One upon a time, the French had a revolution, reason became the order of the day, and the metre was established as the new unit of measure. In order to familiarize the French public with the metre, 16 standard metres were placed around Paris where the greatest number of people were likely to pass by.
Today, only two exist, and only one of those is still in its original emplacement.
So why am I telling you this?
Well, look up. Look up into my banner. That's a photograph of the last "sample" metre still in it's original spot, on the rue Vaurigard, in Paris.
I used to love setting out to find these sorts of unusual bits of Parisian history (I also visited the building where Vidocq had his office, and in which, I think, Jean-Paul Gaultier has, or had, his atelier, as well as the Paris sewers and the paving stones on the rue de la Croix-Faubin which mark a guillotine emplacement), and when I was setting up this blog, I remembered taking the picture of the metre.
It seemed like a good fit -- the Revolutionary Metre, 42.1 metres in the Paris Marathon, badda bing, badda boom.
I got thinking about it this morning while I was catching up on some podcast listening. Episode 677 of Charles Hodgson's most excellent podcast, Podictionary: The Podcast for Word Lovers, is devoted to the word metre.
Okay, he spells it "meter", but I can't. I just can't.
However, I enjoy Podictionary very much, and if you're a word lover, I'll bet you'll love it, too.
Uhm, not to be picky, and I only realized it when re-reading your post, but isn't a marathon 42.1 KILOmetres long?
Posted by: Mona | January 11, 2008 at 08:07 PM
Duh.
I *told* you I was having trouble with the small details.
Of course, it *could* just be wishful thinking on my part. 42.1 metres I could run easily. 42.1 kilometres just baffles me. I look at the map of the Paris Marathon route, and I think, holey moley, that's a long way...
Posted by: katherine | January 11, 2008 at 08:33 PM