Pike

I read today in reference 1 of the way that the French used to fish for pike, in the Seine, in the Morsang area.

You go out in a boat and drag for your pike with a net (à la traîne). If that doesn't work you switch to line fishing with live bait (à vif). At least, this was the not very sporting story according to Collins-Robert, the dictionary to hand. So I check in Larousse, where it allows the drag net, but fishing à la traîne is also said to be towing a line behind one's boat, a line furnished either with a lure or hooks baited with bits of fish. From whence traîneau, a sledge.

The net in question is also called a senne or a seine, said to be used both at sea and in fresh water - except that the seine nets in Wikipedia don't look terribly suitable for towing behind a small boat on a river. So I shall settle for the towed line.

Which all goes to show that one needs to be careful when translating words and phrases special to some sport or occupation, particularly if one knows next to nothing about the sport or occupation in question. From where I associate to once being told about getting tangled up in agricultural words by someone taking his War & Peace in the original Russian.

PS 1: the pike in question appeared to be being caught for the pot. With our very limited experience being that pike are very slimy on the outside, very bony on the inside and not very tasty, at least not the way that we cooked it. But I believe that they are, nevertheless, widely eaten in mainland Europe. Don't know about Ireland.

PS 2: at first confused by talk of the nearest railway station being at Corbeil, with Gmaps is not admitting to any such. However, Simenon is usually fairly careful with his place names - at least I can't remember when I last caught him in error, if ever. So I persist, and eventually get to the Gare de Corbeil Essonnes, a couple of miles up the road from Morsang. Can't think now why it took me so long - I had even started to wonder whether the station in question had been zapped by some French version of Dr. Beeching - they must, after all, have had the same issue as us of having too much track for the car owning world. Too much lunch maybe.

Reference 1: Signé Picpus - Simenon - 1941. Volume XI of the collected works; somehow missed out, first time around.