“Écappons”

St-Joseph’s Day is March 19th. It snowed last night. “What’s the link between St-joseph and the snow,” you will ask?

RouXy’s Master explains: “Joseph was a carpenter. He would plane boards. Joseph being up there, in Heaven, shaving of wood [copeaux in French] would fall on Earth, the shape of big flakes of snow. Genuine Savoyards say les écappons – dialect for copeaux.”

My Master says that the snow will melt soon. But we can expect other snow showers. “The French word for écappons is giboulées. But if you look up giboulées in a dictionary, or on Wikipedia, you’ll find different descriptions of giboulées, with hail, rain, sleet, thunder… It depends on the regions, “ my master adds.

 

 

 

12 thoughts on ““Écappons”

  1. Mary McNeil

    I did not know the date of St. Joseph’s Day – it was my Mother’s birthday -and the date the Swallows return to the mission of San Juan Capistrano in California ! The kind of big snowflakes you describe are called “sugar snow” around here – because for the best sap run of maple trees it requires sunny days above freezing and nights below freezing and that is when you get this kind of snow here. Though this morning we had thunderstorms and the tornado warning sirens went off. Hugs and purrs !

    Reply
  2. Punapippuri

    We have many words for snow here in Finland(N) but today it was the ‘ugh’ sort. Wet rainy stuff that fell on top of our beautiful white cold stuff. Tomorrow, it freezes over again and will be dry under paw.
    Your are very brave to go out in all those big flakes.

    Reply
  3. Eastside Cats

    My father and brother are named after St. Joseph, Frimousse. Southeast Michigan does not have any snow on the ground, but we had torrential rains and now lots of flooding. One big crack of lightning was so loud and bright, we humans ducked and Angel and Chucky ran for cover! That means they both hid under the dresser.

    Reply
    1. Frimousse Post author

      My Master says that very often the colder on your side of the Atlantic the milder on our side…
      Frosty this morning but with the sunshine it rapidly got quite mild.

      Reply

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