Tuesday 5 August 2008

The Suburbs of Preuilly

In a comment on a previous post, John wrote about la Garenne and I responded that I am sure I knew the map he was talking about.


This is the large hand drawn map in front of the Post Office in Preuilly sur Claise. It's quite an old document - the adverts next to the map are advertising businesses that closed a number of years ago - and it shows what at first appears to be suburbs.

No - they're not really suburbs, but what else would you call them? (Sub-suburbs?) They aren't the parishes - Preuilly once had 6 parishes, including Notre Dame and St Nicholas - although one of those parishes shows as a name on the map. I think they are communes that have been absorbed into the town. As you walk around town you can see little signs -the sort you get on the roads in the country poiting towards little clusters of houses off the road - with some of these names on them. (Like this one, photographed in midwinter 2006. I looked through 12,000 photos I have taken and this looks like the only time I have caught one of these signs!)


(this is a matching cross to one I posted earlier)

Simon

2 comments:

Ken Broadhurst said...

Aren't these hameaux, or hamlets?

Simon said...

Ken

I'm not sure if they are Hameaux or not. You're right, the sign is the same as those that point to Hameaux, but we do know people who's house has a similar sign on the road, so I'm not sure that the pointing sign is really indicative of the stature of the place named.

It's interesting, les Delices isn't even a part of Preuilly - the sign say "A commune of Boussay". You would never know if not for the sign, and the Preuilly works department depot* is there too.

*lawnmower shed, I think

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