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Coincidence and Asterix in Lusitanie

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 Every few days I download the podcast from Radio France International, their daily news in Français facile...easier in that they speak more slowly and clearly.  It's my way of keeping some ability in the language, and keeping in touch with that world.  Indeed.  Today as I walked home from the nearby Reservatório Museum (closed--they're on strike!), I heard the RFI report about the newly-released book of Astérix & Obélix, the famous comic-book characters of ancient Gaul.  The new book is titled Astérix en Lusitanie -- the Roman name for Portugal!  

And, my walk home would pass by our neighborhood French bookstore, Ma Petite Librairie (really geared to children's books).  And indeed they had the new book prominently displayed, so I had to go in and purchase it, and then read it, cover-to-cover.  Great practice, and great fun as it plays with the language and the stereotypical Portuguese -- and French, and Roman -- characteristics, using the old Roman names for Porto (Portus Cale) and Lisbon (Olisipo), and Obélix complaining about bacalhau.  They sing fado to prove their Portuguese disguise as well as to sadden their Roman pursuers.  They play with the cognate words, like tradição and discusão.  Great fun. 

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