Papouille

Actually dating a French guy has called into question all my preconceived notions of the French being ever so romantic. Sure, sometimes FBF gets up a bit earlier than he’d normally have to in order to drop me off at the tram station, but candlelit dinners? Moonlit strolls? None so far.

Just when I was giving up French romance as a bad joke, this happened.

FBF was touching my feet, tickling me.

“Arrête!!” (Stop!!) I cried.

“Quoi?” (What?) He asked me with faked innocence.

“Ça chatoueiiii” (that tickles!) I exclaimed, a little bit upset.

“Quoi? Je ne voulais que te donner les papouille…” (What? I just wanted to give you ‘papouille’…)

“C’est quoi papouille?” (What does papouille mean?) I asked.

He replied in English. “It’s like sweet nothings, but for touching.”

And just like that, I had found some romance à la française, for clearly the French are romantic if they invented a word specifically to describe sweet nothings touchings.