Piste/Lift names

Just got back from Les Arcs (hot & sunny) & I was wondering how they
name their pistes & lifts. There seem to be 5 categories of name

- After the name of the peak (e.g. Aiguille Rouge, Deux Têtes)
- Directly descriptive (e.g. combes, bosses, Access Arc 1800, forêt)
- Mountain flora & fauna (aigle, ours, edelweiss, perdrix...) which
seems to be the biggest category
- Named after people (Robert Blanc) (lots more of these at other
resorts)
- Weird (either words not in my dictionary or seem to have no relation
to mountains or skiing)

Here are a few of the names which aren't in my French dictionary & I
have no idea where they come from:

words I don't understand
-------------------------
malgovert (and that is the most mis-graded run i've ever seen)
lanches, lanchettes (there is also a les lanches lift in Tignes)
dou de l'homme (is that a mountain name?)
droset
varet
comborcière
plagnettes
teppes
vagère
villards


names that seem to have no relation
-----------------------------------
fond blanc (white bottom??)
cachette
St Jacques


there are more we didn't understand, but that's a start...

"Plan" seems to get used a lot: this must be a French idiom (lifts
called Plan Bois, Plan de l'Ours, runs called Plan etc)

In message , Frances
Hinden writes
Just got back from Les Arcs (hot & sunny) & I was wondering how they
name their pistes & lifts.

Put yourself in their construction-site boots.
You start with a mountainside where many features already have names,
which are printed on the base map and are vital to negotiations with the
landowners. By the time you've actually ordered any hardware, they'll
be etched on your ulcers too, and you'll naturally go on using them for
the lifts and pistes.
Even if the actual features are hidden under the snow in winter or the
names are no longer appropriate (eg Grand Pre overgrown with trees,
Folyeres among conifers.)

Until about 1860 the separate country of Savoie included Piedmont and
the Genevois; the language was Franco-Provencal which is now almost
extinct (though bourgeois reactionary enthusiasts exist.)

Which explains why this Swiss site is so helpful:

http://suter.home.cern.ch/suter/topoT0.html

It has links to other patois sites.


names that seem to have no relation
-----------------------------------
fond blanc (white bottom??)
Well, was it a bottom? If so, did it look as if there'd be snow there
well into the summer?
cachette
Maybe the same as "cochette", a round topped eminence?
St Jacques
If it's a placename it could be cultural - if we had skiing in the
Pennines there'd be a "Jacob's Ladder" lift or piste. You could study
the myths of all the saints of that name for clues.
Or there might be a shrine or something nearby.


"Plan" seems to get used a lot: this must be a French idiom (lifts
called Plan Bois, Plan de l'Ours, runs called Plan etc)
And Plan des Plagnes.
Not really an idiom, it means a flat thing in French (our "plane") or a
relatively level place in the Alps.
Runs called Plan could be warning you about their runout...

--
Sue ];(

Sue a écrit :

Frances Hinden writes

fond blanc (white bottom??)
Well, was it a bottom? If so, did it look as if there'd be snow there
well into the summer?

"Fond" or "Font" may also mean a spring or fountain.
(latin "fons" = "spring")

"Fond Blanc" may be "White Fountain", just as "Bellefond" is not
"Beautiful bottom" but "Good Spring".

--
Nicolas Masson

In message , Nicolas Masson
writes

fond blanc (white bottom??)
Well, was it a bottom? If so, did it look as if there'd be snow there
well into the summer?

"Fond" or "Font" may also mean a spring or fountain.
(latin "fons" = "spring")

"Fond Blanc" may be "White Fountain", just as "Bellefond" is not
"Beautiful bottom" but "Good Spring".


That does seem more likely, but much less evocative !
--
Sue ];(

Sue wrote in news:wogZSOKD5ubAFwn7
@mashtub.demon.co.uk:

In message , Nicolas Masson
writes

fond blanc (white bottom??)
Well, was it a bottom? If so, did it look as if there'd be snow there
well into the summer?

"Fond" or "Font" may also mean a spring or fountain.
(latin "fons" = "spring")

"Fond Blanc" may be "White Fountain", just as "Bellefond" is not
"Beautiful bottom" but "Good Spring".


That does seem more likely, but much less evocative !

I have a coffee mug given to me by a dive shop in Curacao printed with the
words "Beautiful bottom time".

Jeremy