Franche-Comté means "free county", and used to be the Free County of Burgundy, to distinguish it from The Duchy of Burgundy next door. If I understand correctly (which is always debatable,) the rulers of Burgundy found it useful to divide the kingdom whenever they had two sons, so each could have a bit. The name Franche-Comté first appears in 1366, and the region has so far resisted proposals by Norman (see our Centre blog) to re-name it The Bit Near Switzerland Half Way Up The Right Hand Side.
The region was christianised in the sixth century by St Colombanus. Columbanus was an Irishman and was born in Nobber, County Meath. It may even have been Columbanus himself who composed "I love Nobber in the Springtime" and "Nobber, Nobber, it's a Wonderful Town". He was ridiculously good-looking ('Colum Ban' means 'handsome Colum',) and his perfect bone-structure exposed him daily to the shameless advances of local women. Columbanus sought advice from a "religious woman", who must have been truly religious, because, rather than recommending regular weekly counselling sessions, she told him to flee from almost-certain temptation and take the Holy Word to Franche-Comté. He did so, and today you can visit Luxeuil Abbey, which he founded in 590. Many miracles are attributed to Columbanus, including persuading a bear to excavate his cave. Quite how he persuaded the bear is not recorded. Of course, it may have been a female bear, in which case, she probably offered to lay his patio as well.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
No comments:
Post a Comment