The rains are upon us. It’s late March and the talk is of floods in the Herault and Cevenne. On my last trip out to Normandie a few weeks ago, local ponds and swamps were close to spilling onto highway… we’ll see how deep things have gotten when I go tomorrow.
Une averse is, according to the dictionary, a shower, but more colloquially, as the legend indicates, a sudden and intense downpour. There are different words for it all across France.
Those linguistic differences have much to do with the many old cultures that persist in France despite 60+ years of in-your-home mass communications, most of that originating in that despised region l’Île de France and the capital Paris, which broadcasts its accent and patois as definitive. The map below is a fair representation of the dialects spoken in the countryside. (Oddly enough, it’s only Parisian slang I find hard to follow.) The principal division is between north and south, Langue d’Oil and Langue d’Oc, indicating that while Oui is yes in the north, once upon a time (and still?) Oc did the job in the south.
There are many other maps… I have a whole collection. Here’s one, in English, that correctly portrays the country’s view of Parisians (‘assholes’) and then describes the rest of the country with similar kindness. One wonders where the man or woman who made the map lives. Maybe an ex-patriote in New Zealand.
To your well-thumbed dictionaries, smut-fiends ! To be cursed out in French usually means a few new additions to your vocabulary. Our final map provides plenty , original place names that verge on the obscene. (Oh come on, many are true blue.) But change them ? There aren’t enough Puritans in France to get up a petition for it. Bonne humeur is needed in this life and besides, the names go way back. Having passed through half the towns already and heading to Avallon for Easter, I can assure reader(s) the names are real, and that there are many more. I leave you to your devices.
(The title references the often-covered song She Has Funny Cars by Jefferson Airplane. )
-12h59, mardi, 26 mars.
Continental effect on rain is most drown right drap! Here in Hawaii the passing showers and monsoons vary so much I've coined a few terms.
No Rain = feeling rain looking up and no clouds above you
Dry Rain= The average rain, since you dry off as fast as you get wet.
Wet Rain= The heavy cloud burst
Mountain Rain = No rain usually, blown on trade winds from muaka side
Corner rain = monsoon that comes from the west and north since trade winds are NE(not of my coinage was local in Kauai)
Only place I've ever seen a moonbow, a rainbow caused by the moon since I was on the leeward, dry side of the island and a full moon low in the East and mountain rain. It is only white no colors
You forgot the Nice part of France in the silly names sections. I am sure most of the names I don't recognize are related to the upcoming fertility rights.