Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois
Encyclopedia
Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Loire
Loire
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...

 department in central France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

The inhabitants of Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois are known as Gargomançois or Gargomançoises but are nicknamed Les Escargots.
Gourgois roughly translates as "The Gorgeous" on account of the reputed great beauty of the indigenous population. Upon his arrival in the village in 346 St Maurice is reputed to have abandoned his monastic existence in favour of a life of pure pleasure and snail eating. This may be the origin of the inhabitants sobriquet.

Notable people

Among its most famous inhabitants is the legendary french metallurgist Emilie Ravel who discovered a way to make molten metal flow uphill. This technique is now widely used in her adopted home of Sheffield, England to cast many "lighter than air" metal products such as balloon hammers. Ms Ravel is reputed to be the inspiration for an entry in the La Petite Livre du Metallurgie :

Mimie, a french metallurgist

Was plagued by undignified urges

She'd stress test in the nude

Which in England is rude

Though it's common in France, it emerges.'
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK