I don’t mean the milk bottle off the door step, or your old bike from the shed, I mean important things, like, well…
For instance, there is a little square in St. Céré called place Gambetta. Now, in this little square are a kiddies playground, some trees to shade the couple of benches and a statue to the Frenchman, who invented to telephone.
Who invented the telephone? Are you sure?
Whaaaat? Yep, you read that right, a Frenchman invented the telephone. Now I know you thought Alexander Grahame Bell invented the telephone, but the French claim that one of theirs did. They even built a statue to him (Charles Bourseul) in this little square in St. Céré. Mind you, I don’t think the Germans thought much about the claim either, because a unit of the SS Das Reich Division machine gunned the original statue when they breezed through town in 1944! But that’s another story. Mind you, Bourseul was, technically, a Belgian as, although brought up in Douai, he was born in Belgium, albeit with a French Army Officer as his father.
Another thing, the French have stolen the bycycle too. Now I know all you Scots thought that a Scotsman invented it* and I don’t want to shake your faith in the auld alliance, but, apparently, according to the French… they did.
Oh dear, it gets worse. Especially if you are a Scot, because… I don’t know how to tell you this but, many in France will tell you that the French invented Hogmanay!!!!
Apparently, way back, some Frenchman went to bed a bit the worse for wear and woke up on New year morning shouting… Homme est né (Man is Born) Homme est né… Hogmanay… get it?
Ye Gods, is nothing sacred? No?
Did the French really invent the aeroplane, the computer, the cinema, the motor car, photography… as they claim? Do your own research but, be warned, I did tell you…
They steal things…. that’s the trouble with the French!
Internet research:
* Most agree that a Scotsman invented the modern bycycle, some hundred and seventy years ago. It was in 1839 that Dumfriesshire blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, tinkered around with a hobbyhorse, adding gears and crankshafts, to produce the world’s first, albeit rudimentary, bicycle.
* Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born inventor, scientist, philanthropist and teacher of the deaf is the person most widely credited as the inventor of the electric telephone. On March 7th 1876 he became the first to receive a patent for this device, and at that time resided in Salem, Massachusetts.
Mind you, many credit an Italian with the invention. A signor Antonio Meucci sued Alexander Bell for stealing his invention and was nearing victory – the supreme court agreed to hear the case and fraud charges were initiated against Bell – when the Florentine died in 1889. The legal action died with him. Hasn’t stopped the French claiming the title though.
You’re making it up as you go along!