Ep 70 -Navigating “Brûlée” with Marie DeGross

When we hear the word "brûlée" in English, we're likely thinking about the sweet, shattery topping of a classic French dessert. But when Notre Dame suddenly caught fire in 2019, a whole other meaning of this word came into focus. Marie DeGross is a tour guide specialized as much in pastry as she is in the history of the military and first responders in France. She's here to explore what makes the Paris Fire Brigade stand out on a national – and international – stage.

https://www.instagram.com/millemercismarie/
https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Notre-Dame-br%C3%BBle/0HYVXHHF99PUTAEBCSTHOMOU8O


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Credits 
Host: Emily Monaco. @Emily_in_France; Website: http://www.tomatokumato.com and http://www.emilymmonaco.com Producer: Jennifer Geraghty. @jennyphoria; Website: http://jennyphoria.com

Music Credits 
Édith Piaf - La Vie en Rose (DeliFB Lofi Remix)
🎵 MSKD Sounds:  https://www.instagram.com/mskd_sounds/  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRql...  https://soundcloud.com/mskd_sounds
🎵 DeliFB:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DeliFB  https://soundcloud.com/delifb  https://www.instagram.com/cativo.kevin/  https://twitter.com/DeliciousFB 


About Us 
From one Emily in Paris to another... just speaking French isn't enough to understand the intricacies of the locals, but it's definitely a good place to start. Famously defended by armed "immortals" of the Académie Française (no, we're not making this up) the French language is filled with clues that show interested outsiders what, exactly, makes the French tick.

Each episode, listen in as Emily Monaco and an expert take a deep dive into a word that helps us gain a keener understanding of the French.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You are listening to Navigating the Frenchon Paris Underground Radio. For more great
content and a bonus episode of Navigatingthe French, please join us on Patreon.
Hello and welcome to Navigating the French, the podcast where each episode we
take a look at a French wordand try and see what it tells us

(00:21):
about French culture. I'm your host, Emily Monico. Today I'm joined by
Marie de Gross, a tour guidespecialized as much in pastry as she is
in the history of the military andfirst responders in France. She's here to
discuss a word that bridges that gapused at once to describe Custardy, creme
brulat and the fires that make theParis Fire Brigade such an essential resource in

(00:45):
Paris. Welcome Marie. I amso excited to have you on the podcast
for our listeners. Could you giveus a little bit of info about who
you are and what you're doing herein France. Sure. My name is
Marie de Gross. I've been Itwill be twelve years on April twenty eighth

(01:07):
this year that I've been in Paris. I am American. I'm also a
dual citizen, so I'm American andItalian. Initially came here as a marketing
executive and then I made a transitioninto tourism, specifically food tourism and group
travel in twenty fifteen, which iswhere you and I met, and I
thank you for that, Emily.So my primary activity is still food tour

(01:32):
guiding as well as group tour guiding. However, I had a long term
project, which is very long timeago, that I wanted to work for
the Red Cross and I wanted todo volunteer work for them. I came
to Paris, and especially when Itransferred into being a tour guide, I
said, okay, I still wantto do that. However, I want

(01:53):
to be trained by the best andI wanted to pursue a sort of action.
So in September of twenty twenty two, I pursued a certification in Suko
Riisma. So in volunteer emergency services. The certification I have is usually what
people have in the workplace. Eventually, what I'm going to do is I

(02:15):
have to do another training with thePoultex from Sibino and then I will be
able to do what they call galdand so that's volunteering and you would be
with the Semu, or you wouldbe with the seer and you take care
of like the interventions when the sepelPontier are busy or the Semu is busy,
or they need a break. Sothat's kind of a passion of mine

(02:36):
that has developed outside of tour guiding, but is indeed related and skills that
I have used recently in my goaleven when I came to France was I
wanted to be trained by the BUSSSo I wanted to be trained by the
Paris firefighters, in which I did, which is quite actually quite rare.
Yeah, and I mean it's suchan awesome, you know, skill set

(02:58):
to have in your wheelhouse. Italso grants you, you know, some
really great expertise to sort of talka little bit about the cultural differences between
what a fire department does, isresponsible for, is asked to do in
the United States, in France,and then in Paris specifically, because as

(03:19):
you said, you want to betrained by the very best, and the
Paris fire department stands out from otherFrench fire departments in a couple of ways.
So I was wondering if first off, you could sort of explain to
us what makes the Paris fire departmentso special both in terms of, you
know, within the context of Frenchfire departments, and also what makes both
of those different from American fire departments. Sure, I think that first we

(03:45):
need to go back in history,but I do want to put a disclaimer
that I am not a spokesperson forthe BSPP, for the I am somebody
who actually has been for a longtime very interested in military history, which
is why we need to go backin history to set up why they're different.

(04:05):
My grandfather actually was part of aunit during World War Two that prepared
the Andolagay, which dropped the atomicbombs. So that's my connection to military
and so I've become very interested inthe Brigadi CEP again exactly for all of
the reasons that you said. Sotaking us back in history, we'll go

(04:27):
back to July, important month inFrance. But July first, eighteen ten,
while celebrating the marriage of Marie Louiseof Austria to Napoleon the First,
a fire in the ballroom at theAustrian embassy happened and claimed a lot of
victims. Napoleon the first being displeasedwith the ineffectiveness of the emergency services he
decided to reorganize them in the capitol, so by September eighteenth of eighteen eleven,

(04:53):
he actually entrusted firefighting to a militarycorps. So this is really what
differentiates the the Paris firefighters from Americanfirefighters and what we call the professional firefighters
in France that are outside of Paris. Initially it was called the Batallon de
Seppe Pierre de la Ville de Parisfrom onwards of eighteen eleven. The city

(05:16):
of Paris actually benefits from a uniquefeature, so you wanted to know what
was different concerning Paris. The militaryfire Department is actually placed under the orders
of the Prefectual de Police, whoare responsible for the capital's security. So
they take on a really important aspectof public security, and for example,

(05:38):
because they're militarily trained, if therewas a war, for example, they
could be called to help in thewar, not just for civilian emergency services
and for firefighting. Okay, wow, so that's a pretty big difference,
and I think you started to talkas well about professional firefighters throughout France.

(05:58):
So I think, if I'm notmistaken, and correct me if I'm wrong.
We have the Paris Fire Department,which is militarized. We have the
professional fire departments in elsewhere in Francethat are not militarized for professional and then
we also have some volunteer fire departmentsas well in France. Is that right?
So that's correct, And I'd liketo add something. You can have
a detachment of the Bria, whichis the case in Bisqueuus, So we're

(06:27):
not just protecting the Parisians and theoutskirts of Paris, but there was actually
detachments in France, and Bisqueus ison the Atlantic near Bordeaux, and they're
responsible for protecting the areas around thatcity. Okay, got it. Now.
Obviously we say fire department, butin France the fire department is responsible

(06:47):
for a lot more than just fightingfires. I mean, I know that.
For example myself, I was ina little tiny town in Brittany when
I accidentally ate a buckwheat crape andrealized that I am deathly allergic to buckwheat.
And the people that we called werethe fire department, and the fire
department were the people who came.They are the people who went and fetched

(07:08):
the country doctor in the ambulance withme, and they're the ones who took
me to the closest hospital, whichwas an hour away. So obviously my
story is essentially to share that wecall the fire department when we need an
ambulance, but we also call thefire department for other things. So can
you tell me a little bit sortof what are the things that French people

(07:30):
would expect to rely on the firedepartment for in addition to fighting fires.
Sure, I think your example isgreat because it's actually one of the reasons
that I actually got my certification,which is called an SST exactly for cases
where I could have been having tohelp you in that situation and I would
call the number eighteen, or Iwould call one one twelve, which is

(07:54):
the European wide number. If you'reAmerican familiar with nine one one, you
can actually dial nine one and itwill balance back onto the one one two.
So first and foremost, I'm goingto give you some figures, which
is when we think of the Parisfirefighters, we think of, okay,
they have by the way, theyhave great uniforms, these so these stylish

(08:15):
uniforms and these heroes, which isabsolutely absolutely the case, but a lot
of times we just think of fires. If you look at twenty twenty three,
there were four hundred and ninety fivethousand, three hundred and ninety seven
interventions. Fifteen thousand, five hundredand forty six of those were fires,

(08:35):
So what are the rest of those? So they're going to be the emergency
services. So they're going to comeif somebody is having a cardiac arrest,
for example, and so a lotof people they have this impression that all
they do is fight fires, butactually they are what we call Premi Sukul
after Premisukool. They have a lotof specialist missions. So for example,

(08:58):
on the sen they have an aquaticspecialty. And I think there's two that
are rather interesting to mention, especiallyin tourism. For example, we have
a specialty or the Brie has aspecialty that's called the grimp. It's called
the group. Those are evacuations fromhard to reach places, including the Eiffel

(09:26):
Tower, which if like me,you have been on the Eiffel Tower when
it's been painted. All right,So for example, I was taking a
group and I saw people that wereclimbing on the Eiffel Tower, and I
thought that it was the grimp andthat they were doing their practice exercises on
the Iffield Tower. Sadly it wasnot. They actually, if you want

(09:50):
to see them practicing, it happensusually pretty early in the morning from what
I've heard. From what I've understood, that's just one specialty outside of aquatic
special There is also what's quite interestingas well is the NRBC, the Nucleier
JDI Blogie Schimika France. We asyou know, Emily, we like acronyms

(10:11):
for everything, oh we do,but actually these are pretty short acronyms,
so we have a five letter acronymin a four letter acronym. So the
VSPP actually handles nuclear, biological andchemical interventions as well. If you see
firefighters walking around in Paris or doingan intervention that you'll see on the with

(10:33):
a dog for example, that's calledthe senotech. So there's all different types
of specialties and different types of interventionsthat they could be taken care of.
Of course, the grimp is goingto access places where you can't get the
fire ladder, so those are kindof the specialties I think that stick out
in my mind that you may actuallyeven see in Paris. Now you mentioned

(10:58):
the uniforms and this sort of helpsme springboard into the slightly more fun side
of the fire department. Now itmight sound odd to talk about the fun
side of the fire department, butI think a lot of the time when
we think about the Pontpier and thePonte de Paris, there are a couple
of more amusing or tantalizing things thatwe think of. Notably, there is

(11:20):
a yearly calendar that comes out andyou'll get people standing really usually quite quite
adorable firefighter standing on street corners sellingthe calendar. Could you tell me a
little bit about sort of the morefun traditions that surround the Parisian Fire Department.
You know, I think the BSPPgets this reputation and it's a worldwide
reputation, and individuals tend to thinkof that first, right, and I

(11:43):
think it's you know I and that'spart of you know, doing this podcast
is to really highlight the history andyou know, what they truly do.
So, yes, there are theseyou know, fun elements, but what
I like is to communicate very muchfirst and foremost about you know, what
they do. So as far asthe elements are concerned, there's actually two
calendars. Oh so the first calendaris highlighting actually the work of the BSPP

(12:09):
each year. Those calendars are whatyou said, actually are distributed in the
streets of Paris in usually the beginningof December through about the third week of
December. So if you want tohave one, you know a lot of
people think, oh, okay,this is the sexy calendar. It's not
the sexy calendar. They are notselling a sexy calendar in public. It

(12:30):
is again just highlighting their work overthe year. Now they are quote unquote
selling them. It is very mucha donation. So if you want to
get one, you actually donate anamount that is up to you. It
could be five euros, ten euros, fifty euros. And so what does
that donation go to. It goesto another acronym, so it goes to

(12:50):
lesuv Sociale de Pontpierre du Paris,the ADOSSPP. So yeah, that's one
to remember, Yeah exactly. Yeah, I think the four letter and the
five letters, so the GRIP andthe NRBC are a little bit easier to
rees, but those donations actually goand they directly benefit these heroes, fallen

(13:11):
heroes and their family. So that'skind of something that should be first line
in terms of what you know,what they do. So I'm really sorry,
ladies for those of you who getreally excited about that. It really
is going to actually a great cause. So then there is what some people
might call the Sexy Home Pier Calendar, again falsely thought to be distributed in

(13:37):
public. It's actually produced each yearby a photographer named Fred Gudon, and
you'll have to actually purchase it ina store like Beach Fee, which is
a department store, or Fanac,which is similar, for example, to
Bust Buy but they offer many moreproducts than Bust Buy in the States,
so you'll have to purchase it.It's somewhere around eighteen nineteen twenty rows and

(13:58):
it's actually much It's much larger thanthe calendar that is distributed in the streets.
So yes, there are individuals thatare selected for that. They actually
have to quote unquote apply however,the selection criteria. I tried to do
research on this. It's kind oflike the Michelin Stars. No one really

(14:18):
knows how it happens. Potentially they'renot allowed to disclose that. But well,
those are the two different ones.But some people might call the fun
one the sexy calendar, And fromwhat I've understood, it doesn't go to
the association that has many letters asan acronym that we'll probably forget after about
five minutes. So basically, ifyou want the sexy calendar, you should

(14:41):
buy two firefighter calendars. You shouldbuy the one where your donation goes to
the firefighters, and then you canhave a sexy calendar as an aside if
you would like. If that's yourjam, if you're enjoying this podcast,
you may enjoy your sister Podcast ofMuses. Each week joined City of Muses'
host Jennifer Garrity as she sits downwith contemporary artists, dancers, and performers

(15:07):
to explore what inspires them, wheretheir ideas come from, and how Paris
has helped or hindered their dreams cometrue. Inspiration and creativity meet in Paris
the City of Muses. Check outCity of Muses, now available wherever you
listen to podcasts. Navigating the Frenchwill be right back after a word from
our sponsors, and now back toNavigating the French. And you mentioned earlier

(15:31):
on in the podcast that July isa really important month here in France.
Obviously, that is the month wherewe celebrate independence, where you know,
freedom, all that fun stuff feddafid and not bestial day and fed.
So the thirteenth slash fourteenth of Julyis also the day where we have a
pretty exciting event that's sponsored by heldby the firefighters of Paris. Can you

(15:56):
tell me a little bit about theBali? All right? So, so
each year Parisians they get an evenoutside of Paris, they get really excited
about the BA and they're like,okay, I can finally meet a firefighter.
Now I'll go through a couple ofthings. First of all, I
want to take you back to thehistory, just like I did at the

(16:18):
founding of the BSPP. So yes, on July thirteenth and fourteenth, firefighters
actually all over France open their firehousesfor an evening of music and dancing,
which has now essentially become very muchlike almost like clubbing outside encapsulated by a
firehouse. And actually it's it's acustom that dates back almost almost a century

(16:44):
now, and the story that's mostoften told is the tradition that comes from
the firehouse in Molmouth in Paris fromthe fourteenth of July nineteen thirty seven.
They say that said sergeant opened thedoors of the Momart fire station, which
is absolutely beautiful. It's one ofthe largest and it's absolutely beautiful. And

(17:07):
then he actually opened it to publicfor the first time as part of a
what we will call balle So reallythe public meeting firefighters, dancing and celebrating
the fourteenth of July. It's spreadagain throughout the country. I'm starting a
tradition. Now, falsely, thepublic thinks that it's every firehouse in Paris

(17:30):
that has a bad Pontpierre, whichis actually false. So when the time
comes around each summer, the BSPPwill put on their website what kazan or
firehouses will actually host a ball.Now there's if you look at the logistics
of that. So obviously they canhave all the firehouses, but you'll see
on the website which ones you cango to. But the large majority actually

(17:52):
happened on July thirteenth, so theevening, so they go from nine pm
all the way to four am.So so you have the large majority on
the thirteenth, and you have afew on Paris on the fourteenth. Now,
logistics, you definitely want to getthere early. I mean it is
a queue like a club would be, except there's not somebody at the j're

(18:15):
refusing entry if they don't like theway that you're drastic, et cetera.
Again, a lot of the drinks, and there's actually you'll see the second
time that you'll see firefighters in thestreet and they're actually selling raffle tickets.
They call that a toumbua, andyou buy a raffle ticket and it goes
into a raffle. You're actually canget goodies from the battle prompier. They'll

(18:37):
have topeggs, they'll have key rings. So that is the second time that
you'll see the poontpier in the streetif you don't have the opportunity or not
interested in doing the queue in frontof them. So it's a little bit
of a strategy. Go early.The later that you go, the more
crowded it obviously gets. So it'sit's very much something that Parisians go to.

(18:59):
I would definitely, you know,I would not say that it's an
exclusively girls trying to go and hittingon firefighters. You know, they people
get excited about firefighters. But itcan be also a group of friends just
enjoying dancing and there's some really greatmusic and they bring in some really great
DJs and sometimes actually the DJs areeven firefighters themselves that have experience in that.

(19:23):
I've seen that one time. Don'tquote me for that being the rule.
It might also be like a friendof somebody in the BSPP. But
just know that the music is reallygreat. So it's turned out to be
something of a party that we wouldnot have seen. Maybe it was a
little bit more charming in nineteen thirtyseven, but it's definitely something that friends

(19:44):
can go to and they can enjoythat, and really it can go quite
late. So if you want tolook again at the operational strategy. What
people don't know a lot is thaton the fourteenth of July, in different
sites in Paris, different military coresare actually there to meet the public.
So if you decide on the thirteenthof July not to go because you want

(20:07):
to go to the parade, youcan also see the firefighters and also like
the infantry on the Air Force.I just did this this year on the
fourteenth of July all day. It'ssort of an open house of sorts.
It's really cool. You could youget to climb on like I got to
climb on tanks, I got totry like with the fire hose, like

(20:30):
I actually got to hold a firehose and actually feel the pressure and see
how long that that goes. Sothat's another opportunity. And really you can
go and exchange and ask questions.There was the grimp that I talked about,
the individuals that would save people inhigher reaching places or difficult to reach
places, so you know, that'sanother opportunity. So again it's important to

(20:51):
the ball du Pontpier is very funand it's you know, that fun element
you talked about, but it's definitelysomething that it still is the opportunity to
meet individuals that are part of responsiblefor the security of the Parisians and then
the security also in the cities outsideof Paris and in all of France.
Amazing and speaking of security, soI mean when we are you know,

(21:17):
this is predominantly like a linguistics podcast. It's got to start because I'm a
linguistics nerd, but I love totalk about, you know, the history
and the culture of things. ButI often find that so much of the
history and culture of things and thediscrepancies between the ways that predominantly Americans,
because I'm American and a lot ofour listeners are Americans and French people consider
things has to do with the wordsthat they use. So the word pontpier

(21:41):
is not the word firefighter, andwe actually the word poontpier is not even
the full word. Historically, thefire department are seper when we say seper
pompier. So what is a sepper? Where does that come from and what
does it mean? So it actuallydates back to firemen in the Middle Ages
and also under the An regime.So houses were obviously made of wood and

(22:07):
so when a fire broke out,the emergency services actually cut down everything around
the fire to limit the spread ofthe blaze. Hence the expression. The
actual verb is sepe and so thisis where you get seper and here's where
we get Brigade de seper Pier deParis. Okay, if you actually it's

(22:30):
part of the military grade like aswell, So for example, you would
be a premier sepper early on inyour career. Historically speaking in something that
I wanted to mention that is alittle bit of an aside from your question,
but related Actually near Quiche in Paristhey have the archives and you can
actually go back into the archives onit's two days a year. You can

(22:55):
go to different monuments that they opento the public that aren't typically open to
the public. You can actually goand see old Seppe uniforms. I walked
in and I saw the records andits paper records. I walk in and
I see a box and this isa box with like handwriting on it.

(23:17):
And what do I see in frontof me? I see ensei Notre Dame
DUPARI I see Chariti. I haveseen in the archives the fire security for
the Universal Exposition of eighteen eighty nine, so when the Eiffel Tower was revealed

(23:37):
to the world. So regarding themilitary grades, you can actually also see
what a grade would look like.Those patches that they have on their uniform.
You can see what one looks likefor a PREMISEEPA, and then all
up the ranks as well. Wow, that's amazing. And you mentioned,
of course, one thing that we'veheard quite a bit about recently insofar as

(24:00):
the Paris Fire Department is concerned,which is a very famous fire, that
of Notre Dame. So obviously,you know, we're very excited that Notre
Dame is being repaired. There's alot of work being done to bring it
back to life. And I recentlywalked past and saw that this spire is
back up, which is really exciting. Obviously, you know, there was

(24:21):
quite a bit of sort of critiqueabout the way in which this was handled,
and you know, I think wefirst of all just need to applaud
the bravery and the you know,quick response of the Paris Fire Department in
you know, figuring out how tofight this fire. But I think you've
been able actually to maybe speak withsome of the people who were at the
kazam, the local kazam, whowere some of the first responders. Can

(24:45):
you tell me a little bit aboutwhat that was like for them and how
they managed being the first ones onthe scene. Yeah, I think,
you know, being a chore guide, and then being really passionate about emergency
services in general, and then lookingforward to actually being able to volunteer in
the ambulances for example. You know, this is an interesting subject, but

(25:06):
it's also a you know, atouchy subject. Globally. There has been
since the fire lots of noise,so not necessarily just about the firefighters,
but we'll get into that, butlots and lots of noise about the origin
of the fire, et cetera.I think, you know, the noise
to cut through, and I thinkto communicate to the public is to take

(25:27):
ourselves back to that day. Andthe first engines that arrived on site was
the Chazelle Dupoisy, and that's inthe fifth district, and it's right next
to the Metro Caldi ned One andit's actually literally across from a cooking school
that I do food tours for calledLouffuddhists or Louffuddhist if you want to speak

(25:49):
Franglish and just you know, addthe French accent to an English word.
We like that as much as welike acronyms here in Paris especially, so
yes, there maybe was a littlebit of critique saying that they didn't get
there fast enough. All eyes areon Notre Dame, whether it be physically
in Paris, whether it be onTV, all eyes are on Notre Dame.

(26:12):
People are literally standing in the street. Cars are stopped in the street.
So the chazen la poissi is literallyif you drive right down the street,
you reach Notre Dame. It's notvery far at all. However,
everyone is in the street. Soactually I talked to individuals in the BSPP

(26:33):
and I started asking them, okay, like, let's cut through the noise.
What happened, they said, youhave to imagine that everybody is in
the street and that the first enginesthey had to get around them. So
if you want to actually like kindof reconstruct what happened with the first engines
and then they actually the fireboat alsocame over, Like the main fireboat in

(26:55):
the central of Paris is actually justbelow Ponnuff. Sometimes they're doing exercises so
you can actally see the aquatic firefightersjumping from the bridge, which is I
have never seen it, given allof the tour guiding that I do,
especially living my life in Saint Germain, basically I have never seen that happen.
So if you want to go indetail and kind of reconstruct that day.

(27:15):
I have been told that the movieNotre Dame is burning. I have
been told that that is actually quiteaccurate, So if you want to break
through the noise, that film isactually quite accurate. However, there was
a Netflix series that came out.What I was also told by some individuals
in the BSPP was that that Netflixseries does not in any way represent their

(27:41):
metier. That was their feeling alot of people. Again, I'm not
a ambassador or an official speaker forthe BSPP. This is just anecdotal,
you know, comments that I hadgot from individuals and Pontier in the brigade.
So if you're looking to see kindof how it happened, I definitely
would recommend seeing the movie. Butthe Netflix series unfortunately has caused I think

(28:06):
a lot of confusion and put informationout there that isn't necessarily how things went
down. But yeah, there wasa lot of noise and critique that they
didn't get there fast enough, right. But I mean, I think in
any of these sorts of crazy urgentsituations, things feel like in eternity,
and I think that we can allagree that the bravery of the people who

(28:27):
did end up there and who didend up, you know, maintaining this
historic structure that we are going tobe able to rebuild, is just worthy
of much applause, right, AndI think some of the critique came from
if you look at the timeframe,especially from the minute the alarm started going
off, which I was told aroundsomething like six twenty pm. The first

(28:48):
engines were on site at six pointfifty eight pm. But the critique really
some of it comes from that they'reso close. Why did it take them
so long to get there? Butyeah, I would you know. Look,
I mean, if you imagine Paris, we can't imagine Paris without notely
dumb. And it has been apleasure to see it being rebuilt. I'm

(29:11):
sure you were very happily surprised whenyou saw this fire. I was.
It was just a really nice thingto see. It felt like something was
coming home, which is really nice. If you're enjoying this episode of Navigating
the French, you may also beinterested in our sister podcast, Romancing in
Paris, which delves into love,lust and so much more in the City

(29:33):
of Light. Navigating the French willbe right back after a word from our
sponsors, and now back to Navigatingthe French. One thing is very very
clear from having had this conversation withyou is that you're excellent at, you
know, doing research, really drawingdifference between the anecdotes and the reality.

(29:53):
And I think that's what makes itsuch a pleasure to go on a tour
with you, Which is my wayof saying. Listeners, if you've enjoyed
hearing Marie talk about the Poontpier asmuch as I have, then I have
no doubt you will absolutely love herguided tours. She does a lot of
food tours in Paris. She specializesin everything from the French Fire Department to

(30:15):
French pastry, and she always knowshow to make things fun. So if
you're traveling with any little ones whoneed a little bit of extra entertainment with
their information, Marie is your personto talk to. If someone wants to
book a tour with you, Marie, where can they find you? The
best thing to do would be tosend me a message on Instagram. So

(30:37):
it is a little bit complicated,Mercy Marie. If you wanted to get
in touch with me, the bestway to do that would be via private
message on Instagram. There's one thingthat you did mention. I would say
that I am an aspiring researcher ofthe Brigades's history as well as other military
cores in France. But I'm verymuch an inspiring not a history in but

(31:00):
one day. What I would liketo do from a tour perspective is actually
to educate the public about the Brigadeand actually have a specialist in Notre Dame
and the fire actually tell the historyof the firefighters and then tell the history
of Notre Dame as well as thefire and its rebuilding, but we'll have
to wait a little bit until therebuilding is done. Well, we very

(31:23):
much look forward to that, andI'm going to be American about it and
make things easy for all you listeners. I'm going to put a link to
Marie's Instagram in the show notes,so if you need to reach her,
you can find her there, andyou can also be sure and follow her
on Instagram as well. And oh, I know what I want to know,
Marie, Yes, twelve years here. What is your favorite word in

(31:45):
French? My favorite word is biancebecause there's so many ways to say biance.
So if for example, biance wouldrepresent like an exclamation point in certain
sentences, so we might say I'mlike, oh, yeah, sure,

(32:05):
I'll do that for you exclamation pointin American English, and we might say
bean sure like that, but wemight also use it in a way like
okay, I'll do that, likeI'm really happy to do that for you,
but also in another way where it'slike obvious, like what I've said
is obvious, so it would belike being sure, So yeah, I

(32:27):
really like I really like that thatword. And also I mean it's a
two part word, basically there's aspace in between it. But I do
like accents, and so when I'mwriting emails, I mean I come from
a bat. I went to thesore button. So I like that word
as well because there's an excellent circumflexon the you. It feels very French.
It feels very French. So yes, be on the lookout for the

(32:51):
for the many facets of being sureamazing. I love that. Thank you
so much for joining me today,Marie. It's always a pleasure, and
you know, keep on doing thegood work of researching and telling the stories
of these Parisian heroes. Yes,and go to the archives. It was
absolutely amazing. Go to the archiveson the Jeanne de Petley one. Yeah,

(33:14):
sign up for that. Go therebecause otherwise you can't. And you
can go sit in old fire enginesand look in old ambulances and see paper
records and the uniforms. So yeah, thank you so much, Emily,
Thank you, Marie, super specialexperience. Thanks for that recommendation. This
has been navigating the French. Youcan find more from me Emily Monico at

(33:36):
Emily Underscore in Underscore France, onTwitter and Instagram. This podcast is produced
by Paris Underground Radio. To listento other episodes of this podcast, or
to discover more podcasts like it,please visit Paris Underground radio dot com.
Thanks for listening and adient. Thisepisode of Navigating the French was produced by
Jennifer Garrity for Paris Underground Radio.For more great content, join us us

(34:00):
on Patreon at Patreon dot com slashParis Underground Radio