#aziraphale's french

[time-travelling-chaos]

I have this scene in my head where Aziraphale tries to speak French and wants to use the expression 'ça casse pas trois pattes à un canard' which is literally 'it doesn't break three feet of a duck' and is used to speak of something that is not amazing/mediocre. Except that Aziraphale tries to use it in reverse to talk about something he loved, and ends up talking about something that does break three feet of a duck, and next to him, Crowley gets kinda worried and tries to protect a duck that was close to him.

[some-siren]

Still thinking about how Aziraphale went to Monsieur Rossignol’s night classes almost 30 years before the French Revolution. Like.

You’re telling me Aziraphale "Had to learn French (the language of love) the hard way, came to France dressed fancy during what was essentially a bloodbath to 'eat crêpes' but got imprisoned and couldn’t free himself because ´Gabriel sent him a rude note', waited for his demon to come rescue him just so he could take him on a date" Fell knew French the whole time?

King you really have to stop making elaborate plans just to have a date with Crowley

[tofiam]

I think and I may be wrong that Monsieur Rossignol is actually one of those Rossignols: Rossignols - Wikipedia Because they were keepers of french royal ciphers used for important news, letters and archives. So, Aziraphale is actually saying that his french is so bad because he was only taught in ciphers? Or something between the lines.

Maybe @neil-gaiman can confirm that, if someone asks him...?

But yeah, it means nightingale and I am sure that, either way, it was chosen intentionally.

Sitting here watching s2xe5 and it’s the scene where Crowley is asking Aziraphale why his French is so bad and he says “I went to Monsieur Rossignol’s night classes in 1760”.

I decided to Google if this was a real person since the name wasn’t familiar to me, and instead I had my giant gay heart stomped on by Neil Gaiman once again.

The French word for nightingale: Rossignol

It’s the language of romance and Aziraphale took night classes with a Mr. Nightingale. I CAN’T BREATHE.

[eefaevie]

parce qu'on s'est crié des mots qui ont sali tous nos plus beaux dessins, on a hurlé des chaudières d'encre noire sur le bonheur

j'expose ma tête, mes yeux, mon cœur et mes mains

si tu reviens

something quiet, gentle, and romantic for today. I’ve been assured it’s suggestive enough for @goodomensafterdark ‘s smut war, so enjoy this soft interlude with suggestive tummy ❤️

[magicomens]

*Kingdom Dance starts playing*

First >> Prev >> Next

[felicitywilds]

how many licenses do you think aziraphale has? hes got one for possession of a firearm, and made them give him a test so he could get one to drive a car. what else has he done in order get a silly little slip of paper that says he can do something cool with a Human Invention? like i know hes a literal angel of heaven but do you think hes ordained

[onceuponathyme]

This was an immensely enjoyable read! I love this take.

Through the lens of assuming that Aziraphale is making deliberate use of the wordplay, the whole 1941 bookshop pre-magic-show conversation is hilarious and fascinating. "I only allow myself one tiny weeny miracle. To warm the audience and myself, up." And I love watching what Crowley's face does in reaction to Aziraphale suggesting the warm-up be turnip-into-inkwell.

The layered meanings in the writing of this show are so compelling. There's a strong case for reading sexy and queer innuendo in Aziraphale's centuries-long delight in referencing this particular classic joke about French lessons. It was a different layer of the plume/jardiniere/tante line that struck me when I first thought about it -- that it fits well with the questions around records/recordkeeping/storytelling in Season 2. Where is the pen? (Pen being a recording/narration device, with divine/ethereal/occult connotation because of the feather and the proof-of-miracle co-meanings of plume.)

(Non-Frozen) Peas. A Good Omens Sex Meta Thing Side Dish

Shorter little vegetable-themed side dish to Crepes, which you do not have to have read first. All by way of Aziraphale's dirty French in S2 about how he has a craving for Crowley's Eden.

*slips into GO fandom quietly* *whispers*

Do you all realize that another translation of Aziraphale's "Ou est la plume de la jardiniere de ma tante?" is...

"Where is the feathered garden box of my queen?"

I probably don't need to tell you that both 'garden' and 'box' are sexual euphemisms for lady parts and, to make matters funnier, remind you of this scene earlier in the season, in which a literal box became related to... well, it's somewhat open to interpretation so let's just call it a gasp-worthy, part-related situation. :)

"Where is the feathered garden box of my queen?" is Aziraphale saying that it's been a minute since he worshipped Lady Crowley and he's misses her.

This would account for Aziraphale's impish "but you understood me" and flirty little smile and wiggles. He's so cute about it that Nina comes out of her coffee shop to try to hear what they're talking about that's made the bookseller look so alive and has Snarky Sunglasses all flustered.

Crowley's "Only because, for two hundred and fifty years, you've been wittering on about the plume of your imaginary 'tante.'" = "Only because, ever since you took French lessons the human way, I've had to listen to you euphemistically referring to my occasional wild flower garden and calling me your queen in two different languages and I love to hate how much I absolutely love it."

We know that Crowley did understand Aziraphale and not just because he also speaks French but because his traditional choices in translating it back to Aziraphale in protest-- "you don't have an aunt, she doesn't have a gardener and he doesn't have a... pen"-- is intentionally a bit incorrect because Aziraphale used the feminine French word for 'gardener'-- la jardiniere-- in his sentence. As a result, Crowley is protesting that "the gardener" is a he right now, Aziraphale, and he doesn't have a-- pause of 'wait, this isn't going to work if I translate 'plume' as 'feathers'-- euphemistic or literal-- as I have both so I'll go with the other thing the word means instead'--... pen.

(Which winds up even funnier since a pen is phallic and euphemistic, in this sense, for currently having a penis, which is actually Crowley's current state of effort in that moment. Hold those thoughts until we get to turnips and inkwells down below lol.)

A 'plume' in French is a pen, a feather, a quill, and a cloud of rising smoke. In Good Omens, it's also used in the smoke-like definition by Michael to describe the pink plume of magical energy that came from the bookshop when Crowley and Aziraphale miracled together. Crowley responded with 'pen'-- which is a riff on the fact that Aziraphale is riffing on "la plume de ma tante", a cliched line said derogatorily to mean 'those sentences that you learn when you learn a new language that you'd never say in real life.' Crowley used 'aunt', 'gardener' and 'pen' as the translation in reference to the cliche Aziraphale was referencing. Aziraphale, though, adjusted the line, as we saw-- adding words to it to make it a stealth, flirty request-- and Crowley did hear the innuendo. Crowley correctly heard Aziraphale using 'plume' in the 'feather' sense (hilariously, considering that they have actual feathers in their angel/demon forms lol), with the 'feather'-context 'plume' being euphemistic for Crowley keeping it real down below.

(It could be worse, Crowley. He could be in a blasphemous mood and referring to it as "The Burning Bush"... which I feel like you'd actually find hilarious but anyway, moving on...)

In English, appropriated from the French, a 'jardiniere' is a flower box/garden planter. 'Tante' is French for 'aunt' but it's also a word meaning both 'queen'/'pansy' in the queer sense of the words (a 'pansy' also being a kind of flower, of course, adding to the Eden motif that "*the* Southern Pansy" Aziraphale has going on for his gardener partner here) but 'tante' is also one of the words that just means 'queen' as well, in the 'regal' sense of the word. It might not be the first word Aziraphale would use if he were, instead, speaking a sentence in French about, say, Queen Camilla-- but it's maybe a more appropriate one for flirting with his gender-everything partner by telling him in French that it's been too long since he spent some quality time with his queen's jardiniere.

'A la jardiniere' is also a French cooking term. It translates as "in the manner of the gardener's wife" (Gabriel: "Whatever that is."). It is obviously an archaic-sounding term when it comes to gender but, for the purposes of metaphor here, it's actually a little useful. The phrase is born out of the idea that the chef would be male, straight and married and that his wife would be keeping their kitchen garden-- which, even though she was probably running it, is credited to him, because the patriarchy-- from which fresh vegetables could easily be picked and used in a dish. As such, it's a lot more fun that Aziraphale is using the French here because the actual gardener doing the garden work in the definition of 'jardiniere' is specifically female by the term's description, so it's another way to reference Crowley's femininity.

There's also, of course, that "in the manner of the gardener's wife" is about as porny a definition for a phrase that can possibly be translated from one language to another lol and so adds to the idea of 'jardiniere' being sexually euphemistic. Atop that, there's the fact that the word itself relates food to romance and sex by referring to the chef and the gardener as married in its definition. In a season that has Crowley and Aziraphale unable to deal with words like 'couple' and 'partners', if only Maggie and Nina understood that maybe they don't know how to use traditional words but damned if Aziraphale isn't already on covertly calling Crowley his spouse when flirting with him.

While 'a la jardiniere' is a cooking term, 'la jardiniere/jardiniere' is also a French food term. It is a side dish or a garnish of mixed vegetables, usually spring garden vegetables. So, carrots, green beans, potatoes (Crowley: "You say 'potato', I say 'excellent'" lol), turnips (Aziraphale can turn garden variety sex into inkwells!-- haha 'garden' pun, get it? please send help-- and inkwells are the things one dips a quill pen into.... and, now, we're back to the 'pen' translation of 'la plume...').

The most signature vegetables of jardiniere, though, are peas.

As Crowley would tell Shax and anyone who will listen, literal ducks-the-water-fowl need not get their actual jardiniere defrosted.

Aziraphale-- the more discerning duck-- likes his hot, though.

~~~

If you have not already and would like to read more meta like this:

[camilleflyingrotten]

[mrghostrat]

Aziraphale paused when his eyes fell on the drink in his hand. He stared at it. The golden blond wine refracted through the glass and cast a halo of yellow light over his table setting. He frowned. “I’m sorry,” he sputtered at Crowley. “Did you just—” [ MON HORRIBLE CHÉRI ]

i may be stuck in housemove limbo but i will drag myself out of the grave for these cartoomens requests

[dingledraw]

Try and shame Aziraphale about their body or their enjoyment of food and Crowley will eat you (◡‿◡✿)

[heohl-art]

New Ineffable Husbands fanart✨🩷

[French Revolution x Bridgerton]

A crossover I wanted to do so bad✨ I'm so PROUD of how well this one turned out🩷🥹

I imagined this scene after they left Paris. During the chaotic times of the Revolution, they spend their time living together for a while in a country estate in Normandy~

ps. absolutely not me thinking about writing something about this✨

[some-siren]

What’s puzzling to me is why people say Aziraphale’s French is bad, like-

No it’s not. It’s quite good even. Sure he has a thick (no really) accent but that’s about it. Everything he says to Justine is something you can hear in the streets, and it’s correct too-

Az: Euuh.. Bonjour Justine ! Euh, pardonnez-moi ! Euh, mais euhm... [Uuh.. Hello Justine! Uh, excuse me (formal)! Uh, but uum...] J: Mister Fell, I speak fluent English. I’ve been living here for fifteen years.

Az: Excellent. Excellent !.. Uuh, well erm. Bien (alt. Viens) ! Maintenant, j’ai une réunion de l’association de tout les (alt. des) commerçants de la rue, dont (alt. dans) mon magasin de livres — des! — des livres. Uh, je serais honoré si vous pouviez venir. Il y aura des vol-au-vents. [Excellent. Excellent !.. Uuh, well erm. Good(alt. Come!)¹! Now², I have a reunion of the association of all the (alt. of the)³ merchants of the street, of which (alt. in)⁴ my store of books — of the! — of the books.⁵ Uh, I would be honoured if you could come. There will be vol-au-vents.] J: Mister Fell, if it’s about the street traders meeting, I can be there, but only until seven, as we start to get really busy then. Az: Oh, merci bien ! Uuh, il est à six heures trente. [Oh, thank good!⁶ Uuh, it⁷ is at six hours thirty.⁸] J: Yes, six-thirty. See you there. Az: (incomprehensible) Au revoir! [(incomprehensible)⁹ Goodbye!]

¹ "Viens" (Come!) instead of "Bien" (Good, well) would be weird in this situation for a couple of reasons: firstly "Viens" is the informal form of the imperative for "venir" (to come), the form one would use with people one is close to — like friends or family —, which is in contradiction with the formal way he first addresses Justine. Secondly, while it could — emphasis on could — be "Viens" on a purely phonological basis (when I say his accent is thick I mean it), it isn't correct in this context, same as English.

² "Now, " is perfectly correct in English, but it is weird in French. "Maintenant" will most of the time mean "right now" in French, and it is no exception here. Therefore what Aziraphale says is grammatically incorrect, because it would suppose the object of the sentence (the association meeting) is either currently happening or is just about to start. Although don't get me wrong, it's a very minor mistake; the sentence is still entirely comprehensible.

³ "des" (of the; plural) is what I hear instead of "les" (the; plural). If he is indeed saying the former, then it is a grammatical error, because it would be like he is saying "a reunion of all of the traders". "tout" (all) expects a direct object after it (all what?) and "des", here, is an indefinite article, a bit like "some" in English, and induces an indirect object. On the other hand if he is saying "les", then the sentence is correct because it is an (definite) article introducing a direct object. It's slightly confusing to hear, but that's about it.

⁴ I am almost certain he is saying "dans" (in, inside of) but because of his (BLOODY THICK) accent it sounds like "dont" (which, in/of which). If he says "dont" his sentence is missing an indirect object. "Dont" is a relative pronoun (here referring to the subject, aka the association reunion) which induces a new proposition, so like a new part of the sentence, that here is dependent of the first proposition. Basically it needs a verb but it doesn't have one. Which is to say his sentence if he used "dont" should have been "dont mon magasin de livres fait partie" (which my bookshop is a part of). On the other hand, if he said "dans", his sentence is correct.

⁵ "of books — of the! — of the books", just as bad in French as it sounds in English. Aziraphale was right when he said "de" and wrong when he corrected to "des". I could not if my life depended on it explain why it's wrong but it is. Made me wince.

⁶ "Oh, thank good" sounds weird in English but it's quite a common (although slightly fancy and old-fashioned) figure of speech in French. It doesn't have a real equivalent in English and most of the time will be translated to "thank you very much" or "thanks a lot"

⁷ "il" (he, it; masculine, can take on a neutral gender) is referring to the reunion, which is feminine in French. Wrong gender, mate

⁸ "six hours thirty", is a perfectly correct and normal construction. We say "hours" in French, it's usually translated to "o'clock" in English.

⁹ An utterly incomprehensible pile of sound vaguely resembling "(au) revoir", only understandable thanks to context.

Ok I know it's not very flattering but like. This angel speaks great French, especially for someone who learnt the hard way. Like suuuuure her accent is terrible, but in that weirdly endearing way British people speak French (also I have heard WAY WORSE), so really we're giving her a hard time for no real reason

[amagnificentobsession]

Re-reading ✨Stardust✨ (how else do I ease my aching heart?) when this……♥️ 💔💋 Neil Gaiman, I do so love you 😘

[miellez]

"Où est la plume de la jardinière de ma tante ?"

Ok this is a very tiny pointout but : Aziraphale is saying here "de la jardinière", which makes the gardener female. If he wanted to make them male, he would have said "du jardinier".

But Crowley says about the gardenerer "he".

More proof that Aziraphale and Crowley don't care/understand gender, as they should :D.

[miss-americanbi]

shout out to all the demons (dyslexic people) who are having the time of their lives trying to spell “ineffable” or “bureaucracy” correctly post good omens 2

[gahellhimself-blog]

I’m off for the weekend so we continue Angst war monday, probably a stream for the occasion.

I let you with Mr Fell and his french lesson, I’ve seen that you love french so. Enjoy :)

.

.

See ya friends 👋🏻

And read the pin post :)