Courtepaille / Short Straw
Sunday September 10th 2006, 12:56 pm
Filed under: advertising & marketing,daily life,food and drinks,language

courtepailleCourtepaille is a very average roadside restaurant chain. You’ll find them all over France. I just laugh a little each time I see one; it always makes me wonder about what they were thinking when they named it that. The name, “Courtepaille” means short straw, as in when drawing straws, whoever pulls the shortest straw loses. Obviously, this hasn’t prevented the chain from success. I don’t think people even think of it as meaning short straw (and if they did, they probably don’t care); I think I’m actually one of the few that has noticed. *sigh* A non-native French speaker thing, I guess.

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7 Comments

7 Comments so far
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Only eaten there once – our nearest is in Courcouronnes, although I think there is a new one at Lisses.

I just found them rather expensive. Bit like Hippopotamus I suppose…

Comment by John N 09.10.06 @ 1:31 pm

In the lullaby ‘Il etait un petit navire’, the one who gets the short straw gets eaten…

FWIW, their roof was made of a mix of tar & straws (‘chaume’) – I think these are nowadays getting replaced by more standardized materials (metal).

Comment by Dummy 09.12.06 @ 1:49 am

This is true. The one in Courcouronnes has a thatch roof and the other “newer” one is one of those metal warehouse kit type buildings.

Comment by Braunstonian 09.12.06 @ 4:24 am

We live in Guernsey, Channel Islands and travel through France a lot. when we are doing ‘economy’ we stay in Formula 1 which almost laways have a Courtepaille in the vicinity, and usually with a generous discount for Formula 1 customers. As a vegetarian with a non-veggie partner, I find that the Courtepaille menu offers me a very good ‘veggie’ menu + my partner reckons that their ‘Rillets Mans’ are the best he has tasted = so |I guess you can say we are more than happy to ‘draw the short straw’ !!!!!!

Comment by Joan Campelli 03.16.07 @ 6:11 am

hi joan, not a fan of rillets of any kind but i will suggest that dish to my husband if we ever return to the courtepaille. thanks so much for visiting! pt

Comment by ptinfrance 03.16.07 @ 7:44 am

The URL links to a film I made in Colmar Courtepaille this summer with my family. I hope it gives a flavour to your readers of what to expect from one of these “short straw” restaurants!

Comment by Uncle Davey 09.02.07 @ 5:20 am

thanks!

Comment by ptinfrance 09.02.07 @ 9:12 am

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