I'm just back from visiting a friend in a nearby village named Château. So where is the château in Château, you may ask? Answer: there isn't one. Well there was one, oh maybe a couple of hundred years ago. But the name remains the same.
The naming of French villages is a curious thing. I got to thinking about it the other day, when we passed through Poisson, which means 'fish' in French. Is there a story there? Must be. Imagine telling someone you live in Fish.
One of our favorite local restaurants is in Bourgvillain. Translation: "Ugly village". In fact it is neither ugly, nor a village, exactly; more of a pretty hamlet. I asked the proprietor of the restaurant what the story was. "Well, the nearby château was pretty, and the village grew up around it and was not as pretty, so they named it Bourgvillain." Whatever.
Then there are many villages with names which are vulgaire. The French seem to love them.
Did you know that these quirky French village names are so common that the mayors of said villages got together and formed an association? Which is called, in typical grand French fashion: Association des Communes de France aux Noms Burlesque et Chantants: dont le nom évocateur prête à sourire, à rire ou dont la musicalité est porteuse de pittoresque et de folklore. (Association of Communes of France with names that are Burlesque or Musical: the name must evoke a smile or a laugh, or be musical in a picturesque or folklorish manner).
Then, in our commune, there is the village of La Vineuse, or "wine-ish", which colloquially means "wine breath". Perfect fit for our household!
Here are some more villages that have "picturesque" names that are insolite (unusual):
Coubisous, Aveyron, means a kiss on the neck
Corps-Nuds, Brittany. Pronounced like corps nus (naked bodies). Apparently it's trendy to take selfies by the sign, in the buff.
Monteton, "my nipple, or more correctly, "my tit", in the Lot and Garonne. You know this sign must get stolen often.
Folles, Haut-Vienne. Translation: I live in Crazytown!
St. Barbant, Haute-Vienne: barbant means boring. Never heard of that saint.
Vinsobres, a wine village in the Rhone, a charming place. It's a well-known wine village, and the name means "Sober wine".
Poil, in Brittany: fur on an amimal, or the hair that covers human body parts. A poil means naked.
Condom, in the Gers. Well this one, which gets a lot of attention, is self-explanatory. They don't use this word in French (it's préservatif, here), but they're well aware, and proud, of it's meaning.
Anus, in the Yonne
La Baffe, in the Yosges, means a slap
Bourré, Loir-et-Cher, means drunk
..And finally, a name that clearly evokes the US president's deplorable behavior: Pussy, in the Savoie.
A housekeeping note: For anyone who got an email reminder for the last post, then another one later, mes excuses. I have no idea what happened, my blog seemed to go rogue on me. We'll see if it happens this time, hope not.
In the COMMENTS: For you francophones, Ralphe has a lovely story to tell about his cat Chocolat. Alix has a “gaggle" of cats in her neighborhood. Suzanne we will all say a prayer for your kitty, and yes I aspire to be a cat lady too (nixed by Ron). Vicky, please hang in there with that chat sauvage. Tom, good luck with the trip, I think you will need it. Christine, love love the story of the hypothetical cats! Paula has brought up a hotly debated topic in the cat world. I am of two minds myself. For a good discussion of the topic, I refer everyone to The Lion in Your Living Room. Which is a wonderfully interesting and well researched book for anyone to read, about how cats domesticated us, and took over the world, the internet, and maybe your household.
17 thoughts on “A Town Called “Fish””
In Normandy, near to where my mother and father in law lived for many years, there’s a small town famous for its bell foundry and also for its copper cooking pans. It’s called Villedieu les Poeles which I think literally translates as, “God’s Town of the Frying Pans”.
There are a few towns in Pennsylvania that boast names vulgaire aussi!
I’m heading to France to visit friends and rellys in a few days! Can’t wait!
St. Barbant should be a sister city (or twinned as they say in France and the UK) with a town outside Portland, Oregon named “Boring.”
There is a village near to us called La Chappelle de Mont de France, which sounds so enticing.
However, when you get there it is so disappointing, nothing to recommend it at all.
We can see it from our balcony and it looks so picturesque from a distance.
I once had the pleasure of driving through Climax, Saskatchewan!
Arizona has three three-letter towns; Rye, Why and Ajo(pronounced “ah ho”)
Lynn,these city names are terrific!
My contribution,alas, is rather puny in comparison:
Death Valley in California(aptly named,I’m told) Belgrade,both in Montana and Maine–after Belgrade in Serbia.(Belgrade means “white town”),and Santa Barbara,in California,after St Barbara.
Another book suggestion–this one dates from 1988,but is just as much of a page turner now as it was then…Knight In Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux.(think it was her first book;she’s written quite a few since)
American girl with(what turns out to be)cad boyfriend and his bratty,spoiled daughter all journey to England where they dump the American without her purse,money,suitcases,or anything else.Despondent and crying,she wanders into a church and falls upon a burial vault
containing a nobleman from previous centuries.She begs for a knight in shining armour to rescue her,and!viola!She gets one!
Please leave politics off a fun blog.
The Sterilization chart is amazing! When we adopted a 6-7 month old half wild kitten last summer we fed her, tamed her and took her to the vet to be sterilized, tattooed, etc. only to find she had already been sterilized! This is a mystery to this day but it must mean the farmers in the villages also recognize the importance of this. Heartening thought, especially after seeing the above chart.
Why I was in school in Glendale my Arizona history teacher told us “Ajo” meant “Where the hell am I?” I’ve never found out if that was actually true, but I do think it fits as I’ve been through Ajo!
Such whacky names! The best around us is Les Choses – the things. hmmm maybe even unprintable things….
We have a Climax in Georgia, also.
Bonjour,
Concernant Bourgvilain, ce village s’écrit avec un seul “l”.
It is quite possible that the inhabitants of this place were all ugly (bad luck) but the word “vilain” also has another meaning. In the Middle-Ages, the peasants could be either “serfs” (pronounced “ser”) who are owned by their master or “vilains” who were free. If I may say, the vilains ranked above the serfs. None of them had an easy life, though.
A famous expression : “Jeux de mains, jeux de vilains” originates in the fact that in those days the “vilains” only had their hands to fight, not being permitted to own arms. This expression is often distorted so as to give the sense of “naughty” to the word “vilains”. Because yes, “vilain” does mean “ugly” AND “naughty”.
Another Oregon town is “Drain.”
There’s a village near the Bergerac airport named “Faux.”
As to the unusual French town names, there is Bouzy in Champagne. In Australian Bouzy means to have alot to drink. Very appropriate in Champagne. The rumour is that Australian soldiers in WW1 passing through Bouzy adopted the name. May not be true but is a good story.
That was an inspired subject! Don’t know how you even thought of that!! Bravo! I do have a nice little photo of me next to a village sign named ALIX though, so i do get it!
Still loving your cat stories! In the US when feral cats are sterilized the vet nicks the ear, so you can see from a distance that you do not need to trap that cat again! But the downside in our neighborhood is that once the surrounding area knows someone cares, people drop off their unwanted pets. And that is sad. A