Chez Louis le Francais

When I first moved here I asked some of my neighbors the best way to get to Versailles,KY. they had no idea what I was talking about. Now I know the correct pronunciation.

Ha! I did that same thing when I showed up in Lexington for Grad school!! It took this boy from Chicago about a month to learn how to order food from a drive thru so all involved could understand each other!

Cheers,

Doug

Makes me cringe every time I hear "do boys" county....same deal I guess though they didn't sign any treaties there. LOL

I don't, and I'm American. I pronounce it kwah san!

I don't, and I'm American. I pronounce it kwah san!

Bravo Heather. OK I should have said most Americans

It's a relatively recent phenomenon that one tries to pronounce foreign words according to the rules of the foreign language. I'm not sure when it stopped, but even during the Renaissance one translated the name of the author into the language that a work was in. Hence, Jean Cauvin (French) was Giovanni Calvini when translated into Italian, Johannes Calvinus in Latin, and John Calvin in English. Not only did one pronounce things according to one's own language rules, one even changed the spelling of names, etc.

The Brits have been among the most convinced of this practice, hence the cringe inducing pronunciation (to us) of the poem by Lord Byron "Don Juan," pronounced not Don H-won but dɒn ˈdʒuːən.

[Robin Garr]

The Brits have been among the most convinced of this practice, hence the cringe inducing pronunciation (to us) of the poem by Lord Byron "Don Juan," pronounced not Don H-won but dɒn ˈdʒuːən.

Yep. I had an elderly humanities prof at U of L who did that. The hell of it was, he wasn't even British, just pretentious.

Unfortunately, if you pronounce it the Latin way, the poem's structure doesn't work. The Spring of 1983 is slowly coming back to me.

The vast majority of people that I speak with can't even pronounce "Le Relais" so I don't think there's any mystery as to why he chose something so simple. The restaurant should be open within the next few months. He's very dedicated & optimistic but there have been several issues with the construction as well as the owner of the building. I personally think that he's being taken advantage of but I'm not involved with this process so maybe it's not my place to speak. My wife, who is also French, is going to be working with Louis. I've been working with him on a book for the past several months. He's an old-school French cook from southern France & once he's up & running I think that you'll all agree that there's nothing else like it anywhere near here. My wife & I are both looking forward to finally having a place in the area to get some truly authentic French cuisine.

MMM, does he make a good Ratatouille?
Can't wait. So close to my place, and home. Yippee!