Asked Larousse and he tells me that it is an English term for a two masted boat used for fishing or in the coasting trade. Entirely consistent with the story being set in the late twenties, in Concarneau, an important fishing port in Brittany. But slightly irritating in that we have here an English word about boats which I did not know of, rather priding myself on my nautical knowledge, derived from boyhood fascination with same.
Dundee was about cakes and was a town with a seaside railway. Nothing to do with fishing boats.
Furthermore, OED does not even contain an entry for dundee. skipping direct from duncur to dunder. Even google fails to deliver. So what is Simenon on about?
Worse still, I remember there being a long, low railway bridge across the Tay at Dundee, having crossed the Tay on it one very picturesque evening, many years ago now. Wikipedia knows all about it, but google maps only shows a road bridge. But I persist, and eventually google maps reveals a very faintly drawn rail bridge, crossing north from Wormit. Much more visible in the satellite version. All present and correct in streetview. Even more present and correct in the OS map illustrated - a good example of how much better a real map can be than a google map. But I suppose I have to allow that google does better on accessibility and coverage.
So at least that puzzle is solved and I can now concentrate on the boating problem.
Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/larousse.html.
Reference 2: http://www.larousse.fr/.
No comments:
Post a Comment