Day 1605 (Saturday) 30th October 2021

Yesterday we meet Oxana and her family in one of the beach bars and it was lovely and warm. They had been for a swim – I bet the sea is pretty cold now but they loved it.

They went to the Fragonard museum a few days ago in Grasse – I have mentioned Fragonard before but here’s a little reminder…

Shortly after the First World War, Eugène Fuchs and his family left Saint-Chamond and his notary’s practice to settle in the sun-drenched hillsides around Grasse. This entrepreneur at heart was soon won over by the magic of perfume and decided to create his own company with the purchase of two Grasse perfumeries: Cresp-Martinenq and Muraour. Thus it was that the Parfumerie Fragonard opened its doors to business in 1926. Eugène Fuchs decided to pay tribute to the most famous native of Grasse by naming his business after the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). The choice of the name Fragonard was also guided by his desire to thank the town that had welcomed him and his family, and to identify his perfumery with the refinement of the 18th century arts. Moreover, King Louis XV’s favourite painter was none other than the son of a Grasse perfumer and glove maker, François Fragonard. This choice marked his intention to make his business part of Grasse’s traditions and history. Originally an 18th century tannery and converted into a perfumery in the following century, the factory acquired by the Fuchs family perpetuated the perfume making business and soon experienced a new boom.

The youngest son Leo presented me with a gift to say thank you – I’m not sure what they were thanking us for, they were great independent visitors and the only thing we did for them was to give them advice and suggestions about where to visit. Oxana had told him that my favourite colour and he chose an orange bar of Fragonard soap. We said our goodbyes and headed to Le Phare.

There  were lots of people in the bar, including our French friends Olivier, Audrey and Katy and we had a lovely evening. I also spoke to Suzanne and we made some plans for our new ‘business’. She is going to come around to the flat one day over the weekend so that she can see what equipment I’ve got and get ready to make a start. She says that most of the dog people she knows are filthy rich so we decided to make two price ranges, a cheaper wool collection for the ordinary folk and a more expensive collection with good quality wool. She’s even talking about getting business cards done and as we are both called Suzi we are going to name the business something like ‘the two suzis’ or something along those lines.

This morning the forecast was right for a change and it was really cloudy and the rain arrived in the afternoon. 

I had intended on having a lazy day but I had a few emails I had to answer and an exam to check and thankfully I spoke to Gillian (the Scottish lady in Ipag Paris) and she made me feel a lot better about everything. I managed to grab two hours doing my new 1,500-piece jigsaw, the one I bought for 2€ in the Red Cross jumble sale.

11 ways to express shock or surprise in French

Someone just jumped out at you wearing a ghost costume? Seen something truly weird online? Here are 11 of the best ways to express your shock or amazement in colloquial French.

Oh là là – a French cliché that is actually true, the French really do say oh là là and they say it a lot. We should point out though that it’s oh, not oooh, and it doesn’t mean that something is sexy or flirty, the way it is often used in English.

Oh là là can be either a good or a bad surprise while its stronger cousin oh là là là là là là (always 6) is usually bad. You’ll hear it a lot during sports commentary when a player has just missed an absolutely nailed on certainty of an open goal.

Oh là là, c’est magnifique ! Merci mille fois – Oh my god, it’s gorgeous! Thank you so much

Putain – France’s most versatile word strikes again, putain is used for all types of surprise – it’s usually for something bad but not exclusively.

How strong the word is really depends on how you say it, if you laughingly exclaim ‘Oh putain !‘ when your colleague taps you on the shoulder while you were daydreaming then that’s pretty mild.

If on the other hand the work experience kid spills boiling hot coffee in your lap and you scream ‘Argh, putain !‘ that basically says ‘I am very shocked and annoyed right now. Hide’.

La vache – A slightly more family friendly option is exclaiming ‘the cow’!

La vache is frequently used as an alternative to swearing if you’re in polite company or around kids. If you see something surprising or are shown an image that is bizarre then exclaiming ‘Oh, la vache !‘ is a good option that roughly means ‘Oh, I don’t believe it!’

Bon sang – Also more commonly heard from grandmothers and parents of small children is bon sang (good blood) which is roughly equivalent to ‘oh for heaven’s sake’ or ‘good grief’ and is therefore usually used in a negative way.

Bon sang ! Il a renversé du lait sur le sol – For heaven’s sake! He’s spilled milk all over the floor

Mon dieu – My god is used in roughly the same way as in English, to react to something surprising or unexpected, whether that is bad or good. The English expression OMG (Oh My God) is now very common online in France, and sometimes you’ll even hear French people saying ‘Oh my God’ in English at times of surprise.

Mon dieu, son diamant est énorme – My god, her diamond is enormous

Tu es sérieux, ou quoi ? – If you’re being told something that is so surprising that you just can’t believe it, you might ask ‘Are you serious, or what?’ or the shorter sérieusement – seriously? 

La langue française a un temps grammatical uniquement pour écrire des romans ? Tu es sérieux ou quoi ? – The French language has a grammatical tense purely for writing novels? You have got to be joking?

Tu blagues ? – similar to the above, you might also ask ‘are you joking’ or ‘are you kidding?’

Gérard Depardieu est candidat à l’élection présidentielle de 2022 ? Tu blagues ? – Gérard Depardieu is running for president in 2022? You’re kidding?

These two phrases are both used with ‘tu‘ because they are in general informal phrases used between friends. You could ask the fonctionnaire Vous êtes sérieux ? when he tells you that you need to fill out all your forms again, but it’s likely to come over as pretty rude with someone you don’t know so we wouldn’t advise it.

MDR – if you’re communicating by text messages or on social media and you want to convey that you’re laughing at something bizarre or surprising then you’ll want MDR – mort de rire (dead of laughing) – it’s the French equivalent of LOL and you’ll see it a lot on social media or in text messages or WhatsApp groups.

Je suis choqué(e) – if you want to literally say that you’re shocked by something, je suis choqué conveys that. Like its English translation it can also be used sarcastically to show that you’re not shocked at all and it’s probably more common in this context. 

Le gouvernement a augmenté les impôts après avoir promis de ne pas le faire ? Je suis choqué – The government has raised taxes after promising not to? I am shocked

Je n’en reviens pas – If you’re truly shocked, you can say ‘I’m not coming back from it’. Je n’en reviens pas is handy because as well as expressing your shock in the moment, you can also use it after the fact to show that you still can’t get over what you’ve witnessed or learned. 

J’ai vu les deux s’embrasser à côté de la Tour Eiffel. Je n’en reviens pas – I saw the two of them kissing by the Eiffel Tower. I’m still not over it.

C’est énorme ! – In French, you can say ‘It’s enormous!’ to describe something’s that’s great, like a huge piece of good news, or to express your surprise.

Les billets sont gratuits ? C’est enorme ! – The tickets are free? That’s amazing!

Sacre bleu – don’t bother with this one. Despite an apparent rule that all headlines about France in English-language newspapers must use the phrase sacre bleu it’s actually pretty rare in France.

It’s extremely old-fashioned so if you do hear it the speaker is likely to be quite elderly. Trying to slip it into conversation with a group of young people is a bit like exclaiming ‘cripes’ or ‘heavens to Betsy’ in English.

Cats