Rouvrir or Réouvrir?

[Chancer]

I was speaking to a restauranteur, I asked him when they re-opened (after a fire), I was using the passé composé form of rouvrir with the correct auxiliary verb (vous avez rouvert) but he didnt understand me, a frequent occurence, he kept replying with their opening hours, I persisted with insistence on the prononciation and you could see the penny drop but then it was I that was confused because he said very clearly in his reply “nous avons réouvert………..”

No such verb or conjugaison in my Bescherel, I wondered if he was a foreigner, perhaps from Belgium but when I look on Linguée.fr it does give réouvrir as a verb.

Can anyone explain? Am I saying/using rouvrir incorrectly?

[NormanH]

I only know réouvrir

http://la-conjugaison.nouvelobs.com/du/verbe/reouvrir.php

BUT

http://parler-francais.eklablog.com/rouvrir-reouvrir-a26639979

[mint]

I am reading a French book, incidentally with the first page opening in a military hospital in Amiens and so I was already thinking about you, Chance, where rouvrir is on several pages a number of times.

[Chancer]

Interesting Norman, did you see the photo at the bottom of the only wood that doesnt float? [6]

 

I just asked a pal but after reading the article i think his answer was just face saving rather than admit he didnt know, he said that you open a shutter for the first time ouvrir after closing it you open it a second time rouvrir and thereafter its réouvrir  - I am not convinced and I recall having a similar conversation regarding battery charging and recharging, charger et recharger

[Chancer]

Is the book Birdsong Mint?

 

If so the bulk of the story takes place very near me.

[mint]

No, Chance, the book is called La vie tranchée and it's a book about the first world war.

Of course, tranchée as in trenches and also cut up as in vous voulez le tranché (bread).

I was speaking to a man on my walk today and he was saying that language evolves and that many things are now said differently.  Unfortunately, he doesn't like reading, preferring to watch videos so couldn't talk about words to him.

I came across many slang words in the book that I don't think are now current.

But there WAS one thing that still exists.  The narrator talks about Valda, which is a pastille for sore throats and lung related problems.  As you can imagine, in the mud and wet of the trenches, the men suffered from these things and Valda was sent by the narrator's mother to him whilst he was fighting at the front.

Then, a couple of days ago, I saw these pastilles for sale at the pharmacie when I went to get my prescription and I mentioned to the pharmacien that I'd read about these Valda pastilles and then he said that the poilus also had les poux and, of course, they did, poor things!