WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.799 The drawer of old maps stuck as I slid it 2 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:11.640 back into its groove. My hand paused, fingers still pressed 3 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.160 to the burnished brass pull, and for a moment the 4 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:17.199 museum's map room seemed to hush around me, a hush 5 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.280 not of reverence, but something closer to the soft density 6 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:23.800 found in deep woods or between thick library stacks. After 7 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:28.199 closing time, on my battered notepad, I just jotted Inepley, 8 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.759 the latest of the unplaceable place names, zuel It. I 9 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.039 tried saying it aloud, whispering so as not to be overheard, 10 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:40.320 perhaps Juliet or Zwelier, but none of the sounds fit together. 11 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:43.520 My tongue snagged on the vowels, tripped over the two 12 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:48.560 l s. The word lingered unfinished in the air. Julie, 13 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.679 the young museum guide, breezed into check if I'd found 14 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:54.960 the el azure map. Her sneakers muffled by the thick, 15 00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:58.520 faded carpet. She caught sight of me mid mumble and 16 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:04.239 grinned blue eyes crinkling it. S zulid, she said, the 17 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:08.400 syllables rolling from her without hesitation, neither French nor any 18 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.879 language I'd studied yet fluid and warm from her mouth. 19 00:01:12.519 --> 00:01:15.200 She sounded as casual, as if pointing out the difference 20 00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:19.239 between Monet and Manit. For her, the word wasn't strange 21 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.359 at all. Matthew, waiting in the hallway, called to Julie 22 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.920 about some museum posters, and she dashed off, leaving me 23 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:30.120 with a strange sense of embarrassment, as though I'd failed 24 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:34.400 a secret test. I looked down the word Zulit was 25 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:37.799 written in my own hand, nearly illegible from being crossed 26 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.040 out and restarted so many times. A class of school 27 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:45.640 children shuffling in for an afternoon tour, followed their teacher 28 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:48.879 past the open door. They were chattering, but I caught 29 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.200 a snippet. The older boy recited a poem, the others 30 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:57.200 chiming in with place names Brulon, Seaney, Pluvernot. Their pronunciation 31 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:01.079 was effortless, unthinking, as natural as if reciting days of 32 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:05.480 the week. One child repeated saney with a cadence difficult 33 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.960 for me to even mimic in my mind. Later, when 34 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.919 the new gendarme came to return some found keys, we 35 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:15.599 chatted about jogging roots. Before leaving. He pointed out a 36 00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:19.919 short cut by the river it's marked as brulon curve. Careful, 37 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:24.120 it's slippery when it rains. He pronounced both words perfectly, 38 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:28.439 as if the letters lined up obediently every time. I 39 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:32.199 tried echoing him, but the sound felt crooked inside my mouth. 40 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:37.360 You say that so easily, I remarked. He laughed, puzzled. 41 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.840 It's just the name. Every one here says it right, 42 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:45.960 he shrugged, pocketing the keys. The archivist, Matthew, older than 43 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.960 any artifact in the cabinets, and much sharper than his 44 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:54.280 limp suggested. Drifted in. Need help with pronunciation, he asked, 45 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:57.919 but the question was rhetorical. Before I could answer, he'd 46 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:00.159 recited a half dozen of the names in a sing 47 00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:04.599 song pattern. Smiling a little at my confusion, I returned 48 00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:06.919 to my notes as they all moved on the noise 49 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:10.199 of the children's tore rippling down the stairs. The odd 50 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:12.800 thing wasn't just that I couldn't shape the names. It 51 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:15.560 was how nobody here seemed to find that fact unusual. 52 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.319 Not the children, not the lifelong residence, not even the 53 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:23.280 gendarme who'd only moved to town that autumn, Not Julie, 54 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.439 not Matthew. The odd spell seemed to catch only me, 55 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:31.400 leaving every one else untouched by the contradiction. I circled 56 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:35.280 zulid and underlined it twice, the pen pressing so hard 57 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:41.080 the paper pucket. What language could this possibly be? Boluservine 58 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.319 is lesser town than a cluster of gentle slumps and angles, 59 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:48.400 cobbles veering into river meadows, small blue roofed houses on 60 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:52.400 old foundations, orchards nuzzling the edge of the thick veresse forest. 61 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.199 If you drive through, you might think you missed it. 62 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.360 The old part of town is knotted around the museum, 63 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:00.719 which once served as the guilt build house for the 64 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:04.759 map makers, who for five centuries turn their craft into 65 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:08.439 something closer to a badge of citizenship. When my wife 66 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.199 and I retired here last year, I brought a pack 67 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:14.800 rat's box of regional maps. She brought patients for Misty 68 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.360 Mornings and the slow Drama of Swans. After teaching geography 69 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:23.000 for more than thirty years, alpine passes and river delta's 70 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:27.120 the way Land and story meet, retirement felt like waking 71 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:30.160 late into a day that's already decided not to hurry. 72 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:34.800 I volunteer at the Heritage Museum, where most afternoons find 73 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:37.639 me shrouded in the odd serenity that comes from good 74 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:41.959 work and gentle disarray. The archive is a maze of cabinets. 75 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.000 There's always a smell old glue, yellowing oak, a hint 76 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:49.079 of oil paint from the frame room, always at odds, 77 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:53.360 with the white light of led desk lamps. Matthew is 78 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:57.800 my guide through these labyrinths. Bespectacled, slow of gait, mind 79 00:04:57.879 --> 00:05:00.480 quick as a kicked hornet's nest, he could and summoned 80 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.160 from memory not just the year any document was pennied, 81 00:05:03.480 --> 00:05:06.720 but whether the scribe eight with his left or right hand. 82 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:10.319 He swears in old French, never at people, only at 83 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:14.560 stubborn draws and spilled ink. Julie, younger than some of 84 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:17.759 the dust jackets on our largest atlases, acts as a 85 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:21.920 bridge to the towns present. She studied archaeology, but returned 86 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:26.199 home to catalog legends, half remembered recipes, and the nicknames 87 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:29.759 for every misaligned gutter in Bolu. She jokes that her 88 00:05:29.879 --> 00:05:34.000 job is group memory, her favorite stories orbiting around the 89 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:39.319 town's peculiar relationship with maps. Her laugh is unedited. She'll 90 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.399 sometimes mime the gestures of old teachers. Matthew's resigned Si 91 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:48.439 my own tongue, twisted names, spoofing us with love. Mm 92 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:52.040 E Lavin, my neighbour, is the other keeper of Bolus past. 93 00:05:52.519 --> 00:05:55.160 She invites me for tea, her kitchen warm with the 94 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.199 scent of apples and strong black tea, and piles old 95 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:02.040 letters and gossip over madelines Ah the map makers. They 96 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:05.240 were another kind of priesthood here. She sighs. My father 97 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.560 never trusted a map. He hadn't spilled soup on. She's 98 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.839 lived here since nineteen forty four and knows which walls 99 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:15.079 were rebuilt after each war and which have never been repaired. 100 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:19.759 M Durrard, the new gendarme, hails from Angers, but you 101 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.759 wouldn't know it from his diction. He carries himself with 102 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:26.680 gentle amusement, always happy to explain by laws, quick to 103 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:30.360 join morning coffee at the square. If you ask for directions, 104 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:33.000 you'll get them in both the French formal and the 105 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:37.399 local casual, with those same unfathomable place names pronounced as 106 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:41.160 if he'd always spoken them. The museum still hosts map 107 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:46.160 focused events, drawing children and curious travelers. Some weeks, Matthew 108 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:49.680 and I spend hours sorting parchment. Rolls and vellum bound ledgers. 109 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:53.360 Other days I walk past the museum porch, pausing at 110 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:57.319 the sign Musier do cartograph and the stone marker below 111 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:01.759 is say La Gilder dec maters. The sign posts in 112 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:05.120 the square, some in fading French, some painted with the 113 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:08.160 mysterious names, are so much a part of the scenery 114 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:11.560 that only now, in my second spring do I really 115 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:15.879 see their strangeness. I remembered faintly that as a child 116 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.879 visiting my aunt, I'd heard grown ups toss these odd 117 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:23.120 names around at picnics or church fairs, never bothering to translate. 118 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:26.800 Back then, I'd let the sounds drift past, thinking they 119 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.120 were silly, fanciful, perhaps quickly invented on a whim. But now, 120 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.120 with leisure and curiosity, with the towns swirling quietly around 121 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.519 its history, I found myself returning to the question, what 122 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:42.240 are these names? Where did they come from? Why does 123 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:44.519 every one seem to know how to say them perfectly, 124 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:49.439 except apparently for me. A week later, while waiting for 125 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.439 the kettle in the break room, I tried an experiment. Antoine, 126 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.639 a visiting university student volunteering for the summer, was left 127 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:02.240 handed and good with languages in in that easy polyglot way. 128 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:06.000 He was amusing himself translating bits of Latin graffiti from 129 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:09.040 the backside of an eighteenth century map. When I showed 130 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:13.079 him my list, Try this one, I suggested, nudging over 131 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:16.120 the page. Zu al it. I watched as he struggled 132 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:20.399 zeu yet zu Yet each attempt landed slightly wrong, as 133 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:24.519 if knocking at the wrong door. Julie, passing with her mug, 134 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:28.600 grinned and provided the name with her usual assurance. Her 135 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.879 pronunciation seemed to shift with each attempt she heard from us, 136 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:36.039 subtly correcting not just copying what we'd said, but somehow 137 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:40.559 restoring an original. How do you do that, Antoine asked, 138 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:46.360 grinning sheepishly. Is it a regional thing? I'm hopeless, Julie shrugged, 139 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.679 her smile, slipping for a moment into something more thoughtful. 140 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.679 I dunno, It's just part of growing up here, I suppose, 141 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:56.519 she tapped her head, like knowing how to cut a 142 00:08:56.559 --> 00:09:00.720 baguette properly. You just remember it, but even the gendarmes 143 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:05.559 says it perfectly. I pressed, he's just moved here. Maybe 144 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:08.559 you catch it fast, she suggested, as if she never 145 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:12.279 wondered about it before. Can't really teach it. You hear 146 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:15.559 it enough, you just pick it up. That didn't fit 147 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:18.799 what I knew of languages, or accents, or even dialects. 148 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:23.240 I decided to formalize my curiosity that evening. I returned 149 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.480 armed with a notepad, ten local names from old maps, 150 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:31.399 ten left blank for transcriptions and pronunciation. I asked Julie, Jirrard, 151 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.480 and Baptiste, a teenage friend of julie S, to pronounce each. 152 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:40.200 All delivered the words with no hesitation, little intonation, Each 153 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:43.799 syllable a lining like beads on a string. When I 154 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.600 tried to slow them down, to break apart the components 155 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:49.919 to piece together the phonetic skeleton. They could provide the 156 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:54.000 word whole, but not in segments. Baptiste, who delighted in 157 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:57.200 making fun of my Parisian r tried to spell out 158 00:09:57.279 --> 00:10:01.840 saney for me. It's just saney, he repeated, unable to 159 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.200 isolate a first syllable, as though the word appeared fully 160 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:09.639 formed from nowhere. Durrard blinked at my confusion. When I 161 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.559 first got here, i'd have had trouble, but now well, 162 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.399 I never think about it. It's like my tongue just 163 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:20.360 nos odd, isn't it? But he quickly shrugged off the peculiarity. 164 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:24.799 I asked if they remembered learning the names. Not really, 165 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:28.840 Julie replied, I suppose my grandmother just said them and 166 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:33.320 that was it. Somehow, the deeper every one's familiarity, the 167 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.440 more invisible the strangeness became. I asked Baptiste if his 168 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:41.840 friends from outside town could pronounce them. He shook his head. Na, 169 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.840 they always mess it up, he laughed. But it's not 170 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:49.200 that important. We just get used to it. By evening's end, 171 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:52.120 my notebook was filling with lists and the beginnings of 172 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.840 a project. I wrote one title at the top, in 173 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:58.480 block capitals, unlearnable n A M. E. S. In the 174 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:02.000 quiet after the others went home, I copied every unfamiliar 175 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.120 name I found on the day's maps, and, newly alert, 176 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.600 I started noting the ones that turned up on the 177 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.679 bakery's paper bags, on church bulletins, and even chalked onto 178 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:15.840 the board outside the tabac. Patterns itched at me. Not 179 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:21.080 quite linguistic, not quite cultural, something slipperier. My first formal 180 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:25.240 investigation began clumsily at the kitchen table, surrounded by a 181 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:29.679 motley collection antique maps, sketch books from my teaching years, 182 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.080 recent print outs of digital street maps, and a handful 183 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:36.480 of blurry photos I'd snapped that morning on my phone. 184 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:40.840 Comparing columns of names was like comparing streams to clouds. 185 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:45.080 Familiar traces, but the details always retreating from the pin 186 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:51.000 of definition. Some names Pluvernot, Brulon, Seaney, zueliit moret cropped 187 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:54.960 up again and again, preserved over centuries. Others shape shifted. 188 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:59.080 I'd see Tropennell on a seventeen sixty four parchment, Tropennel 189 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:01.799 on a faded sign, and troo panels scrawled by a 190 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:05.159 child in the visitor's log. The names all looked, as 191 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.320 best I could say, unrooted. They fit no pattern of 192 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:12.320 French Basque or Oxyden, nor even any local patwar preserved 193 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:16.279 in the dusty grammar books on my shelf. Some segments 194 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.519 bral seemed to echo French bruler for to burn, but 195 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:25.120 the endings swerved away from any recognizable derivation. These were 196 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:29.720 not simple dialect words misspelled by generations of lazy scribes. 197 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:33.240 I reached out to Matthew in the map room. He 198 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:35.879 pulled from the shelf a fragile, soft edged map dated 199 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:39.639 seventeen thirty two, thick paper half moons at the corners 200 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:42.799 where a long dead hand had guided a compass here, 201 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:46.279 he said, pointing to Zueli, it written precisely as on 202 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:51.360 the modern signposts. Other names Seaney, Brulon were likewise unchanged. 203 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.759 The map's borders had shifted more in three centuries than 204 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:58.320 the place names ever had. We always say them as 205 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:02.039 they are, he mused. The languages of the guild no 206 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:06.080 ones bothered to change them. Why would we? The words 207 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:09.840 rang with implicit certainty for him. The names were as 208 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:15.240 fixed as the river bed, unchallenged and perhaps unchallengeable. Later, 209 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:19.200 I visited Ememi Lavin for Tea, hoping maybe the oldest 210 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:23.159 stories would shed some light. She recited, as though picking berries, 211 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:27.399 tales of border disputes and vanished roads, always referencing places 212 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:29.919 I knew in legend, but not on any modern map. 213 00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.399 At Seyne, your great uncle saw the bishop ride a 214 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:38.320 donkey backward during lent. No idea why. My grandmother claimed 215 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:42.200 it was the only place the crows nested together. Seyney 216 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:46.200 and Pluvernot neither labeled on any recent map, yet as 217 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:49.639 living in her stories as the kitchen table beneath my hands. 218 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.879 I pressed her, but she never seemed to notice that 219 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:57.399 the names didn't appear Outside these handed down tales. I 220 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:01.840 proposed an experiment for the next museum opened a name challenge, 221 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:06.759 part scavenger hunt, part impromptu talent show. I created cards, 222 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:10.039 each marked with five mystery names from my growing list, 223 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:14.240 and gathered participants, both townsfolk and travelers from near by. 224 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:19.399 The instruction was simple, pronounced the names as written time 225 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.039 after time. The locals, young and old, life long residents, 226 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:28.360 and new arrivals pronounced every name effortlessly. Outsiders from university 227 00:14:28.440 --> 00:14:33.519 students to tourists on cycling holidays, stumbled, hesitated, tripped. One 228 00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:37.840 English visitor tried to break the names phonetically exulette, only 229 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:41.679 for Dulie to gently supply the correct word. The contrast 230 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:46.080 became almost comical. Not content to leave it at human perception, 231 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.679 I turned to the digital I typed zul It into 232 00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:53.440 my smartphone's GPS application, holding my breath in an odd 233 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:57.799 mixture of hope and impatience. At first, nothing happened. Then, 234 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.399 as I watched, the app stumbled one second, displaying the 235 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:04.600 name as I'd typed it the next, replacing the letters 236 00:15:04.600 --> 00:15:07.960 with a string of squashed, half formed symbols, as if 237 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.759 my phone had suddenly lost the ability to render French characters. 238 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.639 When Julie tried the same with my phone, the correct spelling, 239 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:19.600 her spelling snapped into place. I tried a different device. 240 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.279 The error repeated the same with Pluvernot on my note 241 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:29.039 book MESSI cross hatched script on locals devices the expected 242 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:32.320 name every time. When M. Girrard entered it on his 243 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:37.000 Gendarmerie work phone, the map aligned instantly, no errors, just 244 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:39.720 a neat pin dropped in the forest path by the river. 245 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:44.279 Over coffee at the square. I raised these oddities to Girrard. 246 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:48.600 He chuckled, maybe the town's just stubborn, or my accent 247 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:53.639 is catching Julie sipping her lemonade near by. Added, children 248 00:15:53.720 --> 00:15:56.679 learn them in counting songs. My niece can sing them 249 00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:02.440 backward forward, three at a time. She hummed a snippet Pluvernot, Saney, Morret, 250 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.759 each name carried along an innocent melody that made my 251 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:11.080 own attempts seem uniquely clumsy. That evening, a Parisian linguist 252 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:14.720 visiting the region, doctor Clara Perez, stopped by to see 253 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:19.279 the map archive and indulge her own curiosity. I explained 254 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:23.960 my findings, and she offered to record local pronunciations. We 255 00:16:24.039 --> 00:16:26.200 huddled in the map room, the muffled tick of the 256 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:31.159 museum clock cocooning us. Perez recorded five townspeople, then myself 257 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:34.039 and two visitors, each reading the same list of names. 258 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:38.480 On playback, the local pronunciations were clear, untroubled, Yet as 259 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:42.399 she replayed them, each version seemed subtly but inexplicably different, 260 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:46.000 as if the audio resisted precise capture. When she played 261 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:50.120 my own attempts, they sounded somehow more degraded wine poured 262 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:54.159 through a thin cloth, muddied and hollow. I'm not sure 263 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:57.559 what's going on, she mused, eyes bright. There's some kind 264 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:00.799 of phonetic drift. No, not drift, more like the word 265 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:04.519 pulls itself together differently each time, but only for locals. 266 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:08.079 Your attempts and antoine s always stay off center, and 267 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:11.039 never in the same way. It's she shook her head, 268 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.480 smiling in disbelief, not like anything I have heard before. 269 00:17:15.559 --> 00:17:18.319 As I left the museum that day, my mind felt 270 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:21.960 a light, not from fear, but deepening wonder. I watched 271 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.839 a group of children dancing by the river, singing the 272 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.400 names with easy joy. Not a single person found the 273 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:32.759 puzzle strange. Only I, and now, perhaps doctor Perez seemed 274 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:37.319 unsettled by the contradiction. Each layer I uncovered seemed to 275 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:42.039 widen the mystery, not contain it. The linguist's involvement offered 276 00:17:42.119 --> 00:17:45.920 new tools. Doctor Perez returned with a portable phonetics kit, 277 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:50.359 sensitive microphones, a laptop strung with wave form software, enough 278 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:52.640 wires to trip a goat. We set up in the 279 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:56.599 museum's educational lounge, turning the whiteboard into a test schedule. 280 00:17:57.079 --> 00:18:01.359 Matthew Baptiste, Julie M. M. E. Lavin, and even the 281 00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:05.480 baker whose hands smelled forever of yeast agreed to be recorded. 282 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:10.720 Round robin. We went through the names Zuliit, Brulon, Morret Seaney. 283 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:14.960 Each time the locals pronounced them with unwavering confidence. Yet 284 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:19.039 when Perez compared the resulting waveforms, none matched perfectly, not 285 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:21.599 just in accent, but in the fundamental shape of the 286 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:26.079 sound itself. My attempts in Perez's own were even more divergent, 287 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:32.680 each flailing effort unique yet categorically unmistakably not correct. This 288 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:36.440 isn't just an accent. Perez concluded after the third batch 289 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:41.519 of tests, the differences aren't explainable by normal variation. Whatever 290 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:45.359 es going on here is deeper. She compared it to 291 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:50.200 code switching, the unconscious movement between language systems. But we 292 00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:53.480 both felt that analogy failed. It was more as if 293 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.599 the names existed only in the space between the mouths 294 00:18:56.599 --> 00:18:59.400 of the people who had always heard them, and refused 295 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:03.440 to manifest for any one else. I shared my frustration 296 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.079 with Matthew, who shrugged, languages rise and twist like rivers. 297 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:11.359 Perhaps some currents are just closed to navigation for those 298 00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:15.240 who haven't swum them since birth. He seemed untroubled by 299 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:19.400 what I saw as an epistemological breach. Julie offered a 300 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:24.119 more homespun metaphor learning to swim. She rephrased, you can 301 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:27.240 show the strokes and the technique, but the actual moment, 302 00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:31.359 the first float. You can't teach that, can you. That 303 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:33.839 gnawed at me. It wasn't as I had thought about 304 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:36.839 learning an accent or cracking a code. It felt as 305 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:39.000 if some knowledge was kept just out of reach, not 306 00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:42.720 through secrecy, but as a byproduct of collective habit or presence. 307 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:46.440 I reconsidered, was this truly a language? Is there a 308 00:19:46.440 --> 00:19:50.200 boundary I hadn't noticed, not between inside and outside knowledge, 309 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:53.759 but between modes of community. If these names aren't taught 310 00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:57.319 or even consciously practiced, what then are they for? Why 311 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:02.319 do they exist? Late that night, restless and unsatisfied, I 312 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:05.720 returned to my notes and maps. What I asked myself? 313 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:08.880 Was I missing? I d followed language as far as 314 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:14.000 it could go. The names resisted, Recording resisted, teaching, resisted 315 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:17.359 even careful listening. Perhaps nothing more could be learned from 316 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:21.839 written lists or sound charts. Instead, a new possibility crept 317 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:24.599 in around the edges. Perhaps these names weren't meant to 318 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:27.720 carry meaning in the way ordinary words do, not mere 319 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:31.640 descriptions but keys to something else. Perhaps only in the 320 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:34.880 context of the place, in use, in action could their 321 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:39.480 meaning be clear. It was time to visit the places themselves. 322 00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:43.039 Julie agreed to join me. She was as curious as 323 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.920 I was, now, though she hid it behind jokes. We 324 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.119 decided our first destination would be Zulip Path in the 325 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:53.480 Veresse Forest, where, according to legend, a wandering eighteenth century 326 00:20:53.480 --> 00:20:56.680 map maker had vanished only to reappear in a completely 327 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.119 different part of town. The path was easy to find 328 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:03.319 if you were a local on my maps, its marking 329 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:07.279 was faint, a curving claw inked across a green washed parchment. 330 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.160 We left town mid morning, taking the old bike path 331 00:21:11.240 --> 00:21:14.319 before spiraling off onto a foot trail carpeted with bluebells 332 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:18.640 and last year's leathery leaves. The forest hummed with unseen bees, 333 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.880 and the light gold and green at once made my 334 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:26.039 own city shoes feel clumsy. Julie led the way, stopping 335 00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:28.839 now and then to consult no map at all, she 336 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.799 walked as if following a remembered smell. After half an 337 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:36.319 hour of twists and detours, we emerged at a small clearing. 338 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.440 There was no marker beyond a battered wooden sign zuel It, 339 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:44.720 the word painted in flaking yellow. I photographed the sign, 340 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:48.799 making a careful record of the letter shapes. We tried 341 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:51.319 the next sight, the Seaney Stone, a n ee high 342 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:54.319 boulder not a hundred steps in from the orchard. There, 343 00:21:54.359 --> 00:21:57.680 an old woman in rubber boots explained here old fermin 344 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:00.759 hid apples from the tax men three centuries aga. My 345 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:05.079 father said the stone always felt welcoming in autumn. Again, 346 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:08.920 the legend was specific, the location was not. There was 347 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:13.039 a story, yes, but no unusual geological feature or significant 348 00:22:13.160 --> 00:22:17.839 visible sign. In each place. Julie gathered small groups, men 349 00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:21.559 walking dogs, children with sticks, in the hope more stories 350 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:25.119 would emerge. The tales did not appear in church records, 351 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:27.799 not in the annals left by town priests, or in 352 00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:31.680 any regional text book. Each person recited the names with 353 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.519 the same invisible precision. If there was any disagreement, it 354 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:38.240 was over whether the Saney stone was luckier for sheep 355 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:43.720 or for marriages. Curiously, my GPS app, which faithfully mapped 356 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:47.440 every Parisian lane, blanked at the very edge of Zulip path. 357 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:52.920 The digital markers flickered, sometimes misspelling the name, sometimes erasing 358 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:57.519 it entirely. Julie, in charge of directions, never paused, never 359 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:02.240 second guessed the route noted another oddity. My own note book, 360 00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:05.400 otherwise precise, seemed to betray me. The sketch I had 361 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:07.960 made of the Zulid sign, when compared to my photo, 362 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:12.000 was subtly altered, an extra loop here, a shortened stroke there, 363 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:15.359 the X becoming more of a s H. I accused 364 00:23:15.359 --> 00:23:18.559 myself of fatigue or poor penmanship. But each time I 365 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:22.440 wrote the names, their forms lightly shifted. Julie asked to 366 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:25.400 spell them for me, always provided the original, as though 367 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:29.599 no change had occurred. We visited five sites in total, 368 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.480 whether field or wood or stone, none stood out as 369 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:38.359 objectively remarkable. All the differentiation existed in the stories, the 370 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:42.839 web of names. They're impossible to teach, pronunciation, the certainty 371 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.440 with which locals guided us from one to the next. 372 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:49.799 On our way back, arms loaded with wild flowers. I 373 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:54.799 shared my observation these names, I said, they aren't markers 374 00:23:54.839 --> 00:23:58.559 of the land. They's something more ephemeral, like a compass, 375 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:02.799 only you know how to read. Julie nodded, face shaded 376 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:06.240 by her cap. Maybe, but we never have trouble. It 377 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:10.519 just works, you know. I wondered, then, were these names 378 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:13.480 a kind of communal navigation, a method by which the 379 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:17.599 community located itself, not in latitude and longitude, but in 380 00:24:17.640 --> 00:24:21.880 the act of naming and remembering together, Not literally geographic 381 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:28.319 but psychogeographic cartography as a living shared practice. That night, 382 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:31.319 as the bell in the church tower counted ten, I 383 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:35.400 realized the direction my investigation had taken. The maps of 384 00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:38.880 Bowleu weren't just records of ground crossed. They were live 385 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:43.400 documents of memory, untranslatable, not because of some secret, but 386 00:24:43.480 --> 00:24:46.440 because the meaning was carried in the ongoing act, not 387 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:50.839 in the labels themselves. The invisible landscape of the town 388 00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:54.680 was being mapped every day, in every story, in every 389 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:58.359 child's song, and only those who lived inside this web 390 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:01.119 could ever really say then ames as they were meant 391 00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:04.680 to be said. The story I was following was not 392 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:07.359 one of place hidden in the land, but of meaning, 393 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:11.720 woven moment by moment through a language whose most important 394 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:15.720 feature was its invisibility. Julie and I lingered at the 395 00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:18.799 edge of the orchard as dusk pressed orange and then 396 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:22.680 violet into the fields. On the walk home, clouds swept 397 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:27.039 over the steeple, blurring all edges, trees losing clarity, river 398 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:29.960 muddled with sky, and it seemed to me that Bolue 399 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.160 itself floated in a haze, not unlike the confusion I 400 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:37.240 now carried. We parted by the Boulangerie, each promising to 401 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:40.799