J'AI BESOIN DE . . .

Des lapins

So . . . this morning Katie headed out the door around 8:30 for the 20-minute walk to Alliance française for her French class.  I’m sure she’ll have lots to say about that experience in a future blog post.  She left me with a shopping list for the Saxe-Breteuil marché that operates on Thursdays and Saturdays on a long plaza a block away from our apartment.  Mostly the market sells freshly butchered meat (including des lapins—rabbits—and des canettes—ducklings) and fresh produce.  Unlike certain Parisians whom we’ve encountered—the utterly unhelpful clerks whom we needed to engage with to buy Metro passes—the vendors are cheerful and friendly, so shopping there is not a daunting experience at all, and it doesn’t require beaucoup de français!

Une canette

In fact, as I was walking to the market, I was practicing thinking in French—J’ai besoin de . . .—and I realized that was exactly the phrase I needed to deploy at each stall where I stopped: “I need . . .”  For example, my first stop: “J’ai besoin de deux poulets rôti”—and Voila!  And so forth and so on: des oeufs, des tomates cerises, des avocats, des champignons . . .  And then I asked for “des petites pommes de terre.”  With a twinkle in his eye, the vendor tried to catch me: “Deux . . . ?”  I laughed and replied:  “Mais non—peut être . . .  quinze?”

My French is rusty after about 35 years of disuse, but it’s coming back.  Le pratique rend parfait: last night we managed to order un bière et un pastis Ricard at a little hole-in-the-wall in Le Marais.  On Saturday, it’s Katie’s turn to try out her newly minted vocabulary and grammar at the market!