Is France about to undo a 70 year wrong?
Under Pétain, France's historic regions were mucked about with for administrative convenience, resulting in the equivalent of Cardiff ceasing to be the chief city of its nation. Bretons, for it is they, can get quite irate about Nantes / Naoned and Loire Atlantique not being part of Brittany, but rather being part of a wholly artificial construction called Pays De La Loire concocted from parts of Brittany, Poitou, Anjou and Maine.
And here are the modern regions and historic ones:
And here are the modern regions and historic ones:
Plenty of other wrongs there for the redressing too, like shoehorning Orléanais and Berry into 'Centre' - top marks for imaginative naming, people - and doing away with the Dauphiné.Anyway, this is at issue as Sarko himself has raised the question while addressing a Mayoral bunfight:
"There are two Normandies. But does there need to be? In Alsace, some people think it could be arranged differently. Brittany is four splendid departments (1). But when I go to Nantes, they tell me this is the historic capital of Brittany.... Is it necessary - as I think - to encourage an experiment to merge a certain number of regions which wish to do so?"
Note that when the Babylon that was the German Democratic Republic fell, the newly re-united Germany did away with the 15 Bezirke and reconstituted the five Bismarckian lander (-ish - No Prussia), so if Kohl could do it, why can't Sarko? I have had a look at online editions of Ouest France and Le Télégramme de Brest and neither seems to have editorialised the issue, which is pretty poor.
Meanwhile, a Breton cleric of my acquaintance refuses to use the first republic departéments in his correspondence, preferring the pre-revolution bishoprics instead.
Meanwhile, a Breton cleric of my acquaintance refuses to use the first republic departéments in his correspondence, preferring the pre-revolution bishoprics instead.
(1) He has form when it comes to annoying Bretons - 'Je me fous des Bretons' - so mindful of the next election he will always be going out of his way to butter them up.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 28, 2008 at 9:28 am.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Let's do the same here. Let's rid ourselves of West Midlands, Greater London, Greater Manchester, et al.
Et puis? La Piaf sang "Je me fous du monde entier" and people still buy her records.
@ Blue Eyes - let's rid ourselves of Scotland and save lots of money. Id' (sic) love to see the Salmon's fat face when he realised the cuts he'd have to make.
BE - Yes please. We can then pretend we live in Surrey - or are you a man of Kent? And while I'm at it, Avon delenda est, once and for all.
M.O'B - I think Wee Eck could find his nation replaying his ancestors' Panamanian problems, and to steal from Flann O'Brien, in a pique in Darien.
» Post a Comment