Origin of Ambialet's Name

Seal of Ambialet

Have you ever wondered how things are named? Many people enjoy tracing their family name back in time to see where they have come from and to find out the significance of their name. Well, what about towns? Their names must have some sort of meaning, too.

Let's trace the name of "Ambialet" back in time. The word itself has Gallic (Celtic) and Latin roots:

From the Gallic language comes ambileto, which means ‘ring yoke.’

From Latin comes ambi meaning ‘around’ and leto meaning ‘flow.’

Ambialet is a Presqu’ île, meaning ‘almost island.’  Therefore, these words were put together to form the name Ambialet in which water flows around the town. Very clever!

Latin was the spoken and written language of the Romans, who governed this part of France (and most of Europe) for centuries, until roughly the 5th century.  Gallic was the language spoken by the "Gauls," peoples who had settled in the region of France before the Roman period. That Ambialet has both Gallic and Latin roots tells us something about the union and mixing of different peoples and cultures in this region many centuries ago.

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["Les Fontaines" in Ambialet prestígíeux et secret,  p. 29]

Myth of Ambialet

You may wonder how Ambialet came to be what it is today. Let’s take a broad step back in time. It all began like the other fairy tales we have learned to love ~ with a giant. The ancients say that this giant, "Gargantua," was strolling through the countryside, stepping from one hill to another. The journey was tiring and it made Gargantua very thirsty. At some point, he leaned down and drank a river whole! Upon feeling a little twig sticking on his tongue, he spit there, and out came a cart loaded with hay and pulled by oxen, which peacefully crossed the river! While taking more great strides, a little stone got stuck in the giant's shoe. He took this out and threw it aside. One of these stones landed at Ambialet. Today, this is known as «la Pierre plantée», which in English means ‘the planted stone.’

Presqu’ île of Ambialet

 © Tales of a Flaneur

So there's the story! Ambialet was just a tiny stone stuck in Gargantua’s shoe that was later filled in and surrounded by water. This is why Ambialet is called a «Presqu’île», which means ‘almost an island' (or peninsula).

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["Les Cupules" in Ambialet prestígíeux et secret, p. 3]