23 January 2010

'Ou Niou'


A tile outside a house in the Old Town. I believed it said Lou Niou, which is possibly Mentonnais or perhaps Provençal. Lou means The. But I've since been corrected and had it confirmed that it's Ou, not Lou, and that Ou Niou means The Nest in English and Le Nid in French. Thanks to everyone who responded to this and to Dale who confirmed it is indeed Mentonnais.

12 comments:

  1. Hmm! Nice shot! The font used for Ou Niou is superb!

    - Pixellicious Photos

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  2. So pretty,-and unique!:-)

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  3. un numéro décoré dont le décor sort du cadre

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  4. Oh I'm not here to serve as a "French reader"!HA We all know how that goes. I'm just going to add that I love the lovely tile numbers and signage in France. Maybe my French teachers - Peter or Alice will stop in and give us the word. :)
    V

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  5. Who knew? I don't speak provencal.

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  6. Could it be "the nest"? In Italian that would be: "Il Nido", and part of the local language in your area has Italian(Genoese) origins...
    Have a lovely sunday!

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  7. Diederick, I think you may be well right because I found a quotation somewhere including the word amore - it makes sense that it's the 'love nest' as it were!

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  8. Beautiful house name plaque.

    I really can't read Lou Niou, I believe it's Ou Niou.

    I love the idea of it meaning the love nest :-)

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  9. Nathalie I thought it might be an ornate L, leading into an O, simply because Lou is a known word. I can't find Ou anywhere but you are probably right. One day I'll call into the Maison de Patrimone where a lady speaks Mentonnais and ask her.

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  10. Or ... we can just leave it as Love Nest. :)

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  11. I would say "nid/nest"....just by intuition ,Jilly, of course not due to my provençal knowledge !
    But "notre Nid" or "Le Nid" would be possible.

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  12. And what a charming nest it must be.

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