Mais Ou Est Donc Passé La 7eme Compagnie

[Cary Polachek]

NowWhere Did the 7th Company Get To? (French: Mais o est donc passe la septime compagnie?) is a 1973 French-Italian comedy war film directed by Robert Lamoureux. The film portrays the adventures of a French Army squad lost somewhere on the front in May 1940 during the Battle of France.

During the Battle of France, while German forces are spreading across the country, the 7th Transmission Company suffers an air raid near the Machecoul woods, but survive and hide in the woods. Captain Dumont, the company commander, sends Louis Chaudard, Pithiviers and Tassin to scout the area. After burying the radio cable beneath a sandy road, the squad crosses the field, climbs a nearby hill, and takes position within a cemetery. One man cut down the wrong tree for camouflage, pulling up the radio cable and revealing it to the passing German infantry. The Germans cut the cable, surround the woods, and order a puzzled 7th Company to surrender. The squad tries to contact the company, but then witness their capture and run away.

Commanded by Staff Sergeant Chaudard, the unit stops in a wood for the night. Pithiviers is content to slow down and wait for the end of the campaign. The next day, he goes for a swim in the lake, in sight of possible German fighters. When Chaudard and Tassin wake up, they leave the camp without their weapons to look for Pithiviers. Tassin finds him and gives an angry warning, but Pithiviers convinces Tassin to join him in the lake. Chaudard orders them to get out, but distracted by a rabbit, falls into the lake. While Chaudard teaches his men how to swim, two German fighter planes appear, forcing them out of the water. After shooting down one of the German planes, a French pilot, Lieutenant Duvauchel, makes an emergency landing and escapes before his plane explodes. PFC Pithiviers, seeing the bad shape of one of his shoes, destroys what is left of his shoe sole. Tassin is sent on patrol to get food and a new pair of shoes for Pithiviers. Tassin arrives in a farm, but only finds a dog, so he returns and Chaudard goes to the farm after nightfall. The farmer returns with her daughter-in-law and Lt Duvauchel, and she welcomes Chaudard. Duvauchel, who is hiding behind the door, comes out upon hearing the news and decides to meet Chaudard's men.

The following day, the men leave the wood in early morning and capture a German armored tow truck after killing its two drivers. They originally planned to abandon the truck and the two dead Germans in the woods, but instead realized that the truck is the best way to disguise themselves and free the 7th Company. They put on the Germans' uniforms, recover another soldier of the 7th Company, who succeeded in escaping, and obtain resources from a collaborator who mistook them for Germans.

On their way, they encounter a National Gendarmerie patrol, who appear to be a 5th column. The patrol injures the newest member of their group, a young soldier, and then are killed by Tassin. In revenge, they destroy a German tank using the tow truck's cannon gun.

They planned to go to Paris but are misguided by their own colonel, but find the 7th Company with guards who are bringing them to Germany. Using their cover, they make the guards run in front of the truck, allowing the company to get away. When Captain Dumont joins his Chaudard, Tassin, and Pithiviers in the truck, who salute the German commander with a great smile.

A number of resources exist for those looking for Cajun French vocabulary, but all of them pose problems for LSU students in Cajun French because they are either too regional in scope, too inconsistent in spelling, or too theoretical in approach for beginning students. Therefore, in response to our students' expressed need for a basic vocabulary resource, we are in the process of building a glossary based upon the units covered in Cajun French 1201, 1202, 2201, 2202, 2254 and 3280 at LSU. We have tried to make the entries and explanations as clear and straightforward as possible.

We'll be adding entries on a regular basis as we need them for courses, so please check with us again. Also, if you are a native speaker of Cajun French and have entries to suggest or comments about the entries already here, feel free to contact us at ala...@lsu.edu. It is especially useful to us to hear about regional differences, which abound in Louisiana French.

Quelque chose de neuf!!!!! We are adding links to entries which will allow you to hear how words are pronounced by a Louisiana French speaker. When you see a term, you may be able to click on it to hear the word. Pronunciation in Louisiana French is highly variable by region, but the pronunciation you hear is nonetheless representative of a "typical speaker."

Voice talent provided by: Earlene Broussard, Mick Abed, Ariana Giambrone & Amanda LaFleur.

Technical assistance provided by: Claire Dawkins, Benjamin Forkner and the staff of the LSU Foreign Language Lab.

A note about pronunciation:The upper-case letters in brackets at the beginning of some entries are meant to serve as a rough guide to the pronunciation of words using an English-based spelling system. We are using an English-based system since most of our students are native English speakers, but you should keep in mind that French pronunciation has traits that make such a comparison only approximative. Also, keep in mind that regional variants in pronunciation abound in CF (Cajun French). The pronunciation given here will be typical but not necessarily the "only way" the term is pronounced in Louisiana.

alle (subj. pron.) she (when used as a subject pronoun in front of a word beginning with a vowel sound. Writers who use alle typically write a or a' in front of consonant-initiated words. These two forms more accurately represent the pronunciation of the pronoun in context, but many Louisiana French writers prefer to use the SF elle in general to represent the subject pronoun.) A voulait pas te parler parce qu'alle tait bien fche. (She didn't want to talk to you because she was really angry.)(SF elle)

amarrer (v.t.) [AH MAH REH, An MAH REH] 1. to tie up. 2. to attach. 3. to settle the terms (of a race or game, usually in a race between two horses, but it may also be between people) amarrer ses souliers to tie one's shoelaces. (SF attacher)

amoureux (adj.) 1. in love. Il coute pas personne parce qu'il est amoureux. (He doesn't listen to anyone because he's in love.) 2. womanizing. Cet homme est beaucoup amoureux. (That man is a womanizer.)

aprs (prep.) [AHPREH] 1. after. Aprs le bal, on a t manger chez Ccile. (After the dance, we went to eat at Cecile's house.)2. tre aprs+ infinitive to be in the process or act of. On tait aprs dormir quand il a appel. (We were sleeping when he called.)

attraper (v.t.) [AH TRAH PEH] 1. to catch. J'ai t la pche hier matin, mais j'ai pas attrap rien d'autre qu'un rhume. (I went fishing yesterday morning, but I didn't catch anything but a cold.)2. to fetch; to get. Attrape la gazette sus le comptoir. Je veux voir qui c'est qu'a gagn la course. (Grab the newspaper on the counter. I want to see who won the race.)

au ras au ras (adv.) [ORAH ORAH] 1. at the same level. 2. neck and neck. Les deux bougres tiont aprs courir au ras au ras jusqu' la fin de la course. (The two guys were running neck and neck up until the end of the race.)

au ras de 1. next to; on the side of. On va dmnager au ras de chez mon beau-pre. (We're going to move next to my father-in-law's place.)2. approximately; about. On va se revoir au ras de cinq heures. (We'll see each other again around 5 o'clock.)

avoir (v.t.) [AH WAHR] to have. avoir pour + infinitive to have to; to be obliged to. avoir faim to be hungry. avoir soif to be thirsty. avoir....ans to be....years old. avoir honte to be ashamed. avoir de misre to have trouble [doing something]. avoir peur de to be afraid of.

bougre (n.m.) [rhymes with first syllable of "sugar" or in some areas is pronounced BOH-G] 1. man; guy. 2. [in direct address] buddy; pal. Quoi a dit, bougre? (What's happening, buddy?; What do you say, man?)

bourgeon (n.m.) bud of a plant. Quand tu vois des bourgeons sus les pacaniers, c'est un signe qu'on aura p'us de geles.(When you see buds on the pecan trees, it's a sign that there will be no more freezes.)

a (pro.) 1. that. a c'est that is. a c'est la maison de cour. (That's the courthouse.) 2. they [when previously referred to or impersonal form] a boit et a fume et a couche au serein. (They drink and they smoke and they stay out all night.) (adj.) 3.that [for emphasis] Cet homme-a a jamais travaill un jour de sa vie. (That man (there) never worked a day in his life!)

cacher-faite (n.m.) [KAH SHEH FET] hide and go seek game. [A preferred spelling has not been established. Variant spellings include: cachez-fte, cach -faite, cache-et-fte, etc.] Variant form: fte cacher (LaFourche/Terrebonne).

chaboulure (n.f.) prickly heat. Variant: chouboulure. [Often used in the plural.] Proverb: Si c'est pas les maringouins, c'est les chaboulures. (There'salways something wrong. If it's not one thing, it's another.)

chassis (n.m.) window. [Originally, the chassis referred to glass-paned windows with a sash (SF chassis) which lifted and lowered, while a fentre was a rectangular opening in a wall , usually with a shutter hinged at the top, which was propped open by a stick. In plantation-style homes, the shutters opened sideways.]

cigale (n.m.) 1. cicada. 2. mosquito hawk; dragonfly. [In areas where cigale is used to mean "mosquito hawk," the term for cicada is cigale de bois. In Lafourche Parish, the term for "cicada" is cigale de nuit.] 3. ultralight airplane (Lafourche).

clos (n.m.) field [agricultural]. clos d'huile oil patch, oil field. Mon frre a travaill douze ans dans lesclos d'huile. (My brother worked for twelve years in the oil fields.) See also the Lafourche Parish variant: champ.

dfunt (adj.) deceased. [Used in front of names of deceased to indicated respect, much as Cajuns use "poor old" or "poor little" in front of names of deceased when referring to them. Somewhat similar to the English term of respect for the dead "the late....."] C'est l -odfunt Nonc Pierre travaillait avant la guerre.(That's where poor old Uncle Pierre worked before the war.)

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