Thursday, March 30, 2006

Where can I find this charming little village?


This won't probably look funny to you if you don't speak French, but if you do, you will probably burst out laughing. This ad that runs in the Metro at the moment promotes a Web site that is well known for selling train tickets. Now this site also sells plane tickets, but fewer people know it. What you see here is a typical sign you can find at the entrance of French villages. Except that here, the name looks typically French, but when you pronounce it, it sounds like... Los Angeles!

31 comments:

  1. Haha! Very clever play on pronunciation :)

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  2. Bravo! Good find!

    Et en plus 528 Euros TTC, c'est pas cher!!

    And by the way, 528 Euros (all taxes included) is rather cheap!!

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  3. Whoahoo! Hahaha... funny!

    (phew)

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  4. Great! Who said French arn't great at marketing their products.

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  5. What a blast! There's a whole series of them: Yste-en-boule, Quancoune, Nouillorc, St Gapour, Nioudelie. I found the web site at: http://www.voyages-sncf.com/leisure/fr/market/promos/campagne/agence2006.htm

    Joli coup d'oeil, Eric (comme d'hab!) Must have been a challenge to take this picture on the rounded walls of the metro...

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  6. Hahahaha these are hilarious - thanks filoo for pointing out the others!

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  7. I just found out that the SNCF (the company) had purchased the web domains for all these names scroll down to Voyages-sncf.com
    I love how authentic the picture looks. Even the sign has a dent, like those old concrete ones...

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  8. Thanks Julia.

    Eric, I challenge you to find the picture of another one of their fake villages, Gastreau-en-Therite. They registered the name, I can't wait to see the picture...

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  9. After admiring Erics beautiful photos of Paris for months now I cannot understand why anyone would want to leave!!

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  10. *giggles madly* Those are too funny. I second filoo! You should go on a little fake village treasure hunt, Eric. That would be so much fun! I wish my city had things as cool as that.

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  11. Et dire qu'il y en a encore qui osent être anti-pub malgré le bonheur qu'elle nous apporte :D

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  12. "Anonymous said...
    After admiring Erics beautiful photos of Paris for months now I cannot understand why anyone would want to leave!!"

    Well, the pictures are just this ... pictures. The reality of living in Paris is much more complicated and challenging than meet the eyes.

    Not that Paris doesn't have it's charm, but it also has many evils.

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  13. I'm an au pair, and while on the subway with the children we stopped at a stop with the same advertisement, but "Nouillorc" for New York. Without making the connection the little girl saw the ad and yelled: "On est a Nouillorc!" And most people on the subway laughed. Precious moment!

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  14. Hi, I really love your blog I discoverd some days ago, a refreshing view on Paris I advise in my blog...

    Regarding this ad (the one about New York is great too). Some time ago, they also had an ad speaking about a transatlantic train that was great, i almost get tricked...

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  15. Hi Eric, this is so funny and it reminds me of once hearing somebody saying "lost wages", you know the casinos city in the US...

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  16. Yes, Virginie, the Transatlantic train… that was very much fun !
    About Losse-en-Gelaisse and Co, what I love too is the desperatly french background of these pictures !…
    It's good to have la Sncf to laugh in France these days !

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  17. Ahahah, ils ont de l'humour à la SNCF!

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  18. J'ai vu ces pubs lundi, dans le métro, elles sont vraiment trop drôles: Nouillorc, Nioudélie... LOL!

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  19. Cette campagne publicitaire du site de la sn*f est vraiment excellente, j'ai vu aussi ces affinches dans le RER & métro. Félicitation pour ton blog que je découvre et qui est vraiment excellent ! Beau coup d'oeil et beaucoup de talent ! :-)

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  20. All you who enjoy this "language" that's linguistically french but phonetically english would love a book by Louis d'Antin van Rooten published in the mid-60s. It's a collection of english nursery rhymes transcribed into this strange bastard language. Its title is Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames (say it out loud and you'll get it, if your french pronunciation is up to snuff). Here's my personal favourite:

    Un petit d'un petit
    S'étonne aux Halles
    Un petit d'un petit
    Ah! degrés te fallent
    Indolent qui ne sort cesse
    Indolent qui ne se mène
    Qu'importe un petit d'un petit
    Tout Gai de Reguennes.

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  21. These arw fabulous! Losse-en-gelaise, Nouillorc...c'est trop cool! When i was studying in belgium, we wrote out English phonetic nursery rhymes like the one above and one called 'Le tel Mise ma Fête' and put them on the back of the toilet door. One of my belgian flatmates, Magali, got up in the middle of the night to use the loo and apparently spent about half an hour in the loo trying to work out the 'drivel' we'd put on the door! Those were the days!

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  22. It just took me longer than it should have to figure that out Stu! Whew...I tried to translate it first. Duh!

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  23. It is now necessary to speak Spanish before being allowed to enter Losse-en-Gelaisse, now a part of Mexifornia.

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  24. Is there a Washington D.C. in that ad campaign?

    MATTHEW ROSE

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  25. Matthew, no there is no Washington DC, but it could be something like:

    Ouache In tonne d'Issy!

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