In the Europe 1 program "Historically yours", Stéphane Bern examines the roots of an expression of everyday life.
Wednesday he is interested in the origin of the term "bateau-mouche".
If it designates a symbol of Paris, its name nevertheless comes from ... from Lyon, but also from a totally fictitious character: Jean-Sébastien Mouche.
Stéphane Bern suggests every day, in
Historically yours
with Matthieu Noël, to discover these expressions that we use on a daily basis, without necessarily knowing their origin.
On Wednesday, the host explains the roots of the word "bateau-mouche", the river shuttle well known to tourists on a spree in Paris.
The riverboats, recently sung by Eddy de Pretto, are those long river boats navigating on the Seine, the size of which does not really recall the small insect.
They allow you to see the most beautiful monuments of Paris in a fairly quiet and touristy way.
Their adventure began in 1867, during the Universal Exhibition.
The first riverboats then arrive in Paris, without having a name.
Then, when the event was over, the metro quickly became the preferred transport in the capital.
And the riverboats are almost completely disappearing.
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Jean-Sébastien Mouche, their imaginary inventor
However, after the Second World War, the entrepreneur Jean Bruel decided to buy one of the very last boats used during the Universal Exhibition, to take tourist trips.
In 1950, he registered the "Bateau-Mouche" brand and invented a legend.
The riverboats take their name from the Lyon district of La Mouche, today called Gerland, where the workshops in which the boats were built were located.
But this explanation was not enough for Jean Bruel.
He invented the story of Jean-Sébastien Mouche from scratch.
This right hand man of Baron Haussmann is said to have designed the Bateau-Mouches and founded a sort of general intelligence police.
He would thus have given his name to the bateau-mouches and to the expression "to be a snitch".
A great marketing coup, since Jean-Sébastien Mouche never existed ...