Saturday, March 26, 2005

Belle De Jour in Portuguese

In a post dated lundi 7 mars, Belle de Jour comments on questions sent in by the Portuguese translator of her excellent book, The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl. Among other things, she frets over the transculturality of nipple-twisting:

(Translator:) Page 245 : I refuse to give him a nipple-twister
(Belle:) Do they not have nipples? Furthermore, do they not twist?

My question: shouldn't she call herself Belle du Jour? Sorry, my knowledge of French is rudimentary at best. While in France once, I wondered aloud why the waiter brought me a vegetarian ratatouille when I had ostensibly ordered a navy-bean soup. My dinner companion glanced at the menu and hissed, "légumes means vegetables, not legumes, you dummy!"

At least it was better than my first pizza in Germany as an exchange student. For toppings, I ordered olives, onions and "pepperoni", wanting nothing more than a dose of home. Imagine my shock when the pizza came: six whole, unpitted black olives, an inch-thick layer of onion slices and a huge hot pepper draped over the whole mess. Where's Pizza Hut when you need them?


This ain't Pizza Hut...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the name "Belle de jour" is a reference to Luis Bunuel's film with Catherine Deneuve, in which she plays the role of a respectable middle-class wife who works in a brothel at nights. I think!

Trench Warrior said...

Only one way to find out - watch the movie!

Or write directly to Belle, of course.