Wednesday, February 25, 2009

La Maire D'Eu

Say it quickly and you'll see why I've got the giggles. Apparently, there's a little town on the border of Normandie and Picardie that's called simply "Eu."


Photo taken from the article linked below. (Charles Bremner)

Why is this funny? Well - first of all "eu" is the sound that's made in French when people are at a loss for words...kind of like "um" or "uh" in English. Could you imagine answering the question "where are you from?" with "Ummmm?"

I recently spotted this article which details the town's struggle not only to change their name because of its sound, but also because it can't be found in Google searches by tourists. Think about it - googling "Eu" will probably give you a whole host of hits regarding the European Union, conjugations of the French verb "avoir" and a whole handful of other things OTHER than this French town.

Although the name change is opposed by some residents, the Mayor is pushing to adapt the name to attract increased tourist activity - something that has been difficult in this internet age with a town name that's so hard to distinguish.

It's definitely a story I want to follow to see whether or not La Maire d'Eu succeeds in her quest.

4 comments:

La Belette Rouge said...

A short story about this town would be fantastic in which all the people who live in Eu are at a loss for words and some hero in the town goes on a search for consonants and brings them home so that the residents of Eu can speak again.

p.s. Thanks so much for the Lily babysitting offer. I have pictures posted of her on my blog today if you want to see who you are offering to babysit.:-)

KEF said...

HILARIOUS idea to have a town of people without consonants. You made me laugh out loud!

You must be getting so excited already for your visit!

chm said...

Stumbled on your blog from Vivi.

Fortunately, the mayor of Eu is a woman. If it were a man it would be le maire d'Eu and that sounds very bad to a French ear, and is very vulgar. LOL. Whereas la maire d'Eu is OK.

Maybe you didn't know that the artesian well feeding the Blomet piscine was located on Place Breteuil, before it was moved to rue Blomet. The Pasteur monument replaced it.

Anonymous said...

d'Eu: a very aristocratic name in France? The comte d'Eu, son of the king of France? Married to the daughter of the Emperor of Brazil?