The CNRTL dictionary, which I consult often, defines the French term colombier this way: « Endroit où l'on élève des pigeons. Synon. pigeonnier. » Pigeons [pee-'zhõ] and colombes [co-'lõb] are basically the same bird. The white pigeon is the one people are more likely to call a colombe (dove). Nowadays, the pigeons that live in cities have a nasty reputation, but they were domesticated as far back as ancient times and raised for food (adult pigeons, eggs, squab — a young pigeon called un pigeonneau in French) — as well as for their droppings, used as fertilizer in gardens and fields.
In the Middle ages only the noble classes had the right to own a colombier, which is a tower, frequently free-standing. The word derives from the Latin term colombarium. The Petit Robert dictionary marks colombier as vieux or littéraire. The modern, everyday term is pigeonnier. English "dovecote" derives from the word "dove," of course, and "cote," which is related to the word "cottage." Above is the colombier at the Château de Villesavin, near Chambord in the Loire Valley. Below is a photo looking up into the pigeonnier that shows the wooden roof beams and the little compartments ('pigeonholes") in which the pigeons nest.
Here are a few more detail photos that I took at Villesavin in 2006.
In my small yard in Paris, I had nesting a variety of pigeon, the ramier which is supposed to be a migratory bird, coming back to the original nest year after year. It is different from the biset pigeon that is all over in Paris.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the pigeon ramier also called the palombier? That's the wood pigeon in English, and we have a lot of them in the Saint-Aignan area. They are much bigger than the "street pigeons" you see in Paris.
DeleteJe n'ai jamais entendu parler de palombiers. Le CNRTL non plus.
DeleteLe ramier est uniformément gris sauf pour un col blanc. Yes, it is the wood pigeon.
I meant to type palombe.
DeleteIf you look up palombe in CNRTL, you'll also find palombier.
DeleteMy uncle used to raise pigeons, to race them. He would drive them up to someplace a few hours away, and let them go, and then they'd fly back to the coop on his farm, and they'd clock them in.
ReplyDeleteJudy, the pigeons your uncle raised are Homing pigeons a.k.a. Pigeons voyageurs in French. They're derived from the Rock Dove.
DeleteThank you for the architecture and vocabulary lesson.
ReplyDeleteSo the pigeonholes are on the inside and the holey holy tower in Domfront is probably a stairway.
On our town's main street, we entertain ourselves by watching the street pigeons arrange themselves comfortably around the needle-like pigeon-excluders on the awnings.
Is that a trebouchet (sp) in picture five?
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn, I too have been wondering if it was a trébuchet, but used in rendering of Middle Ages battles.
DeleteTo me it looked like some kind of catapult...
DeleteJust what I thought when I saw that wooden structure. I could only wonder what horrible event would make the owner send the pigeon on a ride with the catapult? Now I have plenty of information on Colombiers - maybe I'll share your info with my class!
DeleteI, too, was wondering about that machinery. A catapult? Those must be some interesting pigeons, wow.
DeleteMary, you might want to share the following information with your class. If you want an explanation of a French word in French, I suggest you use an online dictionary, i.e. CNRTL (Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales), it is not easy to navigate the first time, but once you know how to operate it, it is great. Just ask your search engine Cnrtl, and go from there.
DeleteOn the other hand, when I want a translation of a word I just ask my search engine, so and so in English or so and so in French. Also, if I want a translation of some text, I go to deepl translate. It is free. You try it. I used it to translate a French text into English and it was pretty good. It just needed very light editing, almost nothing.
Another dictionary I just noticed on-line is Le Robert, which is a standard in France. You can get it here (link). It's less technical, not to say nerdy, than the CNRTL dictionary.
DeleteMerci du lien pour le Robert. Interesting!
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