french conectoin ?

[logman]

I remember many years ago, while on vacation in the south of France. A place with the name "six fours". Anyone have a notion to what this name means

[bernardo]

According to my French dikshunry, "four" means oven, kiln or failure. So "Six Fours" would probably be "Six Ovens" i.e. a bakery town perhaps.

[SteveD]

It's near Toulon:

http://www.six-fours-les-plages.com/res800/pages_asp/office.asp?famille=acces

[logman]

Thanks folks,

The oven theory sounds convincing and it was good to see it on the map again.

[jake-the-peg]

In Oxford the centre of town is Carfax. This is a corruption of the French quatre fois or four ways - it was a four way cross roads.

I guess it's at least possible that it was where three roads crossed giving a six-way crossroads.

[Quizmonkey]

And, of course, when three ways crossed, travellers would stop and gossip about unimportant matters, 'tri via' meaning three ways in Latin...

[logman]

Thanks guys,

thats two more ideas put forward, i've heard it said that the English language is really badly pronounced French, maybe it cuts both ways.

If these things are trivia, how come trivial things still bug us all these years later ?

[Narolines]

j-t-p, I always thought Carfax was a corruption of "quatre faces", "four sides", but I could be wrong. However, "quatre fois" would be "four times", not "four ways". The French for a crossroads is "carrefour", which may be a more likely starting point.