A Hare, a Horse and a Story

Written by eklastic

Ah! Valliant! That is a word that deserves a story.

To understand this little anecdote out of the depth of my youth one has to know that valiant is a word that came into English via the Normans, and the corresponding French word is vaillant. Easily recognisable with the same meaning: brave, courageous, stout-hearted.

I took French in high school. Our teacher was old school, she was strict, demanding, no-nonsense. We didn’t love her but we respected her. One day she called in sick and we learned that she’d had a riding accident. She’d fallen off her horse. We wanted to do something nice for her without spending much money. The idea of an equestrian helmet was bandied about but proofed far too expensive.

Now my brother-in-law was a plumber and a fairly well known German company for heating systems was and is Vaillant. One of their promotional gifts was a helmet with the company name and logo on it, which happened to be a hare. We couldn’t have cared less about the advertisement, we had a free gift for our teacher.

She was over the moon. She didn’t recognise that it was a promotional item, she simply delighted in our inspiring encouragement: we told her that she was valiant – in French moreover! We were urging her to get back on that horse – literally and figuratively.

FOWC with Fandango: Valiant

……………………………………….

10 thoughts on “A Hare, a Horse and a Story”

  4. The first thing I thought of was a comic strip called Prince Valiant or an Australian car, Chrysler Valiant.

    I applaud your classes inventiveness and proved to be a cheap alternative, but given with love

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Prince Valiant had the most atrocious hairstyle (kind of pudding bowl style) and as a child I often ended up looking like that because I was a girl with short hair and the hairdressers doing that to me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment