All France is divided into 35,357 « communes ». The commune is the smallest administrative unit of the country. Each commune has its town or village hall, called the « mairie » [may-REE] because it's where the « maire » [mehr], the mayor, has his or her office. (Mairie does not rhyme with Marie [mah-REE].) In the past, maire was a masculine word grammatically, but nowadays the word maire can be used as a feminine noun as well. La maire de Paris is a woman. Still, fewer than 20 percent of the 35,000+ maires in France are women. Maire and mère ("mother") are homophones — in other words, the two words are pronounced exactly the same way. I know, it can get confusing...
About 90 per cent of the 35,000+ communes in France have fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. That's true of this one, the commune called Mareuil-sur-Cher. The mayor is a woman. Some call her madame le maire and others call her madame la maire. Others call her la mairesse. Anyway, the name Mareuil [mah-RUH-yuh] derives from an old Celtic term meaning a clearing in a forest. In other words, the village existed before the Romans invaded Gaul, and long before the Franks moved in and turned the country into France. Mareuil-sur-Cher (pop. 1,150) covers 32 km² (12 mi²) of territory and is located on the on the northwest side of the bigger town of Saint-Aignan.
The commune of Mareuil is made up of a built-up area commonly referred to as le bourg ("the burg") and the land surrounding it. It's bordered to the northeast by the Cher river. The mairie, which you see in these three photos, is in the middle of the "burg" which you might call the village in my dialect of English. And I'd call the commune "the township." Communes are located in départements, and there are 272 communes in the Loir-et-Cher "department" (pop. 330,000 or so), which is where Mareuil-sur-Cher is located. (There are many other communes in France called Mareuil. Wikipedia lists a dozen or so of them, but there is only one Mareuil-sur-Cher.)
Besides the bourg or "village" called Mareuil-sur-Cher, or just Mareuil locally, the commune is further divided up into named "hamlets" (des hameaux — the rural equivalent of neighborhoods) that are called, confusingly, « les villages » by the local people. And its divided up into vineyards and wineries as well. There are 11 or 12 wineries scattered around the territory of the commune. That means there's a winery for about every square mile. I think the Mairie de Mareuil is a handsome building.
Very interesting and well researched post.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, a very interesting and informative post. Clarifying the use of the term commune was a good point for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat about in a large city, that is separated into arrondissements? Does each arrondissement have une mairie... but also a maire, or no? Since there is one maire of Paris, there can't be one for each mairie. How does that work in Paris, Ken?
Yes, in Paris, each arrondissement has its own mairie and, of course its own maire. And since they are elected they can belong to different political formations. My maire in Paris is a rightist! Not my color! I suppose it is the same for Marseille or Lyon.
DeleteWith their elected mayors, the arrondissements of Paris and, I assume Lyon and Marseille, are different from the other 300+ arrondissements in France. These last are subdivisions of départements, and at the head of each arrondissement départemental there is either a préfecture or sous-préfecture. In the Loir-et-Cher, our département, Blois is the préfecture and the sous-préfectures are Romorantin (south) and Vendôme (north) These arrondissements départementaux don't have elected mayors. Only the ones in the major cities do.
DeleteJudy, there were mayors of Paris between 1789 and 1871, but the first mayor after that was Jacques Chirac, elected in 1977. So Paris didn't have a mayor for more than a century, but I think each arrondissement did have one. I think people generally considered that the Président de la République and his prefects were in charge of Paris, and the Président didn't want competition from a powerful elected mayor of the capital city.
DeleteWell, I didn't do a lot of intensive or extensive research. I verified numbers for population and départements, communes and viticulteurs, but the rest is just part of the local culture. Communes, villages, hameaux... very complicated. The pronunciations, well... I'm familiar with those and how they might confuse English-speaking people.
ReplyDeleteOne statistic that I found surprising: the number of communes in the Loir-et-Cher is 272; the number of communes in the Indre-et-Loire is also 272. Could that be true?
Hope the coming rain from Michael doesn't cause flooding in Arlington.
The Weather Channel predicts 81°F today with o% chance of rain, but it is 90% tomorrow with 78°F. If necessary, I'll swim to safety! Temperatures should fall for the weekend as no chance of rain is predicted for a few days.
DeleteI don't know about NoVA, but N.C. doesn't need any more rain. Rain from Michael is headed north, nonetheless.
DeleteThe mairie building is typical of the official architecture of the Third Republic in its glory years - a bit heavy and pompous but with a certain charm. I'm surprised that there is no bust of Marianne over the entrance. Roderick
ReplyDeleteSince there are so many Mairies in France, I always thought it was surprising that the buildings that house them, some in seemingly very small villages, are so grand.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn, I know what you mean.
DeleteThanks for the pronunciation guide. I always have to think twice, or even three times, when saying Maire or Mairie. Marie is easy, as I've a friend with that name.
ReplyDeleteWatching the rains, and with relatives in North Florida I'm where you were a couple of weeks ago, waiting for news. :-)
I have friends from N.C. who now live in Pensacola and in Panama City. Walt has two nephews who live near Tallahassee. We too wait.
DeleteI think power is pretty much out in the area. Pensacola is to the west of landfall so may not have much damage.
DeleteThank you for the explanations - especially the news that there is a mayor for each arrondissement in Paris and possibly Lyon and Marseille. As Emm, above, the pronunciations are a reminder, as being a Marie (in my french class) I had no problem with that, but oftentimes was corrected with the Maire! No longer- thanks, Ken!
ReplyDeleteMary in Oregon