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I rarely hear any comments about my clothes out in the street. Also, I rarely hear French spoken in the streets here in Torremolinos. On a short afternoon walk yesterday however, four times I overheard, in French, comments about my kilt, ranging from a simple "Vous avez vu ça?" (Did you see that?), to a more amusing "Il suffit d'aller en Angleterre; ils sont tous habillés comme ça," (If you go to England (sic), they're all dressed like that.) I rectified that no, not every man was kilted in GB, and the speaker hastily assured me how very smart I looked. Obviously no-one expects a kilt-wearer to understand French.
Later in the evening, another French-speaker came up to me and politely asked in French whether I was from Scotland of from the Basque country. The Basques don't wear kilts, as far as I know. In fact he had confused the Basques and the Bretons, who have a number of tartans and who do wear kilts. The enquirer was from Tunisia, so we'll forgive his mistake, but I assume from his question that he'd actually seen kilts being worn in France. Britanny is in northwestern France, by the way.

Martin

Back in the 70's I lived in Germany for two years and yes, it's amazing what some of the Germans said right in front of me, not knowing that I spoke German. But at the same time, I learned never to speak English with anyone in front of Germans, thinking they wouldn't understand.

None of that had any relevance to wwearing skirts or kilts, though, as I've only been into that recently.

In August 1966 I spent a week in Istanbul with a University friend and the local currency was available at 3X the official rate from taxi drivers et al. We needed to decide whether to offer Turkish Lirasi or US$ or £ Sterling for goods in the Grand Bazaar, where the vendors made it their business to be able to buy & sell in all European and Eastern languages.

We made a point of discussing this 'as Gaelige' or in Irish, which invariably drew a mask of incomprehension over the face of the stallholders.

BTW. Thanks for that fascinating Breton tartans map, Martin......go raibh mile maith agat!!!

T.

Kirbstone wrote:go raibh mile maith agat!!!

Broken your keyboard Tom? Or were you just wiping coffee off it?

Have fun,


Ian.

No broken keyboard methinks - just a Gaelic expression from the language of the Garden of Eden...

(meaning "thank you very much")

There you are, Ian. It took a proper Scot to explain what it was to your Sasannach brain!

Happy Easter....Brrrrh!!

Tom

P.S.....an alternative comment: There appears to be only one word in there that makes any sense...mile...a measure of linear distance, roughly 1.6 Km.

SkT. Good on you! I'll quote Percy French here: The Garden of Eden has vanished, they say, but I know the lie of it still,
Just turn to the right at the Bridge of Finea, and stop when half way to Coothill.
Tis there I will find it, I know sure enough, when fortune has come to my call,
The grass it is green around Ballyjamesduff, and the blue sky is over it all.......

(From the song 'Come back, Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff')

T.

I was on Corsica a few years ago at a village market I was wearing a black /grey/white camauflage kilt when I noticed a stall selling cargo pants in the same fabric I heard one stall holder coment on my kilt to his mate C'est l'Ecosse militere (Forgive my English and French spelling never a strong point) Its Scotish Military .Never ceases to amaze me how people invent a reason for my dress choice . Am also minded of an old gent coming up to me at a dinner dance . I was wearing a beige- pink with burgundy apron Kilt .He enquired Were you with the Desert Rats ? No I said to his obvious disapointment its just a fashon kilt.

Regard Martin

Thank you Tom - I found this Youtube video of the song as well - enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGmrpMT0-yo

Ballyjamesduff and Cootehill are moderate sized towns in the northern area of the Republic of Ireland and Finnea is a small village (pop 317 according to Wiki) near it.

Happy Easter to you - and may your tights and skirts be warm!

Hi SkT. Thanks for the u-tube link. That particular one bypasses the opening words I posted, but nearby is a Brendan O'Dowda version which starts off with the right lyrics and is nicer to listen to as well.

T.