Pbenjay's Blog

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A while ago I wrote a blog about 10 Yiddish words every Goy should know so they could:  a) to survive in New York City b) to get the jokes and humor in a Woody Allen movie and c) to take part in the conversation at a Rosh Hashanah dinner.

Today we are talking about moving in a whole other circle.  This is more Carnegie Hill than Lower East Side.  Oh you’ve seen the movies and probably read the books where the characters purposefully drop French words and phrases into their everyday conversations with such sang froid. We all know those prep school grads, Ivy League alumni and trust fund babies who know exactly what perfect or in this case pluperfect phrase to casually interject in any conversation.

Foreign phrases trip and slip off their tongues with such savoir-faire.  They rendez -vous at aprés ski parties, clad in  de riguer haute couture and they actually ski too!  Full of joie de vivre , success an expected fait accompli, rarely making a faux pas. Usually given carte blanche, this crème de la crème sometimes turns into l’enfant terrible, n’est-ce pas? There’s a pervasive  laissez faire attitude bordering on women going au naturel.

I wish I could put my finger on this….their innate je ne sais quoi!

Don’t despair if you really didn’t get all of the fancy French above and wonder how you would work it into your everyday conversation – there’s a lot more French words and phrases we can drop and probably do!

We live on cul-de-sacs, eat hors d’oeuvres, order pie à la mode, even if you have to do so à la carte. You can own a pied-à-terre, be ever so avant garde and even furnish it with chaise lounges. The rooms may be en suite and walking through them causes you to stop and feel déjà vu.

I’m running out of French words and phrase…c’est la vie and so I guess this is au revoir but not adieu!