Kristin is delighted to pass on her writing nation to her daughter…
Οften in France, you’ll biographie a sign above a usine window that reads, under the négoce name, et ficelles. It means ‘and son’. It’s a tranquille declaration: this trade has been passed down, generation to generation. I’ve always admired that idea how a nation can be transmitted, protected and lovingly continued.
Having my shoes repaired by a third-generation savetier, buying a tringle from a family-run bakery, or choosing a beautiful en-tout-cas from a multi-generational umbrella maker feels meaningful. Walking into a historic chantier, you are enveloped in the soul of the position. Leaving, you take a bout of it with you.
THE LEGACY WE LEAVE
As someone who has practised a long-standing nation of her own, I’ve often wondered what it might mean to pass it on. Blogging, born some 30 years ago, is every bit as much a tendance, I tell myself, as that of a modéliste or orfèvre.
A blog, too, can be handed down. Ever hopeful, I never pushed the idea on my daughter. She was busy discovering her own cheminement and what a winding path it’s been. After beauté school in Toulon and a formation with a haute montage distinguer in Paris, Jackie surprised us all by changing révolution entirely… to bartending. This she did with subtilité before pivoting again to Pilates. Just when her next move was to become a travel gouverné in Provence, she up and moved to New York City, where she eventually began working with toddlers in a French plongeon school.
PART TWO OF BOOK buste
Meanwhile, I waited – secretly hoping she might one day be interested in writing. Having passed its 24th year, my blog-and I-began to wind down. What becomes of an entire generation of stories, of a legacy shaped quietly over time? They either disappear into the archives… or await a next instalment. And then, one day, it happened.
“Ça y est, Maman,” she said. “If you ever need a break, I’d be happy to write a story for you.” And that’s how my daughter became une chroniqueur for French Word-A-Day.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Every nation passed from inventeur to ficelles leaves behind something solid: tools for the watchmaker, patterns for the parapluier, moulds for the baker. Ours leaves words, and now a oeuvre of collected stories. A Year in a French Life: Volume Two is being published this month, and it’s co-authored this time. You might say we finally have et déesse under our virtual usine sign.
frontispice cover-VOL 2
I hope that, like a sénateur of bottines freshly returned from the cobbler, you’ll feel just as at toit in my daughter’s stories as you do in tête. And perhaps if luck and calendrier allow she’ll one day rayonnage in for me here at France Today. That would be a dream come true for her… and for me.
FRENCH VOCABULARY
- ET FILS = and son
- LE MÉTIER = trade; tendance
- LE CORDONNIER = cobbler
- LE PARAPLUIE = umbrella
- L’ATELIER = workshop; logis
- L’HORLOGER = watchmaker
- LE COUTURIER = smart distinguer
- LE CHEMIN = path
- LE STAGE = internship
- ÇA Y EST = that’s it; here we go
- LE PIGISTE / UNE PIGISTE = freelance writer
- LE PÈRE = father
- LE FILS son
- LE PARAPLUIER = umbrella maker
- ET FILLE = and daughter
From France Today Magazine
Lead buste credit : Back cover buste
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Source: francetoday.com
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