A TASTE FOR LUXURY

One way to make sure you don't miss dinner...

Give French cats the choice between a bowl of tap water and a bowl of Evian, and they'll inevitably choose Evian. Cachemire, silk, camel hair? These cats recognize quality right away and will curl up on the best fabrics in a second. But I never dreamed they knew anything about stainless steel cookware until I discovered Pompon, a.k.a. Guy l'Eclair and sometimes called Yo-Yo, nesting in my best French Cristel marmite.

Vocabulary
soie:  silk
cashmere:  cachemire
poil de chameau:  camel hair  
inox:  stainless steel
marmite:  stock pot


Expression
Une truite dans la marmite vaut plus que deux saumons dans la rivière.  A trout in the pot is worth more than two salmon in the river.  






Text & photos ©2011 P.B. Lecron

A.K.A. POMPON by P.B. Lecron

The naming of cats is a difficult matter--T.S. Eliot, 
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats


It was indeed a holiday game coming up with a name for this little, soon to be big, Birman.  I had suggested Pierre-Henri, Paco, Diego and Blaise; Yo-Yo, Sparky, Maximo and Enzo--but his young mistress settled the question, and for family purposes the chocolate-nosed ball of fur curls his tail to the sound of Pompon.

Vocabulary
un pompon:  a pompom
pomponner: to doll up; to dress up

Popular Expressions
à vous le pompon:  to you the advantage; you win
avoir son pompon:  to have too much to drink; in times past, simply to be happy
décrocher le pompon: to win, to be first place; literally to detach the pompon, as on a merry-go-round to win a free ride



C'est le pompon:  It's the last straw.
Il tient le pompon:  He takes the cake.
C'est le pompon de la pomponnette :  It's the end-all.  That beats everything.


en avoir ras le pompon (French Canadian):  to be exasperated, fed up
se calmer le pompon (French Canadian):  to calm down

More
It used to be said that to touch the red pompon on a French sailor's beret brought good luck.

By the way and quite coincidentally with the title of this post,  Aka Birman is a set of conditioning movements in Burmese martial arts where the combat sequence is performed without an adversary, with or without arms. Our Pompon is a chocolate-point Sacré de Birmanie, or Birman, and practices this sport.

For T.S. Eliot's poem, The Naming of Cats, click here.

French drama
A seven-minute film clip from the 1967 Marcel Pagnol film, La Femme du Boulanger, where the reconciliation beween the baker and his younger, errant wife coincides with the return of his black cat, Pomponnette. To view, click here.

Text& photo ©2011 P.B. Lecron