Please Don't Let Them Buy a Boat!

[Zoef]

Originally Posted by Wrenna

Their xte wasn't that bad after all, when you think they had driven all the way from Sweden.
Cf :
T'as voulu voir Capri et on a vu Carpi - Yahoo! Actualités
Does anyone understand the joke in the headline ?

Hi Wrenna,

I understand the headline, know "voir Capri et mourir", know that carpi are bones in the hand but I miss the joke, if there is any. Can you enlighten me, as a French-speaking resident of Frejus?

Merci d avance, Klaas

[anjou]

Having been to Sorento and then cruised past Capri, I dont think i could mistake it for somewhere else. But hey, we all make mistakes. When I moved home a few years ago, I left work one night and forgot. I drove halfway to my old home before I remembered i didnt live there anymore.

[David M]

Oh gawd, has it really gone down to this level?

[Zoef]

The same observation was made more than a century ago, although not on this forum,by a certain Plimsoll.

[Ex-Calif]

Technology is only as good as the brains using it.

There are countless aviation stories related to misinterpreting or misprogramming the automation.

[Wrenna]

Hi Zoef

It was a reference to a song by Jacques Brel called "Vesoul" :

T'as voulu voir Vierzon
Et on a vu Vierzon
T'as voulu voir Vesoul
Et on on a vu Vesoul
T'as voulu voir Honfleur
Et on a vu Honfleur
T'as voulu voir Hambourg
Et on a vu Hambourg
J'ai voulu voir Anvers
Et on a revu Hambourg
J'ai voulu voir ta sœur
Et on a vu ta mère
Comme toujours

Etc, etc. Cf :

YouTube - Jacques Brel - Vesoul / sous-titres français

(This is not the version I like best. I don't know whether he sang it in Flemish, as he did other songs.)

Of course, all newspapers in France used the reference at the time, because Jacques Brel is still immensely popular with French people (well, at least those who are over 40), and everybody knows the song by heart. He is one of my favourite French-speaking singers. I couldn't say which of his songs I prefer. Possibly Amsterdam, but there are so many others.

YouTube - Amsterdam - Jacques Brel (English Subtitles)

[sae140]

Last year a truck driver from Italy turned up at Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve on the East Coast of England, when he had meant to be delivering his load to Gibraltar (on the southern tip of Spain). Seems that he didn't even question why he had crossed the English Channel !

[Zoef]

Originally Posted by Wrenna

Hi Zoef

It was a reference to a song by Jacques Brel called "Vesoul" :

Hi Wrenna,
Thanks a lot. I feel a little bit ashamed, I should have known Vesoul.
You have a very sympathique homepage.
Klaas