A super puzzle today. Quite a bit of general knowledge required here, but appropriately so. Thank you Gozo.
I was struggling with this until I realized what day it is: the 14th of July Bastille Day! Once the centime had tombé I was on a roll. I didn’t check to see if all the words in the grid are in UK dictionaries but I didn’t really care as I love France and was having fun.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DECEMBRE |
Last month in 19 drenches McBurney regularly (8)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of DrEnChEs McBuRnEy – December (the last month of the year) in French (as in the Cote d’Or) | ||
| 5 | ABDUCT |
Sailor by channel take away (6)
|
| AB (able seaman, sailor) with DUCT (channel) | ||
| 9 | CAMARGUE |
Dispute by river in Riviera marshland (8)
|
| ARGUE (dispute) following (by) CAM (river in Cambridge) | ||
| 10 | VIELLE |
Hurdy-gurdy from French town out east (6)
|
| VILLE (town, in French) contains (out, outside) E (east) | ||
| 12 | POMME |
French fruit left off gymnastic horse (5)
|
| POMMEL (gymnastic horse) missing (off) L (left) | ||
| 13 | LORGNETTE |
Oddly, no letter “G” in eye-glass (9)
|
| anagram (oddly) of NO LETTER G | ||
| 14 | FEMMES |
Charges admitting two Frenchmen and their spouses (6)
|
| FEES (charges) contains (admitting) M (monsieur, a Frenchman) twice | ||
| 16 | SOUPCON |
First course with a bit of crouton on — just a bit! (7)
|
| SOUP (first course) with Crouton (first letter, a bit of) then ON | ||
| 19 | COTE D’OR |
Dodgy doctor stashing drug for department (4,3)
|
| anagram (dodgy) of DOCTOR contains (stashing) E (ecstasy, a drug) – a department of France | ||
| 21 | PIERRE |
French lad with clothes taken from French revolutionary (6)
|
| robesPIERRE (Maximilien de Robespierre, leading French revolutionary) missing ROBES (clothes) | ||
| 23 | RAMILLIES |
Prince carrying thoroughly modern girl into battle (9)
|
| RAS (prince) contains MILLIE (girl from Thoroughly Modern Millie, film and musical) – 1706 battle fought in Belgium | ||
| 25 | CREPE |
North Americans scoffing soft French pancake (5)
|
| CREE (native North Americans) containing (scoffing, eating) P (piano, soft) | ||
| 26 | HEROIN |
Smack bird embracing French king (6)
|
| HEN (bird) contains (embracing) ROI (French king) | ||
| 27 | DE GAULLE |
Backed old, inwardly sullen President (2,6)
|
| AGED (old) reversed then inside letters of sULLEn – former French president Charles de Gaulle | ||
| 28 | SOIREE |
Nice evening for a party (6)
|
| evening in French (as said in Nice) | ||
| 29 | PREMIERE |
Film maker Otto’s no good having left English first night (8)
|
| premiNGer (Otto Preminger, film maker) missing NG (no good) then E (English) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DA CAPO |
D-Day champion oddly going back to the beginning (2,4)
|
| every other letter (oddly) of D-dAy ChAmPiOn | ||
| 2 | CAMEMBERT |
Produce a representative in court (9)
|
| A MEMBER (representative) inside CT (court) – cheese, some French produce | ||
| 3 | MARIE |
French girl takes the biscuit (5)
|
| double definition – French name and a rich tea biscuit | ||
| 4 | ROUBLES |
Currency of the red or blues distributed (7)
|
| anagram (distributed) of OR BLUES – currency of Russia (the reds) | ||
| 6 | BAIGNEUSE |
Cooked aubergines without recipe for Cézanne’s bather (9)
|
| anagram (cooked) of AUNErGINES missing R (recipe) – one appearing in a series of paintings by Cezanne, Les Grandes Baigneuses perhaps | ||
| 7 | UNLIT |
A bed in Paris isn’t illuminated (5)
|
| UN LIT (a bed) in French (in Paris) | ||
| 8 | THE SEINE |
Seventieth broadcast without TV on river (3,5)
|
| anagram (broadcast) of SEvENtIETH missing TV | ||
| 11 |
See 24
|
|
| 15 | MADELEINE |
Parisian church cake for Proust (9)
|
| double definition – L’eglise de la Madeleine in Paris and the little sponge cakes so evocative for Marcel Proust | ||
| 17 | CORNEILLE |
Classical dramatist smashed lone relic (9)
|
| anagram (smashed) of LONE RELIC – Pierre Corneille, 17c French dramatist | ||
| 18 | SCORCHES |
Burns almost twenty churches’ exteriors (8)
|
| SCORe (twenty, almost) then CHurchES (the outer two letters, exteriors of) – note the plural exteriors here, more than one exterior letter | ||
| 20 | REIN |
French kidney or leather strap in Louvre interior (4)
|
| found inside louvRE INterior | ||
| 21 | PASTEUR |
Famous chemist over half the continent (7)
|
| PAST (over) and EURope (continent, half of) – famous French chemist | ||
| 22 | HELENE |
Greek disheartened beautiful French girl (6)
|
| HELLENE (Greek) missing middle letter (L) – a French girl, |
||
| 24, 11 | MARDI GRAS |
A diagram’s redesigned for festival (5,4)
|
| anagram (redesigned) of A DIAGRAM’S – this looks like an angram but has an extra A and is missing an R. Well spotted @Roodles. | ||
| 25 | CHARM |
Goldfinches in a group delight (5)
|
| double definition – as collective noun then as a verb |
Rapide à faire et très rigolo!
This mots croisés from Gozo was very much à mon goût.
Had a particular penchant for LORGNETTE and HELENE. And learned a very beautiful collective noun into the bargain.
Merci à Gozo et à PeeDee . Bonne fête à tous!
15 is a pretty straight clue (non cryptyic) if you ate familiar with Proust or Paris which is OK by me but I sympathise with solvers not so familiar-no wordplay such as “Created Cleo”
Nice theme but…
I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments, PeeDee. For Helene, I thought of Poire Belle Hélène (dreamed up by Escoffier) which in its turn was inspired by the Opera La Belle Hélène, most definitely named for Helen of Troy.
Not too difficult to spot the theme and its relevance (for once). Managed to get everything except the never heard of ‘Classical dramatist’ for which I put in ‘Cornellie’ – in retrospect, just doesn’t look right. Almost, but not quite, made up for by remembering VIELLE for ‘Hurdy-gurdy’.
I regard PASTEUR as a microbiologist rather than a ‘chemist’, but he’s described as both in Wikipedia, so no quibble. Yes, I think the ‘beautiful French girl’ at 22d is referring to “La Belle Hélène” by (appropriately enough) Offenbach. The charming CHARM was my favourite too.
Thanks to Gozo, PeeDee (and France of course)
Thanks for the blog ( could have been Pierre but not complaining)
My French is awful but the clues were very good and fortunately the MADELEINE from Proust is well known.
I often tell people that cryptic crosswords are easier than quick because you get two chances, certainly true for me here.
Agree with WordPlodder @ 4 for PASTEUR, all his major work was microbiology, so “chemist” is a poor definition.
Completely baffled at first but as soon as the penny dropped solved it before I had finished my first croissant . Loved the puzzle and the blog was “a point” (no idea how to insert accents in this.)
Hi Wordplodder and Roz – I wondered about chemist rather than microbiologist for Pasteur while writing the blog. I expect microbiology as a discipline did not exist during Pasteur’s lifetime, so at the time he was a probably a chemist. I looked him up on Wikipedia and he is described as The Father of Microbiology, so from a cryptic perspective that means he was the last person of his kind not to be a microbiologist.
I take your point yes . I suppose what he was doing originally would have been called chemistry but was used to found a completely new field.
All fell into place nicely except for the two “CAM” words in the NW corner. I had never heard of CAMARGUE and, being now thoroughly American, regard “produce” (food) as being “fruit and veg”! In the blog 6d should read AUBErGINES. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee.
Loved the puzzle, but living in France I guess I had a clear advantage. Over here people wouldn’t be shocked by Pasteur being called a chemist.
I do always get annoyed by answers like Cote d’Or being indicated as (4,3) when they should be (4,1,2)… just as CAT O’NINE TAILS would be indicated as (3,1,4,5).
Thanks Gozo & PeeDee !
ACD
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. VIELLE defeated me (and my spell-checker) but otherwise I did work my way through and, even with my limited French, parsed everything.
Mostly a breeze given that I read Corneille for A level and later lived in France. Had never heard of a VIELLE but obvious from the wordplay, as I think, most of the rest would be. Good fun for Francophiles.
Despite needing outside help for CAMARGUE, VIELLE, and RAMILLIES my high school French carried me the rest of the way. The theme was obvious so that helped. I liked PIERRE, CREPE, HEROIN, and ROUBLES but the entire crossword was “magnifique” — to include so much French into an English cryptic must take some talent. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee for the blog.
I share your admiration, Tony, for this setter’s ingenuity. This crossword also underscores the deep and lasting inroads that French language and culture have made into our own native tongue and lives.
Is my spelling off or is MARDI GRAS not an anagram of A DIAGRAM’S?
Of course , how strange. Three As and only one R. Good spot.
It shows how we see what we want to see.
Roodles @15: Mon Dieu!
Well spotted Roodles! That passed everyone by, including Gozo and the FT editor.
Thanks for the fun Gozo and the explanations Peedee.
Google got a bit of use to check things but the clueing was fine – except for MARDI GRAS. I went off looking for some obscure French countryside festival, eventually realising something was missing.
Merci beaucoup Gozo! Tres bien!!
Magnifique! Merci. Gozo et PeeDee.
Thank you, Gozo and PeeDee. Vive la France aujourd’hui! CAMARGUE and RAMILLIES were the only two unfamiliar ones.
For a mainland European like me (not anymore, though), this wasn’t too difficult.
Never thought of today as Bastille Day, real added value.
[I don’t know whether I may say this but the 14th of July is also the birthday of both our setter and Eileen – and so, happy returns of the day to both!]
I actually noticed the mistake in 24,11 – however in a wrong way.
My first thought was ‘why this A at the start when it is an anagram of DIAGRAM’S’ – it wasn’t!
Apart from one or two things (it’s me, you know) I liked this crossword just as much as others did.
That said, the definition in 7dn is surely not really right.
I think, my CoD was the very neat 13ac (LORGNETTE).
Many thanks to PeeDee and Gozo.
One of the easiest puzzles for me ever. My mother tongue is French 🙂
Brilliant stuff!
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Strange, remembered earlier in the day that it was Bastille Day, promptly forgot and wondered what all of the French words were doing here – 😮
A clever and interesting puzzle that only required post solve lookups to check some of the unknowns such as CORNEILLE, MADELEINE, RAMILLIES, BAIGNEUSE, VIELLE, PREMINGER and DA CAPO. A credit to the setter to make the clues so accessible to still be able to work these out. Lazily passed over the fodder for MARDI GRAS and didn’t see the Offenbach connection to HELENE, going down the same Helen of Troy path.
Finished in the NW corner with that DA CAPO, CAMARGUE and MARIE.