Wild Leeks And Languages

Wild Leeks
At the pizza evening last week René and Ahmelle mentioned that there were wild leeks in the hills near their home. So we arranged for Steve, Jo, Neville, Liz and I to call on them this Saturday and to go on a wild leek hunt. Steve and Jo provided croissants for breakfast at the house René and Ahmelle are having built; it's at the end of a track on the edge of Buis and nearly completed so we looked around it before setting off. René mentioned one unplanned expense. The track belongs to the commune of Buis. René was told that he could “buy” it but it would remain technically the property of the commune. If he bought it, though, the commune could guarantee that the track would remain open; otherwise........ It's a peculiarly French arrangement.

We went off into the hills above Buis to a fallow field surrounded by groves of rather neglected olive trees. Sure enough, there were literally hundreds of wild leeks there, about the size of spring onions, and we collected several bags full. Seeing them, I realised that I had quite a few in my garden. I had noticed some plants growing that clearly weren't grass and looked like some form of bulb so I had left them to see what they were. Now I know they won't be blooming I shall remove them. Afterwards I went back with Steve and Jo to their place and Jo cooked the leeks with sausages and potatoes for lunch and we ate them sitting outside on their terrace.

Apparently there is wild asparagus in the hills around Buis as well and the French are enthusiastic about collecting anything edible from the wild. I thought the local restaurateurs were missing a trick, particularly in the tourist season. Had I been a restaurateur, I think I would have collected the leeks, persuaded clients that they were a rare local delicacy with a subtle flavour much appreciated by connoisseurs and charged an arm and a leg for a serving of them. What's more, they must be organic which in itself would justify a high price these days. The trip also showed me a possible source for olives. There were still plenty on the trees in the neglected olive groves, despite the fact that the harvesting season is around the turn of the year. So if I ever feel like collecting a load (four kilos are needed to get one litre of oil at the local mill) then I know where to go.

Anyway, the weather was hot and sunny and it was a great way to spend a morning.

English/French
We English have an unenviable reputation for being lazy at learning languages. There's the joke: what do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And what do call someone who speaks only one language? English. However, that doesn't seem to be the case here.

There aren't that many English people in the area but we nearly all speak French with some fluency, if occasionally leaving some grammatical and phonetic correctness to be desired. When I invite people of both nationalities to eat the conversation is nearly all in French. This is appreciated by the French, who frequently comment that they are very bad at languages and should learn some English. They cast themselves in the role that the English traditionally have. I noticed this several years ago when I went to a class on Occitan which was being held in nearby Malaucène. It was a while before the class realised I was English (I wasn't saying much, except in Occitan). When I was asked to say, in Occitan, where I was from, I had to confess to being English. The woman sitting next to me then said: “ I detest foreigners who speak French well; they make me feel ashamed”.

I noticed this again during the winter, when I invited French friends to view some of my DVDs with me one evening. I have a fairly large collection of films for winter viewing and prefer to watch them in company rather than alone. Those films that aren't in English generally have English subtitles as I've bought most of them in England. Yet none of my friends, even one who is a former English teacher, felt able to watch a film that wasn't in French, not even one with English subtitles.