Faux Amis (et Vraies Amies) - Plantations

Sorry it's been a while since I wrote, but things caught up with me. I had two weekends in a row of visits from some good friends from the dear old Estados Unidos. It was lots of fun, though it's probably a good thing I don't have too many American friends in Europe, or I'd be super sick of visiting Toulouse's sights. It would get to the point where they would show up, and I'd just give them a map and tell them to knock themselves out while I chilled in a café somewhere.

Another catching-up note: There I was, eating lunch with a British friend, discussing how funny it is when British people ask for rubbers from Americans, or stick things in their pigeonholes, when she started to dig into her grated carrots and told me "I don't really want to eat... it's strange, but I have to think about it to avoid saying raped carrots." Faithful readers (hee, sorry, I just made myself chuckle with that) may remember my "Faux Amis" entry on râper... I love that there are other people affected by the similarity between an innocent culinary word and a very serious crime.

But now onto an actual faux ami, in honor of Karen's visit to the Ville Rose. It's not really a false cognate, but we saw a sign while wandering through various gardens that said "Merci de respecter les plantations," which really does mean "Thank you for respecting the plantations." You're welcome!


But plantation also means a planting, or a bed of flowers or such. But still, I'm going to continue to follow the sign's directions, yankee that I am.

Faux Ami:
plantation
English translation:
Well, plantation. And also planting, or bed of flowers/vegetable patch.

Baker Street, Toulouse? And a Not-So-Aptly-Named "Rotary"

Was there a Sherlock Holmes convention in Toulouse? 5 minutes after seeing a guy in the street with a pipe - a real live, legit pipe - I saw this guy:

Then, I saw this by the médiathèque:







Couldn't they have named an actual rotary after the Rotary club?








Word of the Day:
un rond-point
Depending on where you are in the English-speaking world, a roundabout, rotary, traffic circle...and probably more.