History
The French Navy is affectionately known as La Royale ("the Royal"). The reason is not well known; some theorise that it is for its traditional attachment to the French monarchy, some others said that before being named "nationale" the Navy had been named "royale", or simply because of the location of its headquarters, "rue Royale" in Paris (similar metonyms include Matignon for the French Prime Minister, Quai d'Orsay for the French Foreign Ministry, La Coupole ("The Dome") for the Académie Française, etc.). The navy did not sport the royal titles common with other European navies like the British Royal Navy.
Read more about this topic: French Navy
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)