French (and most other) civil servants are wonderful people; their time is generally spent making life as difficult as possible for the hard working section of society.
Above all, they just LOVE to change things.
When I first moved to France in 1972, the area where I settled was known as 'Southern Périgord'; that suited me fine.
Not long after, it changed to 'Périgord Noir' (after the truffles), and I thought that sounded OK too.
Then it became 'Périgord Pourpre', but I had no idea why, and didn't care for it too much.
Now, in their infinite wisdom, they have changed it yet again to 'Vallée Dordogne' (bottom right in picture). Yesterday I received this newly revised map, which frankly leaves me dumbstruck.
So, if anyone now asks me where I live in France, I shall return to the name I originally used, and reply 'In Southern Périgord'; because that describes the area perfectly; only why the civil servants themselves haven't yet noticed that, I'm not sure!
Believe me, France isn't the only country that likes to pull that kind of shenanigans. In our town, politicians seem to take great joy out of changing street names, which is no inexpensive endeavor. They especially like to name roads after politicians, who all too often turn out to be crooked or embarrassingly foolish. So they change the street name again.
ReplyDeleteIf you change some perfectly good name, it's amazing how many other things need to be changed at the same time. A perfect example of money wasting.
DeleteLook at the bright side you grumpy old sod, it makes it damn awkward for unannounced visitors to find you!
ReplyDeleteI once stayed in Lalinde in the 1970s At the time I thought it was a small hamlet and not much of a place but I see it merits an entry on your new map I also remember on a quiet afternoon hunters suddenly appeared in the garden and a gang of them rang through firing guns and then it went quiet again. Funny how your map brought it all back to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure why it merits a special mention either. In fact the whole bloody lot baffles me!
DeleteThey did that with counties in the UK some years ago and many locals just refused to accept it and continued to use the old names - not that it did them any good.
ReplyDeleteHope you stick to your guns and call it what you like.
This indeed happens everywhere. Here in India, you can trace the names of some places from the ancient times. A small difference is that here a place usually keeps a name for at least a few centuries :-)
ReplyDeleteThey'll get back to it eventually.
ReplyDeleteI should have added that previously there were 4 administrative areas of our 'department' (Perigord); now there are over 21. What wonderful opportunities for extra civil servants that offers!
ReplyDeleteClearly as is the case in almost everywhere else in the world, your civil servants have little better to do with their time and your money, time to shut the spicket off on the leeches.
ReplyDeleteHi Cro....No wonder I get confused finding locations in France! Your pick of names does describe best, but I fancy the 3rd one....
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