Kroyer painting (1888, Musée des Beaux Arts de Göteborg) depicts the France that I came to know and love in the 1970s. Trips to the countryside, picnics in the fields, mushroom-picking expeditions. And always, a bottle of wine and a toast.
The French word for “toast” as in “raise a glass to toast your success” is “trinquer,” so I don’t get the headline “Employment: temporary staffing toasts” below from a Southwest French newspaper. The article goes on to describe the despair of the marginally employable young people who have been left in the lurch by the staffing industry crash in France going on now.
The tradition of toasting goes back to the Middle Ages as a way to foil potential attempts to poison a rich person offering a feast. By having everyone participate in a first glass, the toast ensured that the assassin would drink his own poison.
Anyway, I beseech the Francophiles out there to enlighten me with a comment below as to how the headline makes sense, and remember, valid comments get $25 donated by TempWorks to a local food shelter.
So I toast your generosity in advance!
