Continued

It is clearly a time for confusions, at least here in Epsom.

Waking up this morning, I managed to convince myself that 'concierge' was the French word for a male concierge, typically for a hotel or for a rather swanky block of flats, the sort of thing that Poirot or Bertie Wooster might live in. There was another word, of about the same length and also starting with a 'c' which was the female concierge, the often prickly older lady who lived in rather confined quarters at the bottom of apartment buildings. An older lady who more or less checked everybody in and out, who knew all about what was going on and who was often quizzed by Maigret about some recently deceased tenant.

But a word which was blocked by 'concierge'. A word which would come back to me if I left it all alone for a few minutes. The sort of thing which does, in fact, happen to me quite often.

However, checking in a few Maigret stories after lunch (blade-bone, the first in years, to be reported on in due course), it seems that 'concierge' does for both men and women. Confirmed by Wikipedia at reference 1. All very odd.

I then thought to ask Bing for some images, which turned out to be rather thin on the ground, although I did get the one above. Culled from the post at reference 3 from the blog at reference 2. From the book at reference 4, not available from Abebooks, but available at a good range of prices from eBay. I managed not to hit the button.

Google did not do much better for images, but it turn up the one included above, in the first instance from reference 5. A fictional concierge, taken from a screen adaptation of the best-selling book at reference 6. Starring one Josiane Balasko, a French actress plus who is just about the same age as I am. Made about 3 years after the appearance of the book. I did hit the button for the book, at Abebooks and we will see about the film in due course.

Reference 5 points out that 'concierge' is not used by respectable people any more and that 'gardien(ne)' is what you should say. They clearly have some French equivalent of the Guardian keeping an eye on such matters. But confirmation that 'concierge' is indeed sex-blind.

PS: it occurs to me that the problem may have arisen, in part anyway, because Simenon/Maigret often talks about stopping by at the 'loge' to quiz the concierge, on the way in or on the way out, while avoiding the 'c' word itself. He also talks about the 'poire' which the concierge can squeeze to let people in without having to get out of bed in the middle of the night. He might even talk in terms of  'donner moi la poire' for let me in or let me out.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concierge.

Reference 2: https://vintage-maison.blogspot.com.

Reference 3: https://vintage-maison.blogspot.com/2011/09/fabulous-french-book-from-post-war-era.html.

Reference 4: Sortilèges de Paris - Cali François - 1952.

Reference 5: https://vingtparis.com/unspoken-rules-of-paris/the_gardiengard/.

Reference 6: L'Élégance du hérisson - Muriel Barbery - 2006.