accroupir

These old French buildings don't discriminate and the so-called chic share ancient walls with the struggling (or slack) squatters.

accroupir (a kroo peer) verb
  to squat, to crouch (down)

s'accroupir = to sit on one's heels, to squat or crouch down

Proverb:
Un chien qui se remue vaut mieux qu'un lion accroupi.
A dog which stirs is better than a crouched lion.

A Day in a French Life...
When I asked Jean-Marc to walk the dog early Sunday morning I was betting on his getting the job done, not so much the walking, but le pipi.* Looking out my Aunt's guestroom window, I watched dark cordes* of rain soak the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Away from home, and a grassy yard, Braise would have to "faire ses besoins" or "do her thing" down the street, preferably at the empty
lot where our car was parked. Getting our puppy to that terrain* was the challenge as we had never before factored pluie* into the dog walking equation.

Jean-Marc's swift return from the dog walk was met with folded arms and thinly veiled disappointment.
"Did she do it?"
"I think so," my husband replied, taking off his soaked raincoat.
"You think so?" I studied Braise who did seem less bloated, but this was probably due to her own soggy coat which shrunk her body mass to wet rat proportions.
"Well, did you SEE her do it?"
"It was hard to tell," Jean-Marc explained, evasively. "She seemed to."
"But did she squat?"

Not two minutes into the interrogation, with Jean-Marc still hemming and hawing, and I but-butting, Braise brought our wagging tongues to a standstill. Two sets of eyes now traveled across the room to our dog which stood accroupi* over Aunt Marie-Françoise's throw rug. I looked over to my husband whose tongue, like mine, now hung from his mouth. Like Braise, out there in the pouring rain, I held it, my fiery response, that is. After all, it wasn't fair to criticize when I myself knew diddly about how to get a dog to squat sous la pluie.*

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References: le pipi (m) = wee-wee; la corde (f) (from the French expression "tomber des cordes" to rain cats and dogs) = rope; le terrain (m) = (piece of) land; la pluie (f) = rain, rainfall; accroupir = to squat; sous la pluie = under the rain

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French Pronunciation:
Listen to Jean-Marc recite today's French proverb:
  Un chien qui se remue vaut mieux qu'un lion accroupi.
  A dog which stirs is better than a crouched lion. Download accroupi.wav

French verb conjugation:
j'accroupis, tu accroupis, il/elle accroupit, nous accroupissons, vous accroupissez, ils/elles accroupissent  => past participle = accroupi