Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames: The d’Antin Manuscript

A rollicking entertainment for word lovers.

MOTS D’HEURES: GOUSSES, RAMES The d’Antin Manuscript
Discovered, Edited, and Annotated by LUIS D’ANTIN VAN ROOTEN

Warning: this book is addictive! The rhymes of your childhood – and your children’s childhood – sound even better (and much funnier) in the accents of Molière and Sarkozy. Once you get the point of these delectable j’aime se from the works of Mere L’Oie, you will find yourself reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.If you’ve had two years of French or eaten escargots on the Rive Gauche only once, you’re certain to fall prey to the charms of these homonymic approximations of forty familiar English nursery rhymes.

The following well-known saga of the world’s most famous omelette is a typical example:

Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles
Un petit d’un petit
Ah! dégres te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu’importe un petit d’un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes