htobago wrote:
Callisto04 wrote:
htobago wrote:
I must say I keep forgetting that English is not Callisto's first language - whenever I remember, I am hugely impressed with his command of the language!

"Chouette" is pretty much a generic term of approbation in French, so can mean good, great, cool, awesome, lovely, cute, wonderful...whatever!

Technically it means 'owl'. When I lived in France many years ago people used to say 'vachement chouette' - 'vachement' being slang for 'very'. But 'vache' means 'cow', so in my family when we wanted (in English) to say that something was 'very good' or 'very cool', we would say 'cowly owl'!


Haha! Where exactly did you live in France? Ever visited Belgium?
We lived in Briancon, in the Alps, near the border with Italy (sorry, my keyboard doesn't have accents and so on - do you know where I can find these?). My mother now lives in Belgium - Bruges - so I have been there quite often, and also saw quite a bit of the country when I was horse-shopping....image



Near the border with Italy? I'd love to live close to Italy. The food is awesome, the weather is great and there are a lot of magnificent buildings. We went to Switserland a few years ago, also near the border with Italy. We couldn't resist crossing the border ... You are right, you said before your mother lives in Bruges. We went to Bruges two weeks ago. It's a very nice city and a great place to walk and relax. We ate mussels, yummie! My mother was there last weekend too. And she loved it. That is saying a lot since normally we can't make her stay anywhere but at her own place .

Some words when spoken can't be taken back