7 Vivre la vie en slow  Pleasures of

the slow life

7.2 Translation of Conversation 1: Ralentissez, vite !
Slow down, quick!
Laurent, Isabelle and I discussed the Slow Food and Slow Cities movement
which Isabelle is passionate about. The first time you listen to the
conversation, try and work out where and how the ‘slow’ movement
began and the areas where the ‘slow attitude’ has spread to today.
 track 07.02
 

AB Er … I think there’s a phone ringing somewhere …

Laurent Oh yes! Hello! Yes, Gérard, I was going to call you. I’ve
finished writing the proposal; I should be able to mail it to
you in a while! … Sorry? … Oh, yes, I did! I’ve included the
artists’ profiles, and I’ve even explained in more detail the
bit about the originality of this, erm …
Isabelle Yoo hoo! Lau … rent!
Laurent Er, Gérard, could I call you a little later? I’m with a friend
who’s taking the train back …
Isabelle Phew! It’s not so easy, eh? And we’d discussed this again,
this morning, about doing ‘slow’!
AB ‘Slow’? Are you going dancing tonight?
Isabelle Not exactly! With Laurent, you know, a ‘slow’ would
probably turn into a frenzied rock’n’roll! I was talking about
our so-called ‘resolution’ to slow down a bit. ‘Slow’ as in ‘go
slow’, you know?
AB Ah, that rings a bell! ‘Slow food’ … isn’t it a movement that
began in Italy …?
Isabelle That’s it, a revolt against ‘junk food’, triggered by a new
McDonald’s on an old piazza in Rome, in 1986. The
‘brain’ behind it all, if you like, was Carlo Petrini, activist,
sociologist, and ‘enogastronomic’ critic …
AB Eno … that’s wine? And gastronomic! I already love him,
this guy!

42
Laurent Yeah …, while ‘junk food’ is all about profitability,
industrialized agriculture, the uniformization of taste,
destroying the environment and exploiting the worker,
slow food, according to Petrini, is ‘good, clean, and fair’.
Voilà!
Isabelle But the spirit of this movement responded so much to a
need that it spread fast, and they set up a network of ‘slow
cities’, the Cittàslow, with a charter and label! ‘Città’ is Italian,
but we say ‘slow’ in English, it sounds more ‘cool’. But in
France, we hate to say we’re ‘slow’. So the Cittàslow, we had
to give it a new name – the ‘good-life city’ network!
AB And what does it imply today, the ‘slow attitude’, apart
from picnics on the grass?
Isabelle Well, it so happens that ‘slow’ is everywhere: you have
‘slow tourism’ to really get to know people, ‘slow reading’
(as against zapping, impulsive tweeting, best-sellers), and
‘slow TV’ (you watch a fire crackle, or the route taken by an
ocean liner), not forgetting ‘slow sex’, and I won’t mention
again mobile phones interrupting you there …!
Laurent With all this to discover, you’ll have to be quick, eh? Like
the author of the bestseller In Praise of Slow, who’s running
around like a headless chicken, lecturing about slowness.
Never saw a guy as out of breath as him!

Question: Where and how did the ‘slow’ movement begin, and
which are the areas where the ‘slow attitude’ has spread to today?
Answer: It began as a slow food movement first, as a reaction to a new
MacDonald’s on a piazza in Rome. The ‘slow’ movement is everywhere:
‘slow tourism’, to really get to know people, ‘slow reading’ (rather than
zapping, hurried tweets, best-sellers), ‘slow TV’ (you watch a fire burning, or
the route taken by an ocean liner), not to mention ‘slow sex’!
Ça a commencé dans un mouvement né comme une révolte contre
la « malbouffe », déclenchée par un nouveau Mac Do sur une piazza
historique à Rome en ’86. Le « slow » est partout : tu as le « slow tourisme »
pour découvrir vraiment les gens, le « slow reading » (contre le zapping,
le tweet impulsif, le best-seller), et la « slow TV » (tu regardes un feu qui
crépite, ou le trajet d’une croisière), sans oublier le « slow sex ».

Translations and answers 43

7.2.1 Conversation 1: Did that make sense? Check your
understanding!
 track 07.03
1 Quels étaient les métiers de Carlo Petrini, la « tête pensante » du
mouvement « Cittàslow » ?
Carlo Petrini était militant, sociologue et critique « œnogastronomique ».
2 Entre Laurent et Isabelle, qui a l’air d’avoir mieux intégré les
pratiques du « slow » ?
C’est évidemment Isabelle. Elle essaie d’apprendre à Laurent à ne pas
répondre au portable quand il est avec des amis, prend des résolutions
pour ralentir le rythme du couple, et explique les principes du « slow
living ».
3 Qu’est-ce qui semble paradoxal chez l’auteur du livre « Éloge de
la lenteur » ?
Ce qui est paradoxal, c’est qu’il a écrit un livre pour faire l’éloge de
la lenteur mais, après le succès de ce best-seller, il court comme un
malade dans tous les sens pour … parler de la lenteur. On ne peut
guère dire qu’il donne l’exemple !

7.3 Language plus

7.3.3 Exercises
 track 07.06
1 Si Isabelle a l’air assez zen, son mari, Laurent, a l’air plutôt
agité !
While Isabelle seems quite relaxed, her husband Laurent seems quite
jumpy.
2 Hier il a fallu qu’il renonce à son match pour regarder un feu
qui crépite sur la télé.
Yesterday, he had to give up his match to watch a fire crackling on TV.
3 Si ces villes ont rejoint le réseau, elles n’ont pas gardé
l’appellation « lente » !
While these towns have joined the network, they haven’t kept the
‘slow’ label!

44
 4 Et si tu décidais de ne pas répondre au portable au lit ?
How about you not answering the phone in bed?
5 L’auteur du livre sur la lenteur aurait pu, et aurait dû, parler
plus lentement !
The author of the book on slowness could have, and should have,
spoken more slowly.
6 Well, if you like, ‘slow’ in English seems cooler than ‘lent’ in
French.
Eh bien, si tu veux, « slow » en anglais a l’air plus cool que « lent » en
français !
7 Isabelle, you haven’t read ‘In Praise of Slow’? – Oh yes, I have!
Isabelle, tu n’as pas lu « Éloge de la lenteur »? – Mais si (je l’ai lue) !
8 How about us slowing down the pace a bit this year, for a
change?
Et si on ralentissait un peu le rythme cette année, pour changer ?
9 We should be able to get to (‘arrive at’) Orvieto this evening.
On devrait pouvoir arriver à Orvieto ce soir.
10 Now that slow TV is here, we’ll be able to watch people knit
(tricoter).
Maintenant que la slow TV est là, on va pouvoir regarder les gens
tricoter.

7.4 Translation of Conversation 2: Ralentir à Paris ou

à New York Slowing down in Paris or New York
Now you’re going to hear the conversation I had with Marco, a
freelance TV journalist, and his wife Angélique, a producer. Marco’s
just returned to Paris after shooting in New York for a documentary on
taking your own time in a fast and furious big city. The first time you
listen to the conversation try and work out if Marco has come back
more or less convinced that slow, ‘unconnected’, and traditional is the
better choice.

Translations and answers 45

 track 07.08
 

AB So, Marco, where are you at with your documentary on

New York, the city that never sleeps? Ever since you did
that interview with Woody Allen, I’ve been waiting with
bated breath! And there was this other guy, what’s his
name, the one who spent a year experimenting with ‘slow’
in Manhattan?
Marco Yes, William Powers, ‘Bill’ to his friends! Well, it so happens
that I’m taking my time with this one! When you’re doing
a study on slowness, something’s bound to rub off on
you. But then … It did make me think. Things are more
complicated than I’d thought!
AB I see … Earlier, you seemed quite convinced that we had to
rediscover, er … I dunno, traditional rhythms more suited
to humans and all that …? Disconnect from your Facebook
‘friends’ to recover the old-time pleasures, meeting face-to-
face, picnics in the forest …
Angélique I think it was precisely Woody Allen’s example that got him
to think again …
AB I was kind of expecting it! You’ve seen Midnight in Paris …
It’s actually a charge against nostalgia! The ultimate dream
would be to find one’s natural rhythm, without stress or
imposed rules. Woody Allen’s a dreamer, he doesn’t even have
a computer, and he was telling me he’d run out of ideas for
his TV series for Amazon Studios … But have you seen how
productive he is! He must surely work fast when he wants to!
Angélique And … same story with the other guy, Bill Powers?
Marco Yes, he seems to have mastered these tools that reduce us
to slavery, without rejecting them altogether. The micro-
apartment he moved into after getting rid of most of his
stuff was well equipped. But he knew how to set his e-mail
to auto-reply, like ‘I’m out of reach for five days’ when he
wanted some peace. You can well imagine that he didn’t
hand wash his clothes, but the washing machines were in
the communal areas accessible to all, like the roof garden.
In the basement you had bicycles, tools, umbrellas …

46
Angélique In fact, what he managed to prove was that in Manhattan
just as in Paris, you don’t need to make money like crazy,
buy tons of stuff and pile it up at home! It’s all in the mind!
What prevents you from thinking of public property – say,
this beautiful tram that’s going by, or a big park – as your
personal property? We can share so many things without
buying anything.
Marco Yes, just the other day we were taking a walk with the kids
at the Buttes Chaumont Park, and we told them it was
our own park, but since we were nice, we shared it with
everyone. They believed us, and tell me, were we lying?
AB Wait a minute … that’s brilliant! It’s worth a Buddha’s
illumination, that! Oh yes, so the sun is my radiator, the
moon and the stars are the décor on my ceiling, but since
I’m a nice guy, I want everyone to be able to enjoy it!

Question: Has Marco come back more or less convinced that slow,
‘unconnected’, and traditional is the better choice?
Answer: He says things are more complicated than that. The ideal thing
would be to live at your own pace, without the stress, the deadlines
imposed from above. Woody Allen is a lazy dreamer, but he works very fast
when he wants to. Bill Powers seems to have mastered the tools that tend
to enslave us, without rejecting them altogether.
Les choses sont plus compliquées que je ne pensais ! Le rêve, c’est de
pouvoir trouver son propre rythme, sans le stress, sans règles imposées !
Woody Allen, c’est un rêveur, mais il doit bien bosser vite quand il veut !
Bill Powers a l’air d’avoir maîtrisé ces outils qui nous réduisent à l’esclavage,
sans les rejeter en bloc.
7.4.1 Conversation 2: Did that make sense? Check your
understanding!
 track 07.09
1 Les personnages que Marco a interviewés à Manhattan vivaient-
ils une vie de 19e siècle ?
Non, Woody Allen, même s’il n’a pas d’ordi, n’arrête pas de produire des
films et William Powers ne rejette pas les nouvelles technologies en
bloc non plus.

Translations and answers 47

2 Que savez-vous de l’expérience de William Powers pendant son
année « slow » à New York ?
Il a emménagé dans un micro appart où une grande partie de
l’équipement était dans les parties communes. Il a réussi à vivre une vie
simplifiée et sans stress dans une grande ville frénétique. Il a pu réduire
sa charge de travail et ses revenus en supprimant l’inutile !
3 Que peut-on gagner en changeant son attitude envers la
propriété privée ?
Si on considère que l’équipement publique nous appartient, on n’a plus
besoin d’amasser tant de choses chez soi, ni de gagner tant d’argent
en travaillant comme un malade, pour les acheter ! En réduisant
la production et la consommation frénétique, on peut gagner un
environnement moins pollué et conserver les ressources limitées de la
planète.

7.5 What do you think? Time for you to take part in a

conversation!

 track 07.10
1 Pourquoi le mouvement « slow food » s’est-il propagé à d’autres
domaines de la vie ?
Beaucoup de gens ont répondu avec enthousiasme aux principes
du mouvement « slow food », parce qu’ils vivaient le stress dans tous
les domaines de la vie. Ils sentaient le besoin d’arrêter de courir et de
commencer à vivre.
2 Les gens achètent-ils trop par rapport à leurs besoins ? Peut-on
faire autrement ?
Acheter et posséder des gadgets inutiles est devenu une obsession
absurde, et beaucoup de besoins pourraient bien être satisfaits par les
équipements groupés et partagés parmi les voisins de micro-apparts –
par exemple les lave-linge, les outils de jardin, etc.
3 Une grande ville tumultueuse est-elle adaptée pour vivre
tranquille à son rythme ?
Pourquoi pas ? Bien qu’une ville comme New York ne peut guère être
décrite comme ville lente, les possibilités de vivre une vie lente et
gratifiante dans une grande ville pourraient être, paradoxalement, plus
riches ! Woody Allen reste bien dans son petit quartier, et ça n’a pas l’air
d’appauvrir beaucoup sa vie !

48