Words and Wonders

I imagine there are countless misspellings and mistranslations of French words all across the English speaking world so it is not really fair to poke fun when I find them here in France. Fairness aside, they are usually too damn funny not to say something about them. Most recently there was a mistake I saw while waiting in line to see St. Chapelle.



As you can hopefully see from the picture above, only one monosyllabic word suffices in description--Wow. It's a two story chapel completely surrounded by the Palais du Justice (formerly a royal residence from the 10th-14th century) on Ile de la Cite. It was built by Louis IX to house the relics of the Passion of Christ like the Crown of Thorns. The purchase of the relics from the Emperor of Constantinople actually cost more than the construction of the church itself. Stained glass windows surrounding the second floor walls of St. Chappelle tell the story of the Bible from Genesis through Christ's resurrection. Also, there is a depiction of the Apocalyptic prophecies of St. John on the western rose window. Lying opposite, the eastern rose window (behind the altar) depicts the Passion.

Being completely enclosed by the Palais, it's somewhat off the beaten path for Parisians and tourists alike. Consequently it, unlike most other church buildings, has an admission price and fairly tight security. It was while waiting in line to go through security that I noticed signs in French, English, and Spanish detailing instructions for passing through the security check. I began reading the sign in English, did a double take and immediately burst out in laughter drawing curious stairs from everyone around me. Someone in the French translation department had created a new English word, "travelator." As in "put your bags and any metal items onto the travelator." Unless "travelator" is the British word for "conveyor belt," some bureaucrat pulled a word out of a hat.