Wednesday, August 1, 2012

TONGUE-IN-CHICK

What is making French pedestrians giggle this week and annoy police officer unions?  The pun on this urban ad for free-ranging farm chicken with a gendarme driving a tractorPoulet is the French slang equivalent for cop. 

The nickname became rampant in 1871 after new Parisian police headquarters were built on the site of what previously had been a chicken market. According to an article I read in the Figaro newspaper, despite that some police unions are enraged by the summer ad campaign, a large number of French police officers have asked the Loué company for collector copies of the poster.

Vocabulary
un poulet fermier:  a free-ranging farm chicken
un gendarme:  a policeman
se gendarmer:  to kick up a fuss (slang)
de façon moqueuse:  tongue-in-cheek (literally la langue dans la joue)
un poussin:  a chick
un sobriquet:  a nickname

©2012 P.B. Lecron

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