This appropriately French-themed puzzle was a pleasure to solve. Fortunately my rudimentary French was enough to get me through!
Also, kudos to the FT for publishing the puzzle on their website as a nice, clear pdf file (in lieu of the blurry gif files of the past). They appear to have made the change as of the July 11 (Saturday) prize puzzle.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ALSACE Hidden in sALSA CErtainly |
| 4 | SORBONNE SORE (miffed) around BONN (capital). Former capital, strictly speaking. |
| 9 | DOUBLE DO (make) + *(BLUE) |
| 10 | LORRAINE OR (golden) RAIN (weather) in LE (the, French) |
| 12 | BASTILLE The reason for the theme |
| 13 | GENEVA Hidden in heAVEN EGyptian reversed |
| 15 | EDGE [h]EDGE |
| 16 | GARE DU NORD GA (state; postal code for Georgia) RED (radical) *(ROUND) |
| 19 | STRASBOURG *(BURSARS GOT) City in Alsace-Lorraine |
| 20 | ODER O (love) DER (the German) |
| 23 | LOUVRE dd |
| 25 | CEVENNES VEN. (venerable, as a title) in *(SCENE) |
| 27 | CUL-DE-SAC CASE (luggage item) + L (left) in DUC (French duke), all reversed |
| 28 | LE MANS LE (the, French) MANS (chap’s) |
| 29 | ARTISANS AR (arrive) T (time) *(IN SAS) |
| 30 | ITCHES *(THIS CE) One has to substitute CE for “church” before anagramming, making this an indirect anagram |
| Down | |
| 1 | AUDIBLE AU DIABLE (to the devil) minus A |
| 2 | SPUN SUGAR SPUN (turned) SUGAR (Sir Alan, of Apprentice fame) |
| 3 | CALAIS C (caught) ALAS (sad to say) holding I (one) |
| 5 | OBOE even letters of nOt BrOkEn |
| 6 | BORDEAUX O (ring) RD (road) in BEAUX (dandies) |
| 7 | NAIVE EVIAN (mineral water) reversed (“upset”). This is a pet peeve of mine: because the reversal indicator appears between the definition and the fodder, there is no way to tell from the clue itself which is which. I entered EVIAN at first, which slowed me down on 4 ac and 13 ac. |
| 8 | EMERALD dd, referring to the Emerald Coast between St Malo and Mont St Michel |
| 11 | ELEANOR *(ONE REAL) |
| 14 | PERRIER PERR[y] (an alcoholic drink made from pears) I.E. (that’s) R (right) |
| 17 | OGDEN NASH GO reversed + DEN + NASH (John Nash) |
| 18 | USURPERS P (power) in USURERS (loan-sharks) |
| 19 | ST LUCIA A1 (top-class) CULTS (religious groups), all reversed |
| 21 | RESISTS *(I STRESS) |
| 22 | REVERT RE (second note in the solfa scale) VERT (green, in France) |
| 24 | UNLIT A bed in French is UN LIT |
| 26 | MAIN dd (“hand” in French) |
I haven’t done the puzzle yet, but want to register my approval of the new file format. Well done, FT (about time too)!
Thanks for the post, Agentzero. This was a very enjoyable puzzle, I thought, and I’m also delighted that the online version of the FT crossword is now legible when printed 🙂
Well done FT! Will be doing your puzzles more often now that it is in PDF format