06 October 2009

Moi!





(Le quignon) is at the end of the classic French bread (bagette). I learned this  early in my life at the age of four. At dinner, my father (mon pere) would call me "Monsieur Quignon" and chase me around the long dinner table waving a (bagette) in his hand like a magic wand (bagette magique) shouting: 


"Monsieur Quignon, Monsieur Quignon: (Attention!) I am going to send you to the green planet!!.... I am going to turn you into a mushroom (un champignon), and send you to the green planet forever, and ever!!"


I would scream hysterically, and it took me practically the whole mealtime to calm down. 


When I first arrived in France so many years later, it always took me by surprise when the head of the table would ask everyone:


"Who wants the quignon?" (Qui veut le quignon?)


It was, and often still is, the weirdo of each family who shoots up his hand to say


"I do" C'est Moi!!





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