hike in Phoenix. They still talk about it and all the wonderful people we met! My daughter, Monet, loves your poem. Just wanted to let you know!
Kristin: TGIF for sure!! The almond tree photo is stunning. As always, I enjoyed your post for today. I’m so glad your Braise is back at home. Be well and bon weekend!! 🙂
TGIF for sure and possible much worry about your beautiful dog! I would be out of my mind if one of my dogs went exploring overnight. Yogi and Manfred are both small dogs and not a bit of hound in them. So glad Braise is home safe – really enjoyed the pictures. Have a great weekend.
Bonjour Kristin,
I’m glad je ne suis pas le seul qui fait des fautes d’orthographe. I have found that with Microsoft Word making corrections for me that I find myself questioning my French spelling more and more when I am doing explanations in class (thus offline). It keeps me humble and reminds me there is much more to learn. I also don’t think it is a bad thing for the students to see their teacher make a mistake now and then. It reminds them that we are all learners of this beguiling, yet wonderful language.
Glad to know that Maman Braise is saine et sauve after her ballade nocturne.
Reading you is such a pleasure, Kristin. Merci mille fois.
Michael in Napa Valley
Kristin,
Braise’s nose looks very dark in the photo where she’s feeding the pups, but where she’s cuddling Smokey after the attack (the sweetest, loveliest, most adorable photo!!!), it’s mostly pinkish. Any clues as to how this happened? Did her nose turn colors or was it just the angle of the feeding photo that threw me? I just love your dogs!!