Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Au Clairon des Chasseurs

I don't know what the title of this post means, but it's the name of the little cafe we ate at in Montmarte. There isn't anything speacial about this motorcycle. This was taken shortly after we arrived in Paris and I was just really happy to see all the motorcycles.






8 comments:

Mike said...

Dusting off my one year of college French, clairon would be related to the english word clarion, which is a shrill trumpet call often associated with medieval times and/or the battlefield. In French "clairon" can be used either in the adjective sense, like "a clarion call to action" or the noun sense, as in a bugle or trumpet. Chasseur is the French word for hunter/frontiersman, think Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans; Chasseurs is also a term given to some light infantry units in the French Army.

Putting it together, it'd be something along the lines of "The Clarion/Bugle with the Hunters," which is similar to what you get if you plug it into Google translator...I'd be willing to guess that it's more along the lines of "The Clarion/Bugle OF the Hunters," or "The Hunters of the Bugle," so you could simplify it to "The Hunters' Bugle," or "The Bugle Hunters," both of which make sense for the name of a restaurant.

Jesse Baggett said...

Thanks Mike! That's exactly what I was hoping for - someone just to comment back and tell me the meaning. I'm too lazy to research it myself ;) The English word clarion is certainly not in my vocabulary! I find it impressive that a college French class would cover clairon, and that you would remember it too! Word studies are facinating. Thanks again.

Bag Blog said...

"Word studies are facinating." This from the girl who constantly uses the wrong words - who is often close, but not.

Jesse Baggett said...

Mom, just this evening I was talking with some friends and said,"Hindsight's 50/50". I thought you might like that one ;)

Mike said...

""Word studies are facinating.""

Hahaha...it's okay, I had a related problem when I was younger. I did (still do) a lot of reading, and it'd be at a level a little higher than my grade level, which was great...furthering my education and all that. However, the problem came when I'd try to verbally use some of the words I'd come across in my reading. I'd only read them, so while I usually understood what they meant (although there are a few funny examples of misusing a word) I generally wouldn't know the proper way to pronounce them. I think the most amusing was when I was for some reason discussing Nova Scotia. The only problem was that I pronounced it Nova Scott-ia. This was when I was 9 or 10 and my parents and the aunt and uncle I was with when I said it still won't let me live it down. But hey, at least I now have an impressive vocabulary...I also have many leather bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. :-p

And I won't take too much credit...we didn't actually cover clairon. I thought you had just misspelled it, so I was operating under the assumption that it was clarion but then I realized that it was spelled differently in French. However, we did cover chasseurs, although the light infantry part isn't from French class; that's from being a military history buff (which is a respectable way of saying I'm a huge nerd).

Now, if I had really paid attention in French class I could tell you whether it was "The Hunters' Bugle" or "The Bugle Hunters," because it definitely is one of them...I was just never any good at getting things in the right order in French.

Jesse Baggett said...

Yeah, my mom insisted on reading me my spelling words after a similar experience - I think the word was facetious. And in France I learned different words from signs and maps, but I had no clue how to pronounce them. Come to think of it, the French were the same - we did a lot of writing stuff down to communicate with each other. Fun stuff!

Anonymous said...

...coming late the the game...you got it right mike.
It means "The Hunters' Bugle"

Chris said...

Since 'au' or 'à le' can be "to the" then the meaning might be more along the lines of "to the bugle of the infantry".

That is, a patriotic proclamation.

OK, this is 4 years late post, ha.