The Unicorn Challenge.
A magical new weekly writing opportunity from her – Jenne Gray – and me.
Visit her blog every Friday to see the photo prompt, and post your amazing story in her comments section.
Or on your own blog, and stick the link down in her comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt.
That’s it.
To hear me read my story, just click here:
Chez Moi
I live in a very French house in a very French street in a very French town.
It is picturesque and wunderbar.
Yes, I speak a bit of the lingo.
The only mouche in the pommade (fly in the jolly old ointment for those of you who don’t share my linguistic flair) is that my maison is, as you can see from the prompt photo, at the top of a very steep, and stepped, hill.
So, returning chez moi with the week’s shopping (the wretched place is pedestrianised) is a bit of a chore.
Not only that, but the hill has a curious characteristic in that it becomes steeper in warm weather which, this being the Mediterranean, is in direct inverse to Scotland’s.
So it’s pretty hot for around 11.5 months per year.
Okay, that’s a lie, Scotland never gets two weeks hot weather in the same year.
Decade, maybe…
Anyway, climbing the mountainous approach to my abode gives me the opportunity to communicate with the natives, some of whom speak the language quite passably, if without my gift for accurate pronunciation.
But I hear them exchange remarks which, to my surprise, frequently include the word ‘fou’.
As in ‘il est fou, l’écossais’.
Which translates, dear friends, as ‘that Scots guy’s pure demented’.
Me, who has hardly killed anyone in ages, even fictionally!
I’ve considered confrontation, seeking explanation, but going home, I don’t have the puff for it.
And going downhill I can’t stop, I’m on my skateboard.





Better you than me, mon ami!
A fun piece, CE.
I wouldn’t expect such folly from a lady of your breeding, Nancy!
Laughing here.
Well, that was a mistake, mon chéri!
I suggest a pogo stick.
Followed by an ambulance?
The nerve to call him demented when he hasn’t killed anyone in ages. A very amusant and comique tale, lots of quirky funny bits. I loved it!
Thank you, Brenda, for defending me. I’m pretty much as sane as the next (mostly) fictional mass murderer.
Happy you enjoyed.
Demented maybe, murderer almost certainly. But you, on a skateboard? Non credo proprio as they say somewhere (now who’s the linguist?)
As Shakespeare said, or maybe it was Mark Twain, two out of three ain’t bad!
‘like a box of chocolates’… all over the linguistic map and such…v fun
A bit SOC, Clark?
Occasionally it just writes itself.
Oh, what fun! You, on a skateboard? Wow!
Well, yes, Chris, what’s life without a few thrills and spills!
Lovely!!
Thanks, Tessa
This begs the question — how much is fiction and how much is truth?
I’ll put the skateboard in the fiction category, the demented Scots guy is in a gray area, but is this really where you live? It’s lovely!
The strapline at the top of the page says: where nothing is quite what it seems…
And I’m slightly surprised and amused at the gray area!
A deliciously delightful piece of tongue-in-cheek wordplay which has me sitting here grinning.
Masterclass.
(And don’t think I didn’t notice that you haven’t given up your day job.)
Sometimes it’s just fun, Jenne!
I took great pleasure in hearing you read this. And please stay off that hill on a skateboard.
Thank you for the kind words and the laugh!