Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Buvez de ce whisky que le patron juge fameux.

I'm going back to England tomorrow. Indeed, I've already finished packing. Pity the flight doesn't leave for another 20 hours. Having achieved what I wanted to do today (i.e. pack), I am now bored, which is one of the reasons I am writing this blog entry, and is also the reason why I have a French pangram as the title.

I always feel restless for a few days before travelling; right now I feel homesick, even though I'm going home tomorrow. It's odd, because I hardly ever feel homesick when a departure home isn't imminent.

My local supermarket, Auchan, has changed its name to Simply Market. The Académie française must be apoplectic about this; not only is it a corruption of the French language, but it doesn't even make sense in English. Its new slogan is "Be happy ! Be simply.", which is translated, as required by the loi Toubon, as "simplement heureux". At least the translation makes grammatical sense. I first read it as "be happy, be simple", and thought it was an instruction to reject consumerism and live as a Mennonite, which would have been inspiring if it were true. I don't particularly understand the French's obsession with dubious English (un people, le shampooing...), but it looks like it's here to stay.

2 comments:

  1. I always feel the same about going home. I get restless and homesick. In fact, I went home a day ealier than I had originally planned.

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  2. Also if you google 'Buvez de ce whisky que le patron juge fameux.' yours is the first site. Cool eh? Not really, who would google that on a daily basis?

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