à fond
à fond (ah fohn) prepositional phrase
deeply, thoroughly
A mon avis, vous ne pouvez pas dire que vous avez vu quelque chose à fond si vous n'en avez pas pris une photographie. In my opinion, you cannot say you have thoroughly seen something if you haven't taken a photograph of it. --Emile Zola
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Not far from some lazy lavender fields, gray now with the grogginess of winter, there is a picture perfect Provencal town. There, above a valley of grapevines, geraniums grow in wintertime and French cats pose prettily beside them (they'll even say cheese* if you ask them to, unlike the purry Parisians).
I reach up to snap a photo of a flower flanked fenêtre.* Beyond the windowsill, I can just see into the private residence... where a porcelain lamp glows above a well-polished table. My eyes zoom out and focus on the painted shutters... I take up my camera again.
"The pictures frame themselves," the woman walking beside me enthuses. True. Also true is what my friendly guide says about Villedieu: "The name of the town says it all."
Susan*--my friendly guide--and I are walking through Villedieu, the "Town of God," photographing already "framed" images. Like a blessed writer--through whom words flow as if channeled--we point our cameras, letting the village compose itself. I remember to compose *myself* when a villager comes into view...
My roving eyes catch on The Sweeping Woman. Every town has one. She is the picture of domestic sagesse*: broom in hand... and wearing a dress! In an ethical instant I decide not to snap a picture of Madame and her balai.* Madame is not behind bars in a zoo, after all. She is not swallowing a blazing torch in one of three circus rings. She is not lounging in a window display, swathed in a beaded gown and feather boa--bringing fashion barracudas to halt along 5th Avenue, at Bergdorf Goodman's. She is, simply, being she.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watches us tourists pass by, digital cameras en main.*
I wonder about photo etiquette. Might one say: "Bonjour, Madame, may I take your picture?" (and watch as the would-be "captured moment" is killed?). I imagine her response. "What is it about me that you find so amusing? It is my white hair? my worn robe?* Or is it my Frenchness which is on show?"
I want Madame's photo because she reminds me of warmth and not steel, being and not doing, prayer and not pricing. She represents humility (and not integrity). It is in what is missing--hairs in place, make-up on her face, a knotted shoe lace--that makes her mystical to me.
Not all pictures frame themselves. Some must remain behind the lens of the mind's eye. I slip the camera into my coat pocket and take one last admirative glance at Madame. Vision, uninterrupted, goes to work, making a freeze-frame for the private gallery in my brain. Satisfied, I walk on, a skip in my step.
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References: cheese = (the French don't say "fromage"--they say "ouistiti". Try it: WE STEE TEE--and see how it makes your teeth pop out for a picture perfect smile); la fenêtre (f) = window; Susan = Susan Sparkman; la sagesse (f) = wisdom; le balai (m) = broom; en main = in hand; la robe (f) = dress
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:: Audio File ::
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce the French phrase "à fond" and read the quote:
A fond. A mon avis, vous ne pouvez pas dire que vous avez vu quelque chose à fond si vous n'en avez pas pris une photographie.
Download a_fond.mp3
Download a_fond.wav
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