Plus de muscat! See note, p

'19. Le mistral avait beau souffler, “ the strong north-west wind was blowing in vain ”... or “ though the strong north-west wind did blow.” Littré explains the idiom avoir beau + infinitive as follows: “ Originally avoir beau meant ‘ to hâve a good opportunity ’ and by an irony easily explained, it came to mean ‘ to hâve ample opportunity without taking advantage of it; to hâve a useless opportunity/ then 1 to do a thing uselessly; to do it in vain/ ”

23, 4. huit jours, the regular French expression for “ a week.”

NOTES