Transcript of “Ruelle, Meaning the Space Between the Bed and the Wall”
Here’s a word I never knew I needed, rouelle.
Do you know this term, Grant, in English?
What is that, a small street in French?
Very good.
Yes, in French-speaking countries, a rouelle is a small alley or a lane,
But it was adopted into English to mean the space between a bed and a wall.
Oh, so the small alley between the bed and the wall.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, it turns out that in 17th and 18th century France,
The Ruelle was a place where a fashionable French lady would receive her visitors
As they stood around her large curtained bed.
And then it came to denote social or literary gatherings
Held in the bedrooms of French aristocratic ladies who lounged.
Well, it’s an archaic word now in English,
But I think we need to revive it, you know?
The cat always sidles up in the Ruel before she pounces on me in the morning.
I’m thinking about the Ruel in crowded homes where people just have stuff stacked.
Between the bed and that wall of books.
Everywhere.
