Rich associations from when France, like England, was well stocked with well stocked tobacconists. With one, for example, being from the time when you only had to ask a tobacconist whether he had this or that obscure brand of cigarettes in for him to get a carton of the things in. Retail margins must have been good. Also the time when some young adult males thought it cool to be able to bang on about said obscure brands and their various merits - rather like their heirs bang on about coffee now. No woodies here, thank you very much.
Presumably related, by name at least, to the Boulestin restaurants which we have had here in London for nearly a century. See reference 1. It is even possible that we have used one of their various incarnations, probably in the 1980's or 1990's. The only catch being that I remember moderate prices and moderate décor in Fitzrovia, which does not seem to fit with what a quick google turns up.
Bénévent-l'Abbaye is a modest little place smack in the middle of France, maybe 25 miles north of Limoges, while the chap I bought the Maigret from is maybe the same distance to the south. See reference 2. Maybe second hand book dealers are not that common in central France - they certainly seemed to be thin on the ground in Paris when we were last there, maybe ten years ago now. I think we came across one in a week. Antiquarian yes, second hand no.
Nor does gmaps know anything about a Rue Boulestein, the best it can do being a small town garage called Boulesteix. While google does not seem to know anything about a Yedo. Mystery.
I close with the factlet which has just popped into mind: the verb limoger meant, during the first world war, to put a French general, who was not doing too well in the front line, out to grass. Perhaps the French army's depot for saucisson sec was in Limoges. The management of which was general greedy.
Reference 1: http://boulestin.com/.
Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/simenon-1.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment