To step on Mephisto come to Paris and get yourself a sore foot...
Limericks crochetés : Once a Mother Professor and Daughter
for Farid & Zafir
Once (a) Mother Professor and Daughter
Came to Paris to see a Poet Mister
He took them on a lope
From Opera* to Procope*
Till their feet got thicker with blister
He took them to see Doctor Goethe :
Said Devil was shooting thorns from Under
They went to Mephisto*
To calm down their sore toe
« Une belle épine du pied , Mister »
« Vous m’enlevez »,* said learned Mother.
« How can we repay you », said Daughter.
« Not a care, I dare hope,
I’ll take you to Procope. »
The bill for trout, veg-dish and butter
Came to more than what they could then pay.
« Don’t give us this ol’ Napoléon lay !
You’re not wearing Bicorne*! »
« Yes, but for Devil’s thorn ! »
« Leave us your Mephisto shoes or pray ! »
So Mind-Full Poet took them upstair(s)
To prostrate long at Table Voltaire*
Philosopher weighed plea
Said : « This Poet like Me ! »
Mephisto shoes freed from Procope lair !
Resources
• Opéra : The National Academy of Music in Paris where ballets are still performed ; opera performances having been moved to the new concert hall in the Place de la Bastille.
• Procope : One of the oldest cafés in Paris, founded in 1686 (and opened in 1689) by a Sicillian whose Frenchified name was « Procope », at 13, rue de la Comédie Française, Paris-75006.
• Mephisto(pheles) : In Goethe’s play : Faust, one of the principal devils. Happens to be a brand name for shoes under the pretexte that it is better to have the Devil under-foot rather than in the boudoir.
• « Vous m’enlevez une belle épine du pied » : French for, according to Collins (bi-lingue) Dictionary : « You have got me out of a spot. » Literally means : « You have extracted a painful thorn from (the sole of) my foot. »
• Bicorne : two-cornered hat
• Napoléon lay : Napoléon as a young officer is supposed to have left his « bicorne » hat as a pledge for the meals he ate there and could not settle with cash. The hat is displayed in a glass case at the entrance till this day, for the future emperor had far more interesting things to do – like conquering a continent – and could not take the time off to reclaim it.
* Voltaire : The great French philosopher, author of the satirical novel : Candide, became a Freemason just four months before his demise. He was a frequent visitor to the Procope, and his table is still displayed on the first floor of the café-restaurant at the top of the ornate stairway.
The décor of the place is preserved exactly as it was realised in 1835.
Hello Ron ! Not at all. You'd be surprised: the fare is simply traditionally "savoureuse", the decor eighteenth century or earlier in some parts, the service quick, the cutlery gives the impression of being looted from the Versailles Palace, and Voltaire's table/desk ebony-shiny but not in use, just for decoration, and the give-away for visitors are specially decorated postcards in major languages including Japanese and Chinese (they may have stopped this practice, though, for the expense of producing them in great numbers could put them out of business): all for less than what it would cost you at an English pub. I make it a duty to take all my foreign visitors to the place. If your purse is light-weight, you could always pop in for a coffee and tour the place, room by room, floor by floor. No place around there to park the car. Just take the Metro to Odeon. Every good wish. Wignesan
Hi Sandie ! I sent you a response to your earlier remark, but it was knocked out by someone or other. I said that the Loch Ness Monster was in reality an Angel in disguise, hiding at the Louvre's basement Egyptology floor, for she owed some money to some guys in the Middle East and that she might make a "bounce" to Toronto for your sake or something like that. Oh, yes, and that she studied photography at the Slade School of Art in London, especially "stunts". Thanks a lot for your comments. Every good wish. Wignesan
Some interesting limericks with a very personal touch. And I'm certainly grateful for the bibliography of resources. Not being French or having been in Paris, I would be remiss with some of the references that you nicely translated for us.
It would seem to me that a restaurant with a history like that would certainly charge a princely sum for its food and atmosphere.
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Hi Sandie ! I sent you a response to your earlier remark, but it was knocked out by someone or other. I said that the Loch Ness Monster was in reality an Angel in disguise, hiding at the Louvre's basement Egyptology floor, for she owed some money to some guys in the Middle East and that she might make a "bounce" to Toronto for your sake or something like that. Oh, yes, and that she studied photography at the Slade School of Art in London, especially "stunts". Thanks a lot for your comments. Every good wish. Wignesan
It would seem to me that a restaurant with a history like that would certainly charge a princely sum for its food and atmosphere.
Ron
Sandie