# "Say la gare"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 18, 2001, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868 "2001-08-18T05:21:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JamesCarroll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JamesCarroll)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/1 "2001-08-18T05:21:22Z")
Watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon where T&J were in France ( you know the one with the really cute little mouse who wants to be a Musketeer (Mousekteer?)) and the young mouse says (in MY best French):
C’est le Gare.
As Jerry is smacking his bottom.
Now I know from growing up in the 80’s (thanks to Robbie Neville) that “C’est le Vie” means (AFAIK) “Such is life”.
But what about that little mouse. What was he lamenting? That is what does “gare” mean?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/2 "2001-08-18T05:22:54Z")
I believe that “guerre” is a term for war.
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### Author:  [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/3 "2001-08-18T05:27:13Z")
Webster’s says:
Main Entry: c’est la guerre
Pronunciation: se-l[a’]-ger
Usage: foreign term
Etymology: French
\*\*: that’s war : it cannot be helped \*\*
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/4 "2001-08-18T05:42:52Z")
Okay, that _does_ make a lot more sense than “That’s the train station.”
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/5 "2001-08-18T05:43:41Z")
The views of **ultrafilter** and **wishbone** are to be respected but if they haven’t seen the cartoon they can’t be sure.
Jerry could have been smacking the young mouse’s bottom in the vicinity of a railway station. The spankee may have looked up momentarily and noticed this, as if for the first time. Hence:
‘C’est la gare’.
And, let’s face it, one sees more railway stations than wars.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/6 "2001-08-18T05:45:10Z")
Shit. A minute too late.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/7 "2001-08-18T05:48:01Z")
**Herr Doktor Schadenfreude** , you could have been there first, save your UserName is even longer and harder to spell than mine! Bwwahhahaha!
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/8 "2001-08-18T05:50:06Z")
Besides, had he said _C’est le gare_, it would have _sounded_ as though he had said _C’est le gar_, and the OP would have been about needle-nosed fish.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/9 "2001-08-18T05:55:40Z")
Or, he could have been calling Jerry the “young guy” - “C’est le gars.”
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/10 "2001-08-18T06:05:40Z")
Sign on a bistro. ‘C’est lager’.
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### Author:  [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/11 "2001-08-18T11:44:26Z")
And, of course, there is also the old joke about the French tourist seeing Keble College, Oxford for the first time -‘C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la gare’.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/12 "2001-08-18T12:08:52Z")
The first Kodak cameras in France were treated with
“C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas Daguerre.”
Anybody else?
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/13 "2001-08-18T13:11:05Z")
Actual review of flop musical Martin Guerre “Martin est Guerre.”
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### Author:  [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/14 "2001-08-18T16:46:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Annie-Xmas \*
> \*\*Actual review of flop musical Martin Guerre “Martin est Guerre.” \*\*
Are you sure ? The pun would work better if it was “Martin est _guère_”.
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### Author:  [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/15 "2001-08-18T18:26:08Z")
an actual conclave of Francophiles/Francophones…
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/16 "2001-08-18T19:19:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by omni-not \*
> \*\*an actual conclave of Francophiles/Francophones… \*\*
Cartooniverse thinks to himself. Self, he says…
> [@](#):
>
> " Frequently whilst playing a game of Whist, I’ve been known to sharpen the needles on my Francophone with a small steel Francophile that I keep stored in the burled walnut cabinet for just such a moment. "
Sometimes, life in the early 1900’s is MUCH nicer than life in the early 2000’s…
🙂
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### Author:  [@Chickenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenhead)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/17 "2001-08-18T19:44:13Z")
Or if what’s-his-name had directed the cartoon and they were standing in front of a train station, it might have said ceci n’est pas une gare.
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### Author:  [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/18 "2001-08-18T20:21:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chickenhead \*
> \*\*Or if what’s-his-name had directed the cartoon and they were standing in front of a train station, it might have said ceci n’est pas une gare. \*\*
Rene Magritte, I believe. But that only works if it’s a sign on the train station.
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### Author:  [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2001, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/19 "2001-08-18T23:05:59Z")
eat your hearts out. With such literati here assembled, our salon has nothing to envy yours.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2001, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-la-gare/76868/20 "2001-08-19T13:37:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by detop \*
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by Annie-Xmas \*
> > \*\*Actual review of flop musical Martin Guerre “Martin est Guerre.” \*\*
>
> Are you sure ? The pun would work better if it was “Martin est _guère_”. \*\*
It was a British musical in English, hence Martin est Guerre. The best review was Guerre is hell.
A horrible flop that was rewritten about 10 times and fortunately never came to Broadway. Proving once again the the authors, Boublil & Schoenberg, can’t write and good music beginning with the letter “M” (i.e. Miserables, Miss Saigon, Martine Guerre).
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