16.31.a - Where Things Come From
FRANCE AS IT MEANS—a lazy assumption that turned out wrong, a word that used to just mean cheese, a road named for an abbot, a river shaped by saints.
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This week “16.31.a - Where Things Come From
Feature: I Found Myself Wondering, “What’s in a Name?”
This week’s ‘What’s happening in ‘MyFrenchLife™ Magazine’ - a selection of new contributors and fresh articles from across France.
You can also find the free newsletter ‘‘16.31-Small Words, Long French Histories - here during the weekend.
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Judy - 8.8.2026
1. I Found Myself Wondering, “What’s in a Name?”
I found myself wondering, "What’s in a name?” after I nearly skimmed past a small item in the Financial Times magazine, HTSI, a couple of days ago. Three or four paragraphs tucked into The Fix, a headline about serving Versailles, a photograph of a woman in a linen apron standing among cabbages. It had the shape of the kind of story a magazine runs to fill a corner. Perfect object, perfect-looking and perfectly dressed woman, move along.
But there was a name in there that snagged, Givenchy, and a garden that snagged harder, Versailles. So I went and looked properly, the way I do when something feels like a dry gully… that might have a seam running through it.
Her name is Zoë de Givenchy, and my first assumption, the lazy one, was the obvious one. Married a famous surname, borrowed it for a business. Happens all the time. Except she isn’t from anywhere near French fashion. She’s from Melbourne, and before any of this, she was in public relations and brand management at Credit Suisse, a career that says spreadsheets and press releases, not palace gardens. She met her husband, Olivier de Givenchy, in London in 2008. Olivier is the nephew of Hubert de Givenchy, the couturier whose name built the fashion house. The family, with their two children, now live in Château du Jonchet.
That’s the fact everyone reaches for first. I reached for it too. And then I kept going… because that fact alone wasn’t enough to explain the cabbages and more… And it became so much more interesting…
Annual Subscribers and Mighty Supporters, come and sit with me a while. This is where it gets good, yes, really. Here’s where you can read the full essay→