Thanks, Tessa, for the fleurs! I'm beginning to see color all over the house! Oh, and there's Jean-Marc. By the way…
Meet with Jean-Marc in Orange County, California this coming March 20th or during his 2012 USA wine tour: click here to see all the cities Chief Grape will be visiting
bâcler (bak-lay)
: to botch up, to do something quickly and badly, or without care
French definition for bâcler:
faire à la va-vite (to do quickly) or finir à la hâte (to finish hastily)
Also:
bâclé(e) = sloppily
bâcler sa toilette = to have a quick wash
la fin du livre est bâclée = the end of the book is tied up sloppily
du travail bâclé = a slapdash work
Audio File: Listen to Jean-Marc: Download MP3 or Wav file
Quant au ménage, il vaut mieux une partie faite correctement, que le tout bâclé. As for the housekeeping, better to do a part of it well, than all of it sloppily.
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
A Growing Pile of Procrastination
Ever since encountering the French word "bâcler", I have been looking for an opportunity to use it… and then I stumbled over that pile of socks while doing laundry yesterday….
Ce tas de chaussettes! That growing, menacing heap of socks! However was such a monstre created? Ah… oui, it began in the early days, when I first came to France…
As a young mother I would stand outside the école maternelle, waiting for my 3- and 5-year-olds to be let out of class. During the lazy attente I listened to the other mothers who chatted about tout et rien. I will never forget hearing one of the mamans talk about socks:
Mais non! Je ne mélange jamais les chaussettes avec le reste! Et surtout pas avec les sous-vêtements! On ne lave pas les chaussettes avec les slips!
Gosh… I had never thought about that before: not washing socks with the other clothes… especially not with underwear!
That afternoon I looked at my dirty laundry with fresh eyes. Every sock literally stood out, and why shouldn't they? They were caked with dirt! (My family has a bad habit of wearing their socks outside (on the front patio or in the garden). And to think, all this time I had chucked the dirty chaussettes in with the rest, including les culottes. Quelle honte!
Since that time, it never occurred to me to question or disprove the "no-socks-to-be-mixed-with-other-laundry-theory"; besides, the French seemed to excel and to take pride in the business (or "art"?) of laundry–why else would they expertly drape wet clothing outside their windows, tempting tourists to snap photos such as this one:
…and notice: no socks mixed in with these things!
I might have stood by my own laundry ethics, but for bad timing: I had just received a scathing email from a reader who was scandalized to have read my "no-ironing" post (the offensive essay has since been deleted from the blog, but you can read it here). There followed a page-long rant about how the reader cared enough for her own family to iron their sheets AND their underwear… only a mère indigne would do otherwise!
That was that. Plus jamais! That, yes, that must have been the day that my laundry chore got carried away…
…Away to a neatly categorized box called "socks". The problem then was this: there were never enough socks to make up a full load! It eventually dawned on me that I might add other items to the sock pile, so as to grow it faster: Cleaning rags and floor dusters might be added to the mix. I wondered, what would that French mom who never mixed socks with laundry think of this? Was it okay to mix rags with socks? And which were dirtier: the rags or the socks? Would one not compromise the other? Maybe a new pile should be formed? Would the laundry ever get done? (It was taking long enough to do the chore without a clothes dryer all these years; especially not fun is the chore of hanging up socks one by one by one… dozens of them!)
And on it went, this laundry dilemma, eventually snowballing into that pile of socks for which I could now find a purpose!: if only to employ a humble new French word: bâcler. Yes, it had somehow been bacléed or botched… this job of washing socks!
***
Today's question: do you mix your socks in with the rest of your laundry? Or have you other "enlightening" laundry habits to share with us–stuff we've never thought of before, hints or astuces that might turn even the least inspired among us into "laundry artists"? Please share your tips with us here, in the comments corner. (Make my dad, Kip, happy, by including your city next to your name!)
Do you know a laundry-challenged person like myself? Why not forward this edition on to them? There's hope yet!
French Vocabulary
bâcler = to do something quickly and sloppily
le tas = heap, pile
ce tas de chaussettes = this pile of socks
quelle honte! = what a disgrace!
le monstre = monster
l'école (f) maternelle = kindergarten or nursery school
une attente = a wait, waiting
tout et rien = everything and nothing
la maman = mom
Mais non! Je ne mélange jamais les chaussettes avec le reste! Et surtout pas avec les sous-vêtements! On ne lave pas les chaussettes avec les slips! = But, no! I don't ever mix socks with the rest. And certainly never with underclothes! One doesn't wash socks along with underwear!
une mère indigne = an unfit mother
plus jamais = never again
A Day in a Dog's Life… by Smokey R. Dokey
Mama Braise says: Smokey! Don't take it so badly. Just because you can't say narcissus five times fast doesn't mean anything, it especially doesn't mean you are one of them.
Smokey: One of them?
Mama Braise: A narcissus, Son
Smokey: A narcissusson?
Mama Braise: You know: someone who is plein de soi.
Smokey: Someone who's full of "silk"?
Mama Braise: Oh, never mind! Let's just enjoy the flowers.
Smokey: What are they called?…
Mama Braise: Narciss…— Oh, forget about it!
*soi = self; plein de soi = full of self
*soie = silk
Grammar Corner
Thanks, Glenn, for leaving this comment following the previous post:
Question for the French speakers out there: I'm confused regarding Jean-Marc's phrase «Kristin ne pourra venir avec moi…» I would have expected a «pas» after «pourra» to complete the negation. Is this simply a typo or is there yet another rule governing «ne» usage that I'm clueless about (explétif omitted) ?
And thanks to Sarah, Millie, and Nadine (and to anyone I may have missed!) who tried to help answer Glenn's question in the comments box. The answer is as Nadine explained:
NE…PAS : There was NO typo, friends! And it's not a new rule, just an old one… But in literary French it is not only accepted but suggested to delete the "pas" for elegance. When talking about France and the French, you all may have forgotten about their elegance !!!
Be well tout le monde !
nadine, Napa, Californie
By the way, you can contact Nadine if you are looking for French lessons. Just type her email address into your mailbox and send her an inquiry. Here's Nadine's message:
FRANCOPHILES! Française donne cours de Conversation Française par tel – Skype - nadalang@comcast.net
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Hi Mille, no worries — your comment helped me to realize that there was not a mistake in the ne (sans pas) construction. Jean-Marc wrote the text and I was on my way to fix it (to add the pas) when Nadines comment came in. Up until then, I only knew that pas could be omitted in conversation. I did not realize it is sometimes omitted in written French.
Lets see… there is another correction I need to get to… Ah, yes, Odiles note about
la fin du livre est baclee. Thanks Odile and Millie and all who send in corrections. Off to fix things now…. Such a glamorous and exciting Friday night in the South of France, typos, grammatical errors and all 😉
To Bill Facker: You, Sir, have written the most insightful, logical comment today…Hawaii, here I come! (Wish, wish.) Smokey my dear and lovely angel Braise, bisous, bisous! What a marvey March treat to see you two posing by the jonquils. Beautiness everywhere! If I ever iron sheets, btw, I hope someone will cart me off to SunnyVale Rest Home, cause surely I would have gone bonkers and need to be put where I couldn’t hurt myself or others! Ha, ha, ha. Blogs are like standing on a corner and watching people go by, only better, because you get to hear what they think and wowsa, it’s a parade of humanity! A good thing. Especially when we can appreciate, without judgment, all our goofy differences.
P.S. Millie — thanks for the handy and helpful acronym COPS — and for the translation for école maternelle. Off to fix that one, too!
My goodness & at 70 I thought I had heard all the laundry no-no’s! I always separated according to color just as I was taught. I do remember the day, though, here in the south when my mother ironed her sheets and carefully pressed even the lace on our undies! Those were the days!
Birmingham Alabama
Kristen, My socks are full of color and patterns and are never white, so I put them in with my dark clothes. Unlike your family’s socks, mine are only worn with shoes and are never caked with mud…however, if my socks were caked with mud, I’d put them in with a load of “work clothes” (gardening, etc.) I love colorful socks.
Whites go with linens or perm press depending on thickness and/or soil of socks. Darks go with cold water wash, which is always perm press cycle. However, I’m 75 year old widow so socks aren’t very dirty. Stockings (knee highs) go in net bag and are washed with cold water clothes. Bras go in net bags and are washed with other light colored perma press.underwear pants go in perma press without net bag. It was so long it kept twisting into a whirlwind so I just let the panties fend for themselves.
A lot of fun to be had around the laundry basket/comment’s corner today! I most enjoyed the truly enlightened “laundry” tips of those who said, “Life is too short”!!! I’d rather be biking, in the garden or out walking the dog! Separate socks? I do separate delicates and rags (in separate loads of course!) and that’s about the extent of it.
I purchased a large part of a vintage linen collection from an amazingly meticulous woman. Every item came freshly pressed and lovingly wrapped to the point I was afraid to use them. A friend pointed out I’d best enjoy their beauty rather than keep them locked away in perfect condition in the closet. Let’s just say they are now lovingly enjoyed and will never again see an iron as long as under my roof! 🙂
Thanks for the tip on where to locate the banished essay on ironing, or rather lack of. I’m off to reread it as I watch the laundry, and everything else, pile up around here. I’ve been down with a horrible cold the past few days. Blessings from the still-snowed in little farm in the mountains where the temps are predicted to reach 60 tomorrow.
I do not wash my socks separately. I put whites with whites, etc. However, I do knit most of our socks. Do the French knit socks? As for using a dryer, I try my best not to. I load everything in for about 10 minutes then hang out what I can. I love the scent of sheets and clothing after it’s been flying in the wind. Putting the in the dryer for 10 minutes, especially towels, keeps everything from becoming a potential exfolient! I’m from Amish country where hanging out clothes is common place.
That is what I learned in conversational French class in the 1990s – pas omitted in conversation sometimes. I never learned that rule of COPS. See if it sticks!
Very interesting, the dialogue and the post that inspired it today.
Tell us about the two gorgeous Golden Retrievers pictured in today’s post. Especially if they are French Goldens!
Hello Kristi and Smokey and Braise as well!
How lovely to see two of my favorite pooches in today’s post. Like my own two dogs, Lady and Rory, they really make my day. I hope I’m able to meet them someday when we visit you.
I spend as little time as possible doing laundry. I mix almost everything together and usually use cold water which is the most environmental thing to do. I agree with Jeri who said that whatever the soap doesn’t get, the dryer will! I would rather spend my time doing other things like reading French Word a Day!
Hi, Kristin–
I so enjoyed seeing Smokey and Braise today. I’ve missed them.
About the laundry. White socks go with whites. Colored or dark socks go with other items of those colors. It’s just logical and avoids things getting tinges of other colors transferred during washing. BUT, what I’m really wondering about is who is this person who has made up all these hard and fast rules about how you must do laundry and ironing? Is there a Reine de la Laverie position in France?? Seems like everyone should be allowed to pick the system that works best for him/her. I truly think there’s no reason to feel like your laundry is bacle. All it needs to be is clean!
I have been checking Jean-Marc’s Rouge Bleu site faithfully to see where he was going to be in San Francisco. I was so bummed today to see that there’s no stop in SF this time. My husband and I were looking forward to tasting his wine and meeting him.Guess we’ll just have to come visit the winery!
I agree with all the other good folks and will only share a small story. Our French ‘daughter’ (student who came for many summers when she was 16…and is now 42)…had me wash her clothes long before I knew the ‘rules’ of French washing. Happily I tossed it all into the dryer. Sadly, on gathering it out, at least one of her tops looked small for a toddler! She has yet to recover and we still laugh at dryer making her “tops tiny”. We will share it again in April in Paris when we visit!
I was amazed upon our last visit to France, to watch my husband’s cousine spend half a day on Saturday (after a full work week as a Psychologist)ironing her entire family’s laundry. (Sheets! Underwear!) She had this amazingly, HUGE iron. I never mentioned to her that I didn’t even know where my iron could be found in our house, and that if something had wrinkles, I usually stuck it in the dryer for a few minutes with a wet washrag. (Sheepish grin)
I have never heard before that I shouldn’t be mixing socks with other laundry. I guess the French Cowboy didn’t either because I’ve just managed to convince him to separate the colors when he does the laundry, instead of just throwing everything into the washer together!
Depends on the socks . Cotton , white or light coloured in with white wash . Dark coloured cotton in with the dark wash. Both washes done at 40°,in my Miele plus Ariel . No problems! If they are woollen- in the wool wash at 30°
I have a good tip for ironing. My man says women can’t iron trousers or shirts properly l don’t argue !!! So we have a nice split on the ironing pile.
I don’t have a dryer either ; In my book you can’t beat the smell of clothes dried in the fresh air !
C’est moi! La mère indigne!
Early marriage: Load washer Sunday evening. Start as soon as alarm goes off on Monday. Whites, hot water. Darks, cold water. Iron all the dress shirts, slacks, and use up the remaining heat as the iron cooled on underwear to dry. Hang up everything to air dry. Use the dryer as little as possible.
After 32 years: Laundry when there are no more underwear/socks. Darks and lights separate if convienient. All cold water. Use the dryer if you feel like it. If something needed- wash everything dirty togther regardless. Don’t iron unless going to a funeral. Avoid anything that needs ironing.
I just came back upstairs after putting a load of laundry into the washer. Never have I agonized so much about doing the laundry! Dark socks with dark load, white socks with the bleach load–I like to keep it simple! Now that I’ve discovered Color Catcher fabric sheets that soak up dye that might get into the water, sorting is even easier. When I was growing up, the measure of a good wife was the quality of the wash she put on the line. I sure am glad those days are over! Or maybe it was just a New England thing. I remember my poor mother hanging the wash outdoors in the blustery coastal Massachusetts winter–she had painful cracks in her fingers to show for it! I’ll take my dryer, thanks! As for the French woman who dictated that you should iron everything, how do you say “Get a life?” in French? The discussion on omitting the “pas” made me wish Newforest were still a contributor to your blog. She would have been right there with the complete etymology and there would have been no doubt of the proper usage. I do recall, as Millie said, that the pas could be omitted only with certain words. I knew pouvoir was one and, in checking the Internet, found the ones Millie gave plus vouloir. Great review of my ancient French! The French isn’t ancient, I am! Also sorry to see that J-M won’t be in Phoenix during his USA tour. We’ll be in that area visiting friends in March. Guess I’ll just have to wait until he adds Colorado to his itinerary!
I DID iron my underwear once, but that was in search of warmth when living in Scotland one winter. I quickly gave this up when I melted (!?) the lace, which I had assumed to be cotton.
I find a flick and a smooth does fine.
So happy to read so many like minded comments.
I am loving following the blog, and learning whilst I smile
Anna (mum to 3, ironer to none)
I agree with Bruce — ironing sheets is for the mentally ill!! Haha… Never have ironed a sheet in my life, though I’m not saying I’m totally stable. 😉
Like many commenters, I just put white socks with the whites and bleach them all. Dark socks with other dark laundry. And I love the mesh bag idea, I used to do this for delicate items like hosiery but I rarely wear hose any more.
À bientô!
Kristen, Basically the very most important part of laundry is cleaning the dryer filter so the house doesn’t burn down! Other than that detergent and water and dryer hear solve the other problems except possibly olive oil spots on dark tops! No need to have self doubt….look at all you do so well.
Karen in Missouri
Since I only launder for one, there is the lighter load and the darker load, except that I don’t put towels in with dark, so dark towels get saved for their own bath. If either load has an iffy color range, it gets a Color Catcher for good measure. It’s amazing how much color those sometimes catch! I do experience a yuck factor in contemplating putting rags in with clothing but I’m pretty sure I’d live through it if someone else did it without my knowledge.
I’d like to comment on the pronunciation given for “bâcler.” You wrote it as “bak-lay.” Please forgive me for my narrow focus, but the correct form is “ba-klay.” Unlike English, French is an open-syllable language, where a syllable ends in a vowel whenever possible. Most Americans fail to pronounce “he is” correctly in French. A native speaker always says “ee-lay” but most Anglophones say “eel-ay” which is incorrect. I know I sound like a cranky retired French prof, but I do think the basic linguistic distinction is important. Thanks, Jim Herlan
I am so excited to see that Jean Marc is finally coming to Orange County –I can’t wait, but your post says the 15th & the itinerary says the 20th. I wash socks with other clothes and never thought of separating them. It seems to me it wuld be very impractical because a weeks worth of socks would be an awfully small load unless you had a huge family. Glad to see Smokey & Braise back with a story -they are missed and need to be included more often. c
Tell Max and Jax they are not to wear socks outside; that is what sandals are for!
I never even considered the possibility of washing socks separately until you mentioned it! So, it was food for thought today- should I be doing that and am I a bad mom if I don’t!? Finally decided that since my family’s socks are not as dirty as yours seem to be, I’d just keep on washing them with everything else. And ps: wouldn’t put rags in with the socks, just in case there’s something worse on them! I’d just do 2 smaller loads! Cincinnati OHIO
I am in the “life is short” school of laundry-doing. I feel amazed and proud when I do it at all! And I never iron. Ironed sheets are a luxury I have enjoyed elsewhere, but not something I am up to. The only people I know who enjoy ironing are single, gay men. What I do is mist a wrinkled dress or shirt with a spray bottle and let it hang overnight from the shower rod. In the morning, no more wrinkles. This works well when traveling,too.
Bonjour Kristin
Amazing. I know my college French is beyond rusty, and my cooking’s nowhere near haute cuisine levels. But I never realized I couldn’t even pass the basic laundry test for living in la belle France! So much for that daydream.
Then again, if anyone in my house gets their socks caked in mud, they’d better be prepared to wash them for themselves, or throw them out! Always assuming I let them live. I’m sure the fashion gendarmes would have a stroke, but you do know they sell Crocs and similar plastic garden clogs for playing in the muck? Wellies too, if you’re a traditionalist. And ironing? When my partner retired, so did the iron. Mes amis, life’s not only too short for such silliness, but as a friend of mine says, “A clean house is the sign of a wasted life!” Do we really want people standing around our graves, sharing memories of how fastidious we were about our housework? Count me out! Leave ’em laughing and gossiping, I say.
Lazily yours,
Linda Frederick, Columbus Ohio
Hi Kristin,
I just throw all my clothes in together unless they are really dirty from the garden and then I wash them separately. I just separate colors. Delicates go by themselves.
Have you ever seen this comedy routine by Jerry Seinfeld? Really funny…
Thanks, Eileen, for the Seinfeld link. I have tears in my eyes I laughed so hard!
I’m just glad to hear that someone else has offended others with their laundry habits! (though that doesn’t sound very nice does it? :-7) I’ve had serious debates with family about how they feel my laundry is done ‘wrong’ but I stick to my guns and refuse to make it an even larger chore than it already it! I work full time and have a small child. So, I also don’t iron anything, I take things out of a hot dryer, shake, and hang them, they may not look as crisp but there are no wrinkles. By the time fitted sheets are pulled over the mattress they are flat anyway and the top sheet never gets seen under the blankets. Why waste all that precious time?!
I think washing socks separate from the laundry is perhaps not necessary but I am intrigued by the idea. I personally wash everything on cold–I learned this from my mother whose wardrobe has always contained a variety of delicate fabrics. (I also must confess to having seen my boyfriend’s mom shrink a lot of his clothes by tossing everything in on warm.) I suppose if all of your clothes are made of synthetic fibers then you don’t have to worry as much.
Having lived several stints in France has taught me that dryers are not essential–my ideal laundry session would be a small load, washed in on delicate and then hang-dried. As a foreign exchange student, I lived in a dorm with only one washer and one dryer to two-hundred residents (And around 4 euro per load!) I washed all of my socks in the sink that year and let them dry in the window sill.
If we believe that life is short then I say we may as well perform these inescapable daily tasks with care. It probably doesn’t scientifically make a difference but if knowing that your private-parts-protectors have been washed separate from your foot-sheaths adds to your quality of life, then pourquoi pas? I think the quote from Kristin’s article makes a good point, “Quant au ménage, il vaut mieux une partie faite correctement, que le tout bâclé.”
p.s. I think the laundry bag for socks is genius, I can never understand how patterned pairs get separated into different loads!!
This is so funny! I wash socks with jeans and rags! That is exactly how I do it. As there is never a shortage of dirty jeans because my husband’s work has him in the vineyards almost every day, I am able to do at least one load a week with no problem. Frances, Napa, California, USA
Barking in Provence–I love it!! Please write it, Mama Braise!
I had a roommate who ironed her jeans. Definitely OCD.
Clarification on Jean-Marc’s post:
“gentillement” is usually spelled “gentiment”. It is not listed in the Dictionnaire de la Langue Française Informatisé.
Jacqueline de Brisbane, où l’automne vient de commencer…
Like others above- I separate whites from colors, but not particular items (then again, I am not walking outside in red soil- I have bare feet for that!) I do remember one summer spent in Chateauneuf d’Gadagna washing my children’s white diapers, and hanging them in the sun. By the time I finished them all up, the first one’s were dry! Incredible heat-the fastest dryer I ever had!
(from Cambridge- hope to get across the river into Boston for Friday night)
As the mother of seven, we probably had enough socks to wash them in a separate batch. Hmmm, I wonder if I still would have ended up with sock orphins. We had many piles, heavy darks, lightweight darks, lights, whites and heavy weight whites and lights with towels and sheets. At one point, when the second child turned 12, I decided that I would teach them how to do their own laundry as a twelfth birthday. The downside was that I never had that lovely feeling of knowing that everything in the house was clean for a few minutes. However, it certainly saved me a LOT of work.
OMG! I cannot do laundry now without thinking of you, Kristen, and everyone who commented. I’m guilty! And still living and doing the same thing after 80 years (well, only 60 of doing laundry.) and, there was a period of time, I had to do it all by hand on a washboard! I am a survivor!
A colleague forwarded this blog, and I found the one on Doing Laundry “right on.” I was raised by a Swiss mother, and we always hung our launddry on the line with two pins for EACH pieace (not shared pins!) As for ironing the sheets, I still iron the tops–guess that was something that stayed with me. And I just love to iron! I also wash my socks separately. Gosh! I didn’t know that I did these things differently from everyone else. Somethings we learn early on never go away…
Thanks, Jacqueline. Ill fix the spelling mistake now. So helpful!