Found the house... now what to call it !!!

[Louise]

Evening all....

As you know I have found the property for the B&B but for the life of me can not think of a name !! I have been searching websites of chambre d'hotes for months in the hope of some inspiration.

The house does not have any distinguishing features - it is a big I guess you call it borguoise... with steps leading up to the front door from both sides so its quite grand looking I suppose... It is infront of the church (but doesnt overlook it) and is about 200m from the river (but you cant see it)... the house faces three streets - front and two sides.... It is a great house honest but just nothing jumps out at me that I could name it after....

Where did you all get you inspiration ?

Louise :-)

[Catalpa]

Are there any large trees you can name the house after? Or roses? Or you could plant roses!

What is the address at the moment? You don't have to post it here but for eg, does it have a number? I know one or two b&bs called Number 5... or whatever.

Here are two... which have absolutely nothing to do with me. [:P]

Number 1

Numero Cinq

Or you could maybe call it after birds - Les Hirondelles (swallows) or Maison de la Dame Blanche (House of the Barn Owl).

La Dame Blanche is nothing to do with me either - but I quite fancy staying there.

I think you have to announce your house's name at the Mairie and at la Poste... but not sure about that.

[Louise]

No there is nothing.... it is in the middle of the village so no trees close by. We do have a little patch of garden at the side of the front so could plant something there.

It has no number (as I quite like numero....- the address is just Le Bourg..... The streets are named after the mairie and the church... I was thinking church walk or river walk but dont know how these translate as you can walk down one side of the house to the church and the other side to the river.

Its really hard as I know that the name can make or break it !!

[mint]

Louise, your property sounds lovely.  Good Luck with your new venture!

Actually, I'm really glad you have asked this question.

I, too, want to give my house a name, mostly because the name of our little allée has no street board and, even with detailed descriptions, we have had people who can't find it!

I thought if I called it something obvious; for example les tournesols (no, that's not what I want to call it!) and have large painted sunflowers and it's only a titchy village, it might make us easier to find.

I have also wondered whether there is anything "official" you need to do to get it recognised.  With our last house, we did carry on with the name the previous owners told us it was called (one of many lies, as we found out later) principally because it shared a plot with another house and I got fed up of getting the other people's letters.

In that instance, I told the mairie and the post office.

Oh, you might like to call your house Les Oeillets.  I think it's such a pretty name and it's stuck in my mind because it's the name of the little hotel in one of my favourite French-based books, The Greengage Summer by Rumer Gooden.

[Catalpa]

Louise, could you do some research and find out a bit of the history of the house - who lived there previously... is it the Old Presbytery, for eg. Or is it a Maison de Maitre (so it could be called La Maison de Maitre).

Or a house down in the valley here is called le Trois Fenêtres, which is rather nice. Or what colours are your shutters... should you have any... les Volets Bleus ?

[mint]

Here you are, Louise, images for les Oeillets:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=les+oeillets&hl=en&biw=980&bih=577&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=sOSVTtrjI4a2hAemkYXDBg&sqi=2&ved=0CDwQsAQ

They'd be easy to grow in your little garden and the image will lend itself, should you so wish, to an identity for you.  You could have the image on stationary, you could have the flowers in vases in your B & B, painted sign for the front, metal cut-outs in the garden.

So many applications and so distinctive.  Then, read the book, if you haven't already, and it's a bit of a talking point then, how you thought of the name.

Sorry...............things like this always get me carried away as I love graphics and I'm also interested in how inanimate things acquire identities!

[Catalpa]

This is fun, isn't it Sweets ! [:D]

[mint]

YES, Catalpa!  And I have lots and lots of ideas once I get going.....[:-))]

[idun]

or Maison de la Dame Blanche (House of the Barn Owl).

 

Now that is a new one on me, I thought that La Dame Blanche was the White Lady, isn't it?

 

 

[mint]

Better still, Louise, why not call it Les Eaux Tranquilles like Quillan has his?

The thing is, Q itself is such a wonderful letter of the alphabet to work with graphically.  Lends itself so well to all sorts of embellishments with its little tail!

Quillan himself will be chuffed because don't they say that Imitation is the sincerest form of Flattery?[:D]

Yes, I can see the graphic, Les Eaux Tranguilles, with it once the right side up and then beneath it upside down, just like a reflection in tranquil waters.  After all, you do have a river next to you.

And I'd be inclined to make the Q in extra large size and the "tail" sort of wavy like a little ripple.  You could do "little ripples" with the L, the E and the T as well but, to get it all in proportion, I'd just enlarge the Q and give that prominence.

Hey, just as well I can't use Corel Draw or something like that here, or I'd be tempted to design you a logo right here, right now, as the Americans say!  Why, I could make the "O" part of the letter "Q" like a water wheel or a setting sun over the water or even.......nah, don't get me going or I'll be thinking stuff up all night instead of sleeping![:D]

[Catalpa]

[quote user="idun"]Now that is a new one on me, I thought that La Dame Blanche was the White Lady, isn't it?[/quote]

Did you click the link? Yes, it is white lady, of course, but la dame blanche is the (or a) popular name for the barn owl, barn owls being a white and silent spectre sweeping up and down the fields at dawn and dusk. Hence the little graphic for Maison de la Dame Blanche on their site. Other owl names are chouette and hibou.

La Maison du Hibou

And Hôtel La Chouette...

Edited to add:

And the other name for a barn owl is chouette effraie. A chouette hulotte is a tawny owl.

[Chancer]

Why a name at all? What is wrong with just the address?

I can understand giving the business a name but naming a property in France is only usually done for residences secondaires.

[Catalpa]

[quote user="Chancer"]Why a name at all? [/quote]

<thud> [:-))]

The property is the business. That's why it needs a memorable name. Le Bourg doesn't really cut it as something evocative that can be developed into a brand.

[Louise]

Thanks for all the ideas...I am going to look in to a couple of them as possibilities but please do keep the ideas coming.....

The house used to be a restaurant but it didnt have a name - it was just referred to as chez pierre (or something like that).

The name is for the business as you say which is the house and they have Le Bourg in the centre of every village. I would say our house is in the centre of the village or it certainly looks like it on google maps.

Its a shame I cant post a picture of it on here....

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=9134cbebc4c027be&page=play&resid=9134CBEBC4C027BE!390

Not sure if you will be able to see it this way. It needs a coat of paint although that is going to take up to 6 months to get approval on the colour !!

[Louise]

Just checked - it works if you copy and paste the link... The house is the bit and the front and the bit behind (on the first picture). As you can see it is a bit uninspiring at the minute but it has been empty for a few years. A lick of paint and some flowers etc should brighten it up nicely :-)

[pachapapa]

Unlike the chouette the hibou has aigrettes.

If you call a chouette a hibou a french 5 year old will correct you.

[mint]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Why a name at all? What is wrong with just the address?

I can understand giving the business a name but naming a property in France is only usually done for residences secondaires.

[/quote]

Well then, Chance, my house is not a residence secondaire but I intend to give it a name.  In fact, I am going to call it after the house in dept 44 that I thought was going to be mine until the owner told me he'd changed his mind.

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful that he did change his mind because I am now in the perfect house for me.  So, I want to give it a beautiful name and I want to design the graphics for the name.

So, to turn your question around, what's wrong with a name?

[mint]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

Unlike the chouette the hibou has aigrettes.

If you call a chouette a hibou a french 5 year old will correct you.

[/quote]

The only thing I know about "hibou" is that it is one of those five words (is it five?) ending in "ou" where you need to remember to add an"x" for the plural.

So, taking it alphabetically, it's ...bijou, caillou, hibou....ugh, can't remember the others now but I probably will by morning.

[Chancer]

Whats wrong with a name?

Well nothing in my book but I wonder how the majority, i.e. the French look on houses in France that have been named, I recall travelling around my area in Sussex with my French ex and she kept giggling to herself, when asked why she said it was because so many people had given their houses names when they already had a number, I could see her logic.

On my usual route to Arras I pass a couple of dwellings that have names, they are probably the only ones in the area, to me they might as well have put up a union standard to show when they were in residence like the guy on the telly (so i am told).

Along by the river there are a couple of chalets with names, they are definitely residence secondaires and have familiar names, ie fond ones.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="sweet 17"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Unlike the chouette the hibou has aigrettes.

If you call a chouette a hibou a french 5 year old will correct you.

[/quote]

The only thing I know about "hibou" is that it is one of those five words (is it five?) ending in "ou" where you need to remember to add an"x" for the plural.

So, taking it alphabetically, it's ...bijou, caillou, hibou....ugh, can't remember the others now but I probably will by morning.

[/quote]

Cant remember the forum but there was someone called chouette with a hibou avatar, always made me smile.

Or was it vice-versa![:)]

[idun]

Catalpa, I clicked on the link and it took me to the main page of this board every time, so I decided that it was just 'pretty blue' and not a link at all. We haven't heard of barn owls being called dame blanche, either of us. Maybe it isn't a popular name where we lived or we'd missed it.

To the OP

Lots of names you can chose.

 

As was said, the shutter or door colour, IF you can ofcourse. And if you like something like sailing or fishing or gardening or whatever, then have a big picture of what you like in the hallway. 

 

Here's one, call the house Maison des Impressionnistes and then have a picture in each bedroom by each of them,

Degas   Van Gogh  Monet    Manet   Renoir    Cezanne............. there are more of them, see what you like.

 

 

I can think of many many things.

 

 

Have you thought about not being married in France? I would never buy with someone in France and not be not married, ie just be a concubine. I'm not religious, I just like having the 'legal' side sorted out, especially when purchasing a property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Louise]

Hi Catalpa,

We think the shutters are going to have to be grey...to fit in with the rules of the church. did you open the link to the pictures ?

Impressionists is a thought :-)

As for the legal side... I have that covered (I think) as the house is in my name only... might look at a PAC at a later date.

[idun]

Well that is sorted then. I still wouldn't be in France and unmarried. I don't understand the PACs thing, it was started to allow homosexuals to have more rights, so it was a very good idea. 

Since it started, boy, do I know of some abuse of it by hetrosexuals. 

[Gemonimo]

[quote user="Louise"]Hi Catalpa, We think the shutters are going to have to be grey...to fit in with the rules of the church. did you open the link to the pictures ? Impressionists is a thought :-) As for the legal side... I have that covered (I think) as the house is in my name only... might look at a PAC at a later date.[/quote]

Louise, there is grey..... and then there is grey.  I have just painted all my shutters and doors with the colour 'Pigeon' which is on ther Farrow and Ball grey page.  It goes brilliantly with the climbing rose 'Pierre de Ronsard' on the front of the house.  As an aside, I know Farrow and Ball paint is expensive but it is 'eco' and painting with it is like using cream. I'm nearly a pensioner[:-))] but painting my shutters (and there are lots of them) has been a real pleasure.  The tough part was sanding and preparing them.

Good luck with your project and keep posting pictures of your progress.

[mint]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Whats wrong with a name?

Well nothing in my book but I wonder how the majority, i.e. the French look on houses in France that have been named, I recall travelling around my area in Sussex with my French ex and she kept giggling to herself, when asked why she said it was because so many people had given their houses names when they already had a number, I could see her logic.

On my usual route to Arras I pass a couple of dwellings that have names, they are probably the only ones in the area, to me they might as well have put up a union standard to show when they were in residence like the guy on the telly (so i am told).

Along by the river there are a couple of chalets with names, they are definitely residence secondaires and have familiar names, ie fond ones.

[/quote]

Well, Chance, I mean to give my house a name because I choose to and if people think I am some ignorant Brit and want to laugh, well they can. 

Generally, I think you do what you like and, as long as it doesn't impinge adversely on anyone else's life, you go ahead.  My goodness, I'd hardly have dared move a limb in life if I never do things that are thought to be strange by others.