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Les belles de Bellecombe

I was on teaching exchange in the French Alpes (at Bonneville) some years back. Although my French was passable on arriving from Canada, I found the learning curve in an immersion situation is as steep as Mont Blanc. My collègues took it upon themselves to indoctrinate me as quickly as possible. The French are lovers of all things bucal and lingual which seems to explain their passions for language, food, wine and love. Many of my language lessons were of the punny variety, which, of course, often needed drastic explanation and parsing. The funniest that I remember was when a friend spoke, with a twinkle in his eyes, about the ladies from the nearby town of Bellecombe. Everyone in the room (except me) roared with laughter on hearing mention of the bellecombaises (on the surface = the female residents of Bellecombe but to the pun-tuned ear has a double meaning: les belles qu'on baise. In your French dictionary this will translate as the beauties that one "kisses" but in French slang the verb to kiss (baiser) goes deeper than that and is to be used warily in polite company.

Sent by: Leo

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