Date   : Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:35:24 +0200
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: ADSL capabilities

Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:

> I know our council's AGM is officially called the "Installation of
> the Lord Mayor", but I didn't realise that in France they attach a
> telecoms box to him ;)

:-) *EVERY* village, town, city has a Mayor. He is a Very Important 
Person, usually an amicable arbitrator of incredible trivia like how and 
when you can block off the roads to march cows around. [the French are 
big on paperwork!] He does real work too. It involves paperwork in 
triplicate...

There is no official definition of a "city" as Brits would know it. 
Paris is a "town" (ville). A city, in French, is a citadel, which is 
kinda rare.

Note - ville is a town, not a village.

How do you tell the difference between a village and a town? Easy - in a 
village, the Mayor's building is called the "Mairie" (where the Maire 
works, I guess). I think up to around 5000 people can be a village.

In a town, the Mayor's building is called the "Hotel de Ville", which 
causes no end of amusement upon hearing stories of friends-of-friends 
(you know how it is...) calling up the "Hotel" attempting in franglais 
to book a couple of nights.

So, if you ever plan to come to France and you're googling for a hotel, 
just IGNORE all the ones with "hotel de ville"!

Unlike England, there is no distinction of "cathedral = city".


> Sorry, can't help. I go into work to use the web.

Argh! Cyberslacker! <giggle>


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...