Friday, August 18, 2006

Well that's not logical

And I do love logic. It's very reassuring, after unmelted footprints and the like. Anyway.

While we were on vacation I kept an eye out for interesting village names that would, of course, lead to interesting inhabitants of village names. And the day I saw Aigrefeuille-sur-Maine, I thought I had found a whopper. Not even, as Boy1 would say. Which is, I think, his version of As if, which he's probably never heard. He's actually taken to using that phrase with The Tone in my presence quite frequently. I suppose I'm going to have to do something about that one of these days, but I'm currently picking my battles, and that's not one of them.

For now, she said menacingly.

Back to Sourleaf on the Maine River. I looked it up on their website and it's nothing extraordinary. Aigrefeuillais, Aigrefeuillaise. The Maine doesn't figure into the equation like the sauté pans of the City of God sauté pans. Why? No one can tell me. They all just answer with that shruggy thing and say, "C'est comme ça." That's just the way it is. Whatever. I still wouldn't want to be known as sourleafy or sourleafesque or even sourleaved. Or would it be sourleafed?

I shouldn't be surprised. French can be logical and it can also be maddeningly illogical. Cheval, chevaux. Hôpital, hôpitaux. Carnaval, carnavaux? NON, carnavals. 3 girls are elles. 3 boys are ils. 3 girls and 1 boy are...ils. Majority and logic, despite all their claims of loving Descartes more than anything, do not rule here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Logic - too much, too little? I don't know which is better.

Nicole said...

Charlie - There will be no swearing upon fish's life on my blog. It's true what that famous man said. Until you hit the c'est comme ça wall.

Christi - I'm sure he'll use it on you , along with The Tone, on your next visit.

Beth - Me neither.

Grish said...

Logic is your friend or is it your logical friend or...

Lorraine said...

Charlie is a man. Charlie swears on fish. All men swear Charlie is a fish. Dammit. I was never any good at that.

Sarah @ Baby Bilingual said...

Hi! Comment from an until-now lurker: I really enjoy these well-written posts about your life in France--they're funny, they ring true, you provide great details. I'd love to see more about your sons' use of language(s) and about the food you encounter in France! (Or you could visit my blogs and comment there.) By the way, I'm from Wilmington and my dad taught at UNCW. Did you take any English classes there?

Nicole said...

Grish - You're a logical friend. And clearly a friend of logic.

Lorraine - Me neither.

Charlie - Cat's eat fish.

Hi Sarah - Thanks for putting an end to your lurking and for saying nice things about my blog. I did take English classes there. I had an amazing linguistics teacher there. Dan Nolan (I think that was his last name.) I think all my other English dept teachers were women. I'll stop by your blog and will not lurk...

Sarah @ Baby Bilingual said...

Yeah, there were lots of good female profs in the English Dept, like Barbara Waxman. Thanks for visiting my blog!