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'Very Stupid' village in France honoured for its silly name

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
'Very Stupid' village in France honoured for its silly name
The Trécon church: Photo: François Collard/WikiCommons

The village of "Very Stupid" (Trécon) has officially been inducted as a member of the French towns and villages with funny names.

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It might sound like a Monty Python sketch, but this weekend saw the annual convention of the association of French villages with funny names.
 
They met, rather aptly, in the village of Marans (which sounds like the French word for "funny", marrant).  
 
During a weekend of festivities, the convention added Trécon, from the département of Marne in north eastern France, to its list of other towns with silly names. 
 
Georges Leherle, the mayor of "Very Stupid" was proud to be named as the 39th member of the group.  
 
"I'm always happy to tell people where I live, I can't deny it," he told Le Parisien. 
 
"And you know, despite the name of our town, we're no stupider than anyone else," he said. 
 
Trécon, in case you missed it, sounds exactly like "très con" which means "really dumb" or "very stupid" in English. 
 
 
The mayor said that it wasn't uncommon for people to steal his village's road signs - something that many other villages with similarly strange names can relate to. 
 
For example, the association already includes some howlingly ridiculous towns like "Dumbass", "My Nipple", and "Naked Body" (Mariol, Monteton, and Corps-Nud respectively).
 
The association, known in France as the "Association des Communes de France aux Noms Burlesque et Chantants" has been meeting annually since 2003 to exchange stories, local products, and generally have a chuckle.
 
The aim is to make the most of the funny town names to promote the towns and hopefully bring in some tourists.
 
The group now boasts 39 villages as members - here are some of our favourites. 
 
Vinsobres - Translating to "sobre wine", this town stands in the Drôme department of south east France.
 
 
Monteton - The Village of "My Nipple" is in the Lot et Garonne departement of south western France. Its mayor is a proud member of the Association of Funny French Village Names.
Corps-Nuds - This name means 'naked bodies' and apparently visitors regularly strip off to have a photo taken with the town's official welcome sign.
 
 
Poil, or "hair". This village in Brittany sees authorities splashing out regularly to replace village signs pinched by thieves. "A Poil" means "to Poil" but it also means "naked" hence the reason visitors keep stealing the village signs.
 
Photo: Association des Communes de France aux Noms Burlesque et Chantants
 
And a special mention to the town of Orgy, which sounds funny in English, but less so for the French. Here's a reader pic from the town itself.
 
 
To revisit our gallery of the ten funniest town and village names in France, click here
 

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