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Hi, I have been teaching myself French partly with the help of reading the Maigret detective novel series, but sometime a phrase stumps me, not sure sometimes if its out of date or just an expression not easily translated with a dictions or online resource. Anyway, the one I am stuck with is "La robe sentait la confection" It doesn't make much sense to me. The following sentence, if that helps, says "Une coquetterie a bon marche." Thanks in advance for your help,.
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Hi freo,
Well done for learning French, and through reading Simenon, too, who's a very good author!
Here "sentait" (=smelled of) is used metaphorically, like in English when you say that something "smacks of" this or that.
And "confection" means ready-to-wear as opposed to couture/bespoke, here used with the slightly negative connotation of "fast fashion" or "mass-produced".
So the sentence translates into something like "The dress smacked of ready-to-wear, a cheap sweet little nothing."
Hope this helps. Keep up the good work!
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Hi Sandra
Thanks so much! That makes perfect sense to me. I appreciate the clear and thoughtful explanation :)
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