BeakSpeak 5: Cajun French & Paris Connection

By Peggy Marceaux

Peggy presents the best of both ‘French’ worlds in this fifth BeakSpeak book of adventures.
A Crawfish Boil leads to a lesson on the French War and the migration of the Acadian people who settled in south Louisiana and became known as the Cajuns. This led the chickens on a field trip to New Orleans, to partake in some famous Cajun cuisine, enjoy a bayou festival and practice their newly learned French vocabulary.
Later, with a formal invitation to Paris for a very special family event, Peggy decides to bring the BeakSpeak group with her. They explore the grand city, the famous food and the historical sites with some chicken hi-jinks of course.
This action-packed story is full of history, dissension, celebration and of course, the French Connection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erin Go Bragh Publishing
• Release date: Feb 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005024994

Book preview

BeakSpeak 5

Cajun French & Paris Connection

By: Peggy Marceaux

© Copyright © 2022 BeakSpeak by Peggy Marceaux

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-941345-85-6 PB

ISBN: 978 1 005024 99 4 SW

ASIN: B09RYN5NGY

Erin Go Bragh Publishing

Canyon Lake, TX

Manufactured in the United States of America

Book Design by Kathleen’s Graphics

The text of the book is Amarante & Calibri

Illustrations by Mike Forshay

Original Character Designs by Debbie Marceaux in 2009

Byron’s Canto III from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: and the 1917 edition of Henry Wadworth Longfellow’s Evangeline are from public domain

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 W.T. Oliver

Chapter 2 Peggy

Chapter 3 Grand Pré, Nova Scotia & National Blends

Chapter 4 Cajun Attitudes and Lore & Evangeline Part 1

Chapter 5 Gabby Pushes His Luck & Evangeline Part 2

Chapter 6 Evangeline Part 3

Chapter 7 Gabby

Chapter 8 New Orleans

Chapter 9 New Orleans Bayou Fest

Chapter 10 Petitioning W. T. Oliver

Chapter 11 Smitten Sible & Letter Number 2

Chapter 12 Fais Do-Do

Chapter 13 Buckeye

Chapter 14 Walt’s Confusion & Jambalaya

Chapter 15 Paris (Cajun French pronounce it Parrr-ee)

Chapter 16 Coming Home to Dissention (conflict & battle)

Chapter 17 Gabby Returns

About the Author Peggy Marceaux

Dedicated to W.T. Boss Cajun Oliver.

Gail, W.T. and Sue

W.T. Boss Cajun Oliver launched the first area Cajun music show on KPNG radio. He introduced gumbo and Cajun music to the capital city and pronounced the word children as chillum.

Crawfish Boil at Peggy’s

General François Séverin Marceau

François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars.

Arch de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank André-Pierre Earthrise, a member of my Louisiana Cajun Club, for helping me with the Creole side of Cajun French. André-Pierre lives in New Orleans and hails from Creoles. I like the fact that this book uses a cross section of the Cajun language, which changes, even today, from Parish to Parish. They all have their own special words and phrases to say the same thing. So, if you don’t recognize the exact Cajun language in here, you will still know what it says, because it is close enough to your language to be understood. Thank you, André-Pierre. I also want to reference Randall P. Whatley’s and Harry Jannise’s book, Conversational Cajun French I, for giving me other speech options. I used the ones with which I was most familiar aside from the Creole.

I’d also like to thank my editors Jo Beth McElrath and Kathleen Shields, who does quite a bit of editing before concerning herself with the publishing of my books. I count on her immensely, and she never lets me down. Kathleen, you are a friend, a hard worker, a great promoter and a wonderful human being. Thank you for being you.

Chapter 1

W.T. Oliver

I’ve got beautiful feathers now! Sweetie Pie bragged.

Yeah, but you don’t have a comb on your head, so I wouldn’t do any bragging if I were you, snapped Gabby.

Gabby, don’t be so cruel! Sue corrected him.

It’s been seven weeks since Jayne’s, Renée’s, Sue’s and Matilda’s eight new chicks were hatched. They were just ending their first molt, exchanging their fuzziness for their first feathers, just in time for the winter months. By now, Sue was worried about Sweetie Pie; she was the runt of the clutch, and that groove at the top of her head seemed to suggest that it was not going to grow a comb. Sean had become Sweetie Pie’s best friend, since her deformity seemed to make him feel more comfortable with his bent beak. He hovered over her like a big brother. On the other hand, Sue’s little male, Gabby, was developing ahead of schedule, growing taller and stronger than even Walt grew at his age.

Jayne’s Dillon and Claire, Renée’s Reggie and Sara, and Matilda’s Aubrie and Tess were growing at the normal pace of five-week old pullets and cockerels. They’d been regularly attending Ms. Goldspeak’s lower-level, half–day classes since August, and full-day classes since the first of December. Getting to know her new students had been both enjoyable and refreshing for Ms. Goldspeak. The chicks were precious, of course, but their little personalities hinted at what they would become. Some were shy; others were bold. Some were thinkers; others were more emotional.

She celebrated their differences and took a great deal of pleasure in defining what made each of them tick. Probably the most aggressive of the clutch was Sue’s little rooster, Gabby, which wasn’t surprising, given how aggressive Sue was. Ms. Goldspeak could easily see him challenging Walt when he’d get older. Renée’s Reggie and Jayne’s Dillon were more mild-mannered cockerels. They seemed to inherit their mothers’ attitudes.

Ms. Goldspeak is a white Brahma with black trimming her wing and tail feathers, as well as the cape of her neck. She is an easy-going, large hen who was the teacher of the seven older students. Since Jayne hatched eight new chicks, Ms. Goldspeak had opted to teach them once they reached five weeks old. She is an older hen and no longer lays eggs.

Walt is a Production Red rooster who is the head rooster of the flock. He has an all-red body with teal, tail feathers. He is bold and confident, and always leads the group of chickens in whatever adventure they choose or don’t choose to have He can have a negative attitude at times and likes to challenge the rules.

Sean is a Rhode Island Red rooster who has a crooked beak. He is unable to speak because of it, but can communicate with his classmates now that Peggy has given each of them a cell phone. He has a beautiful red color with a teal saddle of feathers adorning (covering) his back and teal tail. Sean is easy-going, loves astronomy and invites his classmates up to the roof of the henhouse to look into the telescope that his owner bought for him. He checks his astronomy book often to learn when something will be happening in the sky.

Chase is a small, bantam rooster who has multi-colored feathers everywhere on his body, even on his feet. His smallness used to make him shy and withdrawn, but he now feels accepted by all the large chickens in his class. He overcame his fears of his classmates not liking him at the Day of the Dead Ceremony in BeakSpeak, Book 3.

Jayne is a large, Barred Rock hen. She is flecked black and white and has been given the good fortune, in Book 4, to set a nest for two each of all the student hens’ eggs. She used to be bold and even aggressive when she was young, but all of that has changed since Ms. Goldspeak worked with her as a pen pal. Now she is kind and giving and a brand new mother to eight tiny chicks.

Renée is a medium-size, Australorp hen. She is jet black – so black her feather shine green in the sun. She is a very kind hen who works to please everyone.

Sue is a medium-size, Aracauna hen. She lays greenish blue eggs, while Jayne and Renée lay brown ones. She is a very forward hen, which means she doesn’t mind being bold to get what she wants. She isn’t rude, but she doesn’t mind being blunt or bossy. She is the color of the earth, brownish with a bit of green in her feathers. She always believes in doing the right thing – that is, what is right according to Sue.

Matilda is a white Lakenvelder hen who came from George and Mary Ann’s farm next door. She is very intelligent and articulate (can speak very well). She can be a student, or a teacher because she has a wealth of knowledge. A Lakenvelder hails (comes) from Germany, is slim, all white and has a very black tail. Matilda lays white eggs, can speak Spanish fluently and can dance all the ball-room and Spanish dances.

Sible is Matilda’s mother. She, too, is a Lakenvelder hen, and, aside from being a bit older, looks identical to Matilda. She can speak many languages and is intelligent, articulate and owns a wealth of knowledge. She is a fantastic dancer and lays white eggs, as well. Sible has become the older students’ new teacher now that the chicks have arrived and Ms. Goldspeak has taken over teaching them.

Sible had given the older students a break from studying for a few months after Fiesta San Antonio. They needed it. They had a very difficult time with Sue catching fire at the Fambeau Parade, with Matilda’s wolf attack, and with Walt’s shock about the molt, as well as his losing the ability to crow; that’s not even counting their having to build another classroom. There was no rush in getting back to class anyway since getting to know the new chicks was first in their minds. After Matilda made her way back home with the help of the chicken whisperer, and worked to help Walt out of his depression with the plant, St. John’s Wort, he finally found himself and his crow again. Once their feathers had all grown back bright and beautiful as new, the older hens and roosters relaxed about the molt and accepted it as something they’d just have to go through twice a year. In fact, they’d just gone through it again, and no one took it nearly as hard.

They spent their time in their new classroom now, talking among themselves and with Matilda’s mother, their new teacher. Sible would be the first teacher they had who would be laying eggs right along with her student hens. They were trying to figure out how a class would go on without her for however long it took her to lay her eggs. She decided that, as long as they handed in the notes of the lesson they taught, that would work. That and, of course, their promise that they would behave themselves in class. Since they were older, that shouldn’t be a problem, anymore.

Getting to know what they’d like to research for their new project, Mardi Gras, would make up the lessons they would teach. Chase was dead set on doing a Cajun project. He was really taken with the flavors the French food offered at Fiesta San Antonio and with Peggy’s Cajun crawfish boils. The others resisted at first, having experienced what oysters and other seafood, looked like and smelled like at Fiesta San Antonio. They couldn’t imagine having to eat seafood.

Late one gorgeous afternoon in May, when the students were talking about how relieved they were that Matilda was okay and Walt was now home and crowing again, Chase happened to notice some goings on in Peggy’s backyard. He walked over to the wooden fence where he could see her filling a large pot with water that was sitting atop a lit burner

He jumped up on the top of her fence. Hey, Ms. Peggy, what are you doing?

Oh, hi, Chase. I’m preparing to boil some crawfish, she said smiling, looking over at him atop the fence.

"Oh, I know what those are. I learned at The Taste of New Orleans during Fiesta San Antonio."

You guys ate crawfish? Peggy asked, stunned.

Oh, no, nothing like that. But the man told me they were like shrimp, so I had him show me what a shrimp was, Chase answered.

Yes, they are kind of like shrimp, but a bit of a marshy-water-type of shrimp.

What’s marshy water? Chase further asked.

Well, it’s water that is very shallow, and a little dirty. I have some crawfish coming in about fifteen minutes, and I can show you one then.

Cool, replied Chase. Well, I’ll go peck around for insects ‘til then.

Okay. I’ll be out here; see you soon. Peggy then turned her hose off, put the lid on the pot, checked her fire and then the red tubs to make sure they were ready for the sacks of crawfish coming in from Kemah anytime now.

Before long, a mish-mash of people began turning up for the boil. They all grabbed cold drinks out of a cooler and cardboard trays made out of soda boxes for their plates. Someone brought out a gallon of cocktail sauce and put it on the picnic table. Peggy called Chase over. She was holding a crawfish in the back of its head so it couldn’t get her with its pinchers.

Here’s what a crawfish looks like, Chase, and she knelt down on her side of the wooden fence so he could get a closer look.

It has claws. That’s not at all how a shrimp looks, Chase said, trying to step sideways on the fence away from it.

It won’t hurt you, Chase. Oh, sure, if you get close enough, it could pinch you, but it can’t with the way I’m holding it, she assured him.

And you boil those things? Chase’s eyes grew wide.

Yep. We do, she said. They are very tasty. We try to boil them every spring.

I don’t remember you doing that last year, Chase replied.

You were pretty young. I doubt you remember much about what I did last year. Besides, I didn’t have as big of a gathering as I’m having this year. Well, anyway, got to get back to my party and finish boiling the crawfish so we can get to eating, Peggy said.

Okay. Thanks for showing me what a crawfish is.

"De rein, which means you are welcome in Cajun French, Chase. See you later." Then, Peggy turned to open the other sack of crawfish, dump it in a red tub and then rejoin her guests.

I hope you have a good day with the crawfish, Chase shouted to her.

"It’ll last through the night, too. Kind of like a fais do-do, she said. A Cajun band will be here this evening."

Chase wondered what a fay dodo was, but he decided it would be better to ask her tomorrow when she wasn’t so busy. He watched her take the lid off of the pot and pull out a large metal colander by its handle with a pot holder. She then dumped the steaming, boiled crawfish, potatoes and corn cobs into a Styrofoam ice chest and sprinkled something red on all of it, and then sealed the chest tightly. Before long, a Cajun band, The Bayou Gents, was setting up near the garage. The garage had been cleared out so people could dance on its cement floor. The band started to tune-up and practice a few riffs (repeated sequence of chords). Matilda dropped what she was saying mid-sentence. All of the students except Jayne,