It's definitely been a while since there has been a post. We've been quite busy and there will hopefully be a few updates on that in the next few days (no, she's not pregnant).
But this is all about where we live.
Usually we just tell people that we live in Paris. Honestly, it just makes things easier. But in truth we live outside of Paris in a commune (town) called Le Plessis-Robinson. We like to think of it as the St. Albert of Paris.
Because I like maps, here is a map! If you zoom out and look up and right, you'll see where Paris is relative to us.
But, to be clear, we don't live out in the country or something. There is nothing but city between us and Paris and we're at least a few kilometres away from any sort of farmland.
The real reason for writing this today is actually because of the name of our commune. It has a rather interesting history. The Latin word Plessiacus was used to describe a village surrounded by a fence of branches and gives the French word Plessis. The town has had many names involving the word Plessis. At various times it's been known as Plessiacus apud Castanetum (9th Century), Le Plessis-Raoul (12th Century), Le Plessis-Piquet (15th Century), Le Plessis-Liberte (18th Century, after the revolution), and finally back to Le Plessis-Piquet in the 19th Century.
In 1848 a guinguette or cabaret was opened in Le Plessis-Piquet. However, this cabaret was somewhat unique in that it operated from a series of interconnected tree houses. Because of these tree houses, the cabaret was named "Le grand Robinson" after the Swiss Family Robinson (which was named for Robinson Crusoe). In 1909, to honour the success of Le grand Robinson, Le Plessis-Piquet was officially renamed Le Plessis-Robinson.
And that's how we ended up with a town named for a fence made of branches and a cabaret in a tree house.
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