Well, this string has got me so excited that I can hardly eat my popcorn, but
all good things must come to an end and I think that this poor lady has seen
quite enough hot-house academic abuse.
Perhaps some kind soul [Martin?? what are Humanities Librarians good for,
after all] will put me out of my misery, save me a trip to Berkeley and look
the danged place up in Joanne?? (nuts, I can't even find a trace of
"Valieres-les-Grands" on the knet)
Please.
As best I can make out from the pons asinorum to the 21th century, there is no
volume in the departemental _Dictionnaire topographique_ series for the
Indre-et-Loire, perhaps because there *is* this:
Carre de Busserolle, Jacques Xavier. Dictionnaire geographique, historique et
biographique d'Indre-et-Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine. (Memoires
de la Societe archeologique de Touraine ; t. xxvii-??), 1878-84 [Reprinted by
the Societe in 1966?]. 7 (or 6) v. in 3.
Surely someone on the list could let their fingers do the walking through
these yellowed pages and salvage what little may remain of this simple
habidasheress' reputation.
Graham Jones will have his little jokes, asking me:
>Christopher, to your knowledge do any other French _lieux_ have a first
>element 'Frip' - and rather more to the point, is it possible that 'b' >could
become 'p' through changes in pronunciation?
Hagiographically challenged,
Etymologically challenged,
Topographically challenged,
I now bare all:
I am toponymically challenged.
A recovering, toponymically-challenged, person.
Cheeze, Graham, don't rub it in.
I haven't a clue.
Where's that Hot Fritz person when we need him?
Though I still persist in my belief that "Ste-F-les-Bois" suggests that there
are/were *other* Sainte-Fripettes (or at least one), bureaucraticaly
necessitating the added sobriquet (?)
Martin Howley's "Chinchette >> Saint Shotts" transmutation is
interesting, though would not seem to be relevant here, as we don't have the
presence of the bumbling Anglo-Saxon insensitivity to corrupt the purity of
French Sainctity.
Except for the guy who started it all.
Say, Anselm, where did you come across this mythological place in the first
instance??
This is all some kind of cruel joke, puttin on ole massa, right?
BTW, my original remark about "manufactured saints" was not meant to open any
floodgates of hagiographic abuse. I personally find the story of St. Cheron
(patron of the cemetery hill of Chartres) to be, not an example of
dark ages superstition, but of synesthetic brilliance.
Best to all from here,
Christopher
P.s. George, how, precisely, does one "move laterally" in a dictionary?
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