That’s ‘a sailing’, not ‘assailing!’ by the way!
The other day I had a little look at my blog stats, and
noticed that my most popular posts are the ones involving Hermes scarves. The ‘How not to learn French by buying Hermes
scarves’ is an all time favourite and still scores hits despite having been
penned quite some time ago. And would
you believe it, after looking at the Hermes posts my indulgent visitors move on
to read my other musings as well!
So I decided to write a few more posts about my scarves, in
the hope that they will (a) aid the absorption of a bit more French by the
scarf loving public, and (b) hook a few more random visitors who will haunt the
pages of my blog.
I am starting with a recent acquisition, which is extremely
useful for learning French because it has French words written all over it. Of course it could be counter-argued that the
words the scarf depicts are pretty useless nowadays – all about sailing ships
which are few and far between these days – but the sort of people who buy
Hermes scarves to learn French are unlikely to be sensible enough to be
distracted by this little detail.
Nevertheless I have endeavoured to increase the utility of this post by
throwing in a few proverbs with a nautical origin, and also by quoting – in
full! – the scarf description I found in the little booklet I was given when I
bought this scarf.
Therefore I present to you Cheval de Mer!
The scarf depicts a three-masted frigate with 32
Canons. Next to the masts and sails are
written the terms that denote them, and the image of the ship is surrounded by
ropes tied into knots, which are also named.
I note that I have disregarded the accents etc – too difficult with my
keyboard. But I note that ‘mat’ has a
roof accent.
French
|
English
|
Cheval de Mer
|
Seahorse
|
Mat
|
Mast
|
Grand mat et voiles
|
Main mast and sails
|
Grand Perroquet
|
Main topgallant
|
Grand Hunier
|
Main topsail
|
Grand voile
|
Main sail (I think)
|
Mat de Misaine et voiles
|
Fore mast (not mizzenmast!) and sails
|
Petit Perroquet
|
Fore topgallant
|
Petit Hunier
|
Fore topsail
|
Misaine
|
Foresail
|
Mat d’Artimon et
voiles
|
Mizzenmast (!) and
sails
|
Hunier
|
Topsail
|
Brigantine
|
Spanker (?)
|
Fleche
|
? means arrow, so
presumably arrowshaped sail
|
Voile
|
Sail
|
Noeud
|
Knot
|
Corde
|
Rope
|
Noeud de chaise
|
Double knot
|
Beaupre et
Grand foc et Faux foc
|
Bowsprit and ‘Jib’ sails
|
What Hermes wrote about the scarf, Printemps – ete 2012
(Spring – Summer 2012)
Les fregates sont
des navires de guerre inventes au XVI siecle, tres legers, rapides et
maniables. La beaute de ces vaisseaux
comme celle de leurs plans impregnent ce carre dont la composition n’obeit qu’a
l’unique contrainte de l’harmonie. Cette
pure creation est baptisee Cheval de Mer,
en hommage a la tradition equestre de la maison. L’hippocampe, charmant petit poisson, doit
son nom a sa ressemblance avec les chevaux : sa tete couronnee devient
figure de proue symbolise le navire et protege l’equipage. « Trois mats grees en carre et un beaupre
a l’avant avec deux ou trois focs et une brigantine en antimon …» Les mots de la navigation, aujourd’hui comme
hier, racontent a eux seuls une histoire, l’evasion …
Frigates are war ships that were invented in the 16th
century as very light, quick and easy to handle. The beauty of these vessels and of their
plans permeates this scarf whose composition obeys no laws except the
constraint of harmony. This pure
creation is called Cheval de Mer, in homage
to the house’s equestrian tradition.
Here too is that most charming of equestrian fish, the seahorse: its
crowned head becoming the figurehead, symbolising the ship and protecting the
crew. “Three-masts squared-rigged and a
bowsprit at the fore with two or three jibs and a mizzen sail …” The vocabulary of the sea, today and
yesterday, recounts a story of travel and adventure in itself.
The scarf was designed by Christian Renonciat.
And here a few nautically inspired proverbs:
Il fait fleche de tout bois – It is all grist to his mill
Avoir du vent dans les voiles – to be three sheets to the
wind (ie drunk)
And , at last 'voile noir' – a blackout! I wonder whether the people of la Bourboule
would understand ‘rideau de voile voir’ (blackout curtains)?
