Why...
... do we call music notes "do", "ré", "mi" etc ?

The notation "do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la, si" was created in the 1th century by an italian monk and was inspired by latin religious chanting :

Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
Labii reatum,
Sancte Ioannes

The "ut", difficult to sing, was remplaced by "do" in the 17th century

Pourquoi ...

...dit-on que mettre le pain à l'envers porte malheur ?

Au Moyen Âge, le jour des exécutions publiques, le boulanger réservait un pain pour le bourreau.

Il posait ce pain à l'envers pour être sûr de ne pas le vendre à un autre.

Tout le monde savait que ce pain était celui du bourreau, et personne n'y touchait.

Voilaaaaa !!!

Merci Balaj :@)

Why ...

... do we 'chink' our glass before having a drink ?



The custom of 'chinking' (trinquer in french) dates back to the middle ages when poisoning someone through their drink was a common occurance.

As a precaution, when people drank together, they would pour a little of their own drink into that of their neighbour's.

After a while, it was admissable to simply knock glasses together so that respective splashes of drink could be exchanged.

Nowadays, we still say that one shouldn't start to drink without having chinked glasses and having looked at each other in the eye as a sign of confidence.

why ...


Do we say that money has no smell ?

This proverb is often attributed to the roman emperor Vespasien as a reply to his son, Titus, who chastised him on his wish to impose a tax on urine.

In the ancient roman empire, urine from public toilets, was collected for use in the tanning industry as a means to de-grease wool.

Vespasien had the idea of creating a tax for the collection of said urine.

One day his son then thrust a handfull of despoiled coins under his nose and then asked him if the odour offended him ...

As late as the 19th centuary, parisiens referred to public toilets as the 'vesperians' in memory to this anecdote