Footnotes to the TV series
LORELAI: Is there anything ceremonial about the salads? Do we carve a crouton, then have them taken away?
A crouton is a piece of rebaked bread, often cubed and seasoned. They are often used to add texture and flavor to salads. The word crouton is derived from the French croûton, meaning “little crust”. Croutons are often seen in the shape of small cubes, but they can be of any size and shape, up to a very large slice.
NATALIE: You have your mother’s wit.
EMILY: Sometimes I wish she’d give it back.
The show again demonstrates that Lorelai’s sarcastic sense of humour is very similar to Emily’s – Emily makes an immediate waspish comment when Natalie points this out.
CLAUDE: And you, my dear? [how much French do you speak?]
LORELAI: Even less. Uh, voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir? That’s about it …
CLAUDE: It’s a pop song, ah, Monique . . . I did not know that.
MONIQUE: “Lady Marmalade”.
“Lady Marmalade”, a 1974 pop song written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, performed by R&B group Labelle, it went to #1 in the US and Canada. The song has been covered several times, including the 2001 version from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Pink, and Li’l Kim, which also went to #1.
The song is famous for the repeated refrain of Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?, which translates to: “Do you want to sleep with me?”.
Monique gets Lorelai’s joke and is familiar with the song – the 2001 version went to #12 in France, although earlier cover versions had charted there as well, if not so high.
RICHARD: Monique, voici ma fille et ma petite fille.
MONIQUE: Ah. Elles sont si jolies.
Monique, here is my daughter and my granddaughter.
Ah, they are so pretty.
CLAUDE: [to Monique] Je leur ai dit que tu voulais à prendre l’anglais.
MONIQUE: L’anglais, oui, je veux à prendre, mais je suis tellement parasseuse.
RICHARD: Ah, ça prends de temps, Monique. Ah, t’en fais pas.
MONIQUE: Merci.
I told them you wanted to take English.
English, yes. I want to take it, but I am so lazy.
Ah, it takes time (to learn), Monique. Ah, don’t worry about it.
Thank you.
RICHARD: Ah, non, tu es tres gentil …
CLAUDE: Merci.
Ah, no, you are so nice …
Thank you.
CLAUDE: Un tout petite peu?
RORY: Oui, un tout petite peu.
A tiny little bit (of French?)
Yes, a tiny little bit.
CLAUDE: Lorelai ne veut pas que Rory aille à Yale.
RICHARD: Je suis désolé de ce qui ce passe ici.
Lorelai doesn’t want Rory to go to Yale.
I’m sorry about what’s going on here.
RICHARD: Encore une fois, je suis désolé.
CLAUDE: Elle a dit que, ‘c’est de la folie.’
Once again, I’m sorry.
She said, “This is madness”.
RICHARD: And this is our international contingent, Claude and Monique Clemenceau. They’re just in from France.
The Clemenceaus have been given the same surname as Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), Prime Minister of France from 1906-1909, and again from 1917-1920, leading France through the end of World War I.
It is surely not a coincidence that Georges Clemenceau has a Connecticut connection. He fled France in 1865 due to involvement in radical politics during the regime of Napoleon III. He ended up teaching at a girl’s school in Stamford, Connecticut, where he fell in love with one of his students, Mary Plummer (1849-1922). They married in 1869 and moved to France a year later. They separated in 1876 and divorced in 1891, after which Clemenceau had Mary sent back to the US. From his time in the US, Clemenceau developed a strong faith in American democratic ideals.
Georges Clemenceau was a friend, biographer, and supporter of the famous French artist Claude Monet. Given Claude’s first name, this also does not seem like a coincidence. Notice that the name Monique sounds similar to Monet, as if both French guests have been named after the painter.
Claude is played by Michael des Barres, an English marquis, actor and rock singer. He played Murdoc in the original Macgyver and had a lead role in the show’s reboot, and replaced Robert Palmer in the band The Power Station, fronting the band at the 1985 Live Aid concert. He has had roles in numerous TV series and some films, including To Sir With Love, Pink Cadillac, and Mulholland Drive. A long-term campaigner against drug abuse, he is currently a radio host for Sirius XM.
Monique is played by Lydie Denier, a French-American model, singer, and actress. She has appeared in a few films and a number of TV programs, including General Hospital, Melrose Place, and Spin City.
RICHARD: These are our guests, Natalie and Douglas Swope.
EMILY: You two have met.
LORELAI: Yes, at the auction.
NATALIE: Good to see you again.
The show seems to have committed to the new timeline where Lorelai and Natalie Swope first met at the auction in “Eight O’clock at the Oasis”, supposedly about six weeks previously. However, when Natalie was visiting Emily in “Presenting Lorelai Gilmore”, she asked after Lorelai, who she remembered very well even though she hadn’t seen her since before she had Rory (as Lorelai is said to have attended the Christmas party at Richard and Emily’s every year, this in itself doesn’t seem very likely – did Natalie never attend one of the parties?).
We meet Natalie’s husband, Douglas, in this episode. Again, surely he and Lorelai would have met in the original timeline, but obviously not in this one, as he wasn’t at the auction. Douglas is played by John Aniston, the father of Jennifer Aniston. He had roles on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and The West Wing, as well as a long-term connection with Days of Our Lives.
EMILY: I thought a little background music would add a nice touch. He knows every song ever written.
LORELAI: “Free Bird”! Hi Brad.
“Free Bird” or “Freebird” is a song by rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zan. The song featured on the band’s 1973 debut album. Released as a single in 1974, “Free Bird” got to #19 in the US. A live version of the song got to #38 in 1977. It is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s signature song, the finale during live performances, and their longest song, often going well over 14 minutes when played live.
The lyrics sound like something Lorelai would relate to in regard to her parents:
But if I stay here with you …
Things just couldn’t be the same
‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now
And this bird you cannot change
Oh, oh, oh, oh …
And this bird, you cannot change
Lord knows, I can’t change
LORELAI: Oh, wow, it’s a piano player.
EMILY: That’s Brad. I found him at Nordstrom’s.
LORELAI: Was he on sale?
Nordstrom is a luxury department store headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a second Nordstrom’s shoe store opened in 1923. The growing Nordstrom Best chain began selling clothing in 1963, and became the Nordstrom full-line retailer that presently exists by 1971.
There is a Nordstrom at Westfarms Mall in West Hartford.
RORY: You ready for this? … Even with the Cold War?
LORELAI: That’s been going on for thirty-four years? I can manage.
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars.
The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. Aside from nuclear development and military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, embargoes, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.
The end of the Cold War is dated to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. President George H.W. Bush claimed that America therefore “won the Cold War”.
According to Lorelai, the “cold war” between she and her parents began almost at birth!
RORY: I know, but now I just feel like everybody’s watching me … The whole town is watching.
Rory still does not feel comfortable kissing Jess in front of others, even at a private gathering where Dean cannot possibly see them. She feels as if everyone in town is scrutinising and judging her behaviour, and the fact that Jess was so unpopular in town that there was a secret meeting set up to get rid of him cannot have escaped her attention. She’s always been the town’s sweetheart, and now she’s made a choice that she fears will make her unpopular.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 