curious Archives - A Wanderful Life

You know the sensation — someone is looking at you. I had the back glass door open onto the balcony, but we aren’t overlooked by any of the immediate neighbours, so I glanced to the bottom of the garden to see if the far neighbour had his windows open and was peering out the window. Nope!

It took a minute — he blended into the scenery rather well. But then I suddenly spotted our Peeping Tom.

Who is peeking into our windows?

The next door neighbours had apparently left their window open and the Peeping Tom was out and about, standing on the red tile roof that overhangs the bump-out on the apartment below us. And he was very curiously peeking into our kitchen.

Cute fellow!

Our nosy neighbour!

Whilst driving north from the Pyrenees to Normandy over a several day period, we stopped one afternoon at an Intermarche grocery store to pick up picnic supplies for one of our cheerful and healthy lunches and I saw these signs on the covered parking area for bicycles and motorscooters. I didn’t know what the words meant at the time, but when I took a few minutes and did a Google translate of them a few days later, I discovered that Les Mousquetaires meant The Musketeers.

Les Mousquetaires logo on the cycle parking at Intermarche grocery stores in France

But why??? What did parking spaces have to do with the legendary musketeers of old? And was there some kind of association with Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers???

Image by Maurice Leloir, 1894

A bit of research answered that question — and don’t we just love the internet for speedy answers! The Intermarche grocery chain is one of several companies owned by a retail marketing conglomerate called Les Mousquetaires.

Ah well — marketing — plain and simple — using the romantic imagery of heroic figures as the name of a retail umbrella corporation.

C’est la vie!

A Wanderful Life

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Tag Archives: curious

That Feeling Of Being Watched

Pourquoi Parking Signs Called The Musketeers?