If you knew your way around France and its history, you would have found this FT challenge from Gozo easy. Unfortunately, I didnt. 26ac needs work as well.I needed help to get through the grid.
FF:7 DD:9
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANNECY | Queen goes to outskirts of city – one in France (6) |
| ANNE (queen) CY (outskirts of CitY) | ||
| 4 | A LA CARTE | A trolley porter brought round with various dishes in 11 (1,2,5) |
| [A CART (trolley) ] with ALE (porter) around | ||
| 10 | METROLAND | Urban area with underground lake, as well (9) |
| METRO (underground) L (lake) AND (as well) | ||
| 11 | REIMS | Poor miser in French city (5) |
| MISER* | ||
| 12 | RUES | Regrets ways in 11 (4) |
| double def, french for streets | ||
| 13 | QUAI DORSAY | Queen’s radio broadcast, for example, not far from 2 (4,6) |
| QU (queen) RADIO* followed by SAY (for example) | ||
| 15 | CHAMOIS | Mountain animal taking tea for a month in 11 (7) |
| CHA (tea) MOIS (french for month) | ||
| 16 | SABOTS | Footwear of French peasants, small monks but no bishop (6) |
| S (small) ABbOTS (monks, without ‘B’ – bishop) | ||
| 19 | CELTIC | Like 21 across, Scottish football champions 2016-17 (6) |
| 21 ac refers to natives of brittany; this clue refers to natives of scotland. | ||
| 21 | BRETONS | No. 27 confused 27’s residents (7) |
| NO BREST* (answer to 27ac) | ||
| 23 | DESHABILLE | Drunk beside hall, looking unkempt (10) |
| BESIDE HALL* | ||
| 25 | SALE | Bargain time that’s dirty in 11 (4) |
| cryptic clue; SALE is french for dirty | ||
| 27 | BREST | Leading battleships remain at French port (5) |
| B (leading Battleships) REST (remain) | ||
| 28 | ANGOULEME | Capital of Charente, one right away from minor league revision (9) |
| MiNOr LEAGUE* (without I – one, R- right) | ||
| 29 | ENTREPOT | Warehouse Parisian’s in, little one containing cloth (8) |
| EN (french for in) [ TOT (little one) containing REP (cloth) ] | ||
| 30 | SALONS | Lass troubled working at spa centres or lounges in 11 (6) |
| LASS* around ON (working) – slightly imperfect parsing I think | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARMORICA | Cor! Maria is off to old Brittany (8) |
| COR MARIA* | ||
| 2 | NOTRE DAME | Cathedral’s title includes radical books first (5,4) |
| NAME (title) containing [ OT (books) RED (radical) ] | ||
| 3 | COOT | Waterbird on edge of the Camargue also turned up (4) |
| C (edge of Camargue) OOT (also = TOO, reversed) | ||
| 5 | LADDIES | Badly demoralised – no more little boys (7) |
| DemorALISED* (without letters of ‘MORE’) | ||
| 6 | CORDON BLEU | Chef’s unusual blunder – cook finally ousted (6,4) |
| BLUNDER COOk* | ||
| 7 | RUINS | Bears losing capital? Remains to be seen at Pont du Gard (5) |
| bRUINS (bears, without starting letter) | ||
| 8 | ESSAYS | Tries art in 11 and declares (6) |
| ES (art in france) SAYS (declares) | ||
| 9 | MAQUIS | WW2 resistance forces run away from noble (6) |
| MArQUIS (noble, without R for run) | ||
| 14 | MONTMARTRE | Frenchman not upset about going round market in part of Paris . . . . (10) |
| M ( frenchman, monsieur) [ NOT* RE (about) around MART (market) ] | ||
| 17 | TROCADERO | . . . . decorator working in another part (9) |
| DECORATOR* – another part of paris, france | ||
| 18 | AS LEVELS | Exams even grasped by fool (2- 6) |
| LEVEL (even) in ASS (fool) | ||
| 20 | CHICAGO | US city, fashionable in 11, in the past (7) |
| CHIC (fashionable, french) AGO (in the past) | ||
| 21 | BELUGA | Swimmer turns blue, then turns silver (6) |
| BLUE* with GA (silver = AG, reversed) | ||
| 22 | EDIBLE | Little Edith cut French corn that’s fit to eat (6) |
| EDI (edith, cut) BLE (french for corn) – something is not right as I havent usde ‘little’ in the parsing. Needs to be improved upon. | ||
| 24 | SCENT | Fragrance of early stocks – one hundred in 11 (5) |
| S (early Stocks) CENT ( french for 100) | ||
| 26 | JURA | Island mountain range (4) |
| double def / see comments | ||
*anagram
26d jura fench mountain range, scottish island
The answer to 26d should be JURA- I live on it…
I had the required knowledge and so really enjoyed solving this one. Thank you very much to our birthday setter and to Turbolegs
Someone on Big Dave’s blog was yesterday moaning about setters using foreign words in their crosswords – I’m having to try really hard not to highly recommend he has a go at this one 🙂
Yes, this was a very enjoyable puzzle, especially for those of us who live in France where today is a public holiday, but, more importantly, today is Gozo’s 70th birthday.
Thank you GOZO and Turbolegs.
Definitely easier than his other incarnation as Maskarade, but just as enjoyable.
Thanks to Gozo and Turbolegs
Not sure what you mean by “cryptic clue” for 25a (aren’t they all?) – it’s a double definition.
22d – little Edith is Edie, which is then truncated to EDI.
Thanks Gozo and Turbolegs
In 19, the Bretons are also a Celtic race (I’m not sure whether you were implying this or not).
I’ve just had a quick look at the blog, and would like to share the thought that fish dishes “a l’americaine” (lobster, monkfish etc.) should be “a l’amoricaine” – i.e. from Brittany.
It’s the other way around, the dish originated in a restaurant called l’Américain but someone later changed the name to make it sound more French.
Re 19ac: Celtic are a Glasgow club supported traditionally by Glaswegians of Irish descent.
I preferred to his birthday bash especially as Tour de France is on.Very neat.
Thanks Gozo and Turbolegs
This was quite tough, not only with the plethora of French words (in celebration of Bastille Day), but with some pretty testing word plays to be unravelled as well. Got the parsing of both NOTRE DAME and EDIBLE (not knowing or looking up the French word for corn) wrong.
Am sure that I’ve seen that exact clue for JURA used by either Gozo or his alter ego Maskarade (in the Guardian) once before – and having to swing my thinking from an unparsed CUBA to the correct answer.
Having said all that – the unlikely RUINS was my last clue in.
Je vous remercie pour un mot croisé aussi amusant, Gozo.
Fuck Brexit
Unless they happen to be protestant, in which case they are more likely to support Rangers!