{"id":47089,"date":"2025-10-21T11:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/?p=47089"},"modified":"2025-10-21T11:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:19:07","slug":"origin-of-the-grease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/2025\/10\/21\/origine-de-la-grisse\/","title":{"rendered":"Origin of the Grisse ..."},"content":{"rendered":"

La Grisse\u00ab, an original and strange name...<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The name \u00abLa Grisse\u00bb is unique; it is found nowhere else, apart from a few similar names such as \u00abGrissay\u00bb, a farm which gave its name to a motorway service area in the Vend\u00e9e near Les Essarts, or the \u00abFiefs des Grisses\u00bb in Olonne\/Mer...
With no clear explanation, we can only assume: The first and most obvious idea is quite simply linked to the \u00abgrey\u00bb and clayey soil here, which if distorted with the accent or the spelling could have become \u00bbGrisse\u00ab, but then, it is very surprising not to find this type of name everywhere else along this marly line, between plain and bocage...
Another, more complex, possibility is that it comes from the very sticky clay soil, which is said to be a little too amorous here! ... It could therefore come from the word \u00abgraisse\u00bb, which in Vend\u00e9en dialect is phonetically pronounced \u00abgr\u00ebyce\u00bb, hence \u00abgrisse\u00bb ... ???? It's a bit far-fetched, but why not?
Another explanation could be that it was once so isolated and desolate, a \u00absheep wasteland\u00bb lost at the end of the world, a marshy wasteland, a \u00abGrisse\u00bb! ... In fact, based on the testimony of an English client who was amazed by the similarity, this type of landscape is called \u00abGraize\u00bb in Old Welsh of Celtic origin... So why not? ... I like this hypothesis, because it fits the terrain perfectly...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Finally, etymological research into the 3-part name \u00abGr-is-se\u00bb provides a more scientific and undoubtedly more accurate answer... The prefix \u00abGr\u00bb is originally the Celtic \u00abKra\u00bb meaning \u00abrock-stone\u00bb, which became \u00abGra\u00bb in Gaulish, then \u00abGr\u00bb in Old Poitevin, from which came the common names \u00abGroix, Groie(s), or even Gri\u00e8re\u00bb, found in our area, meaning a flat and very stony place, which is the case at La Grisse. The mediant \u00abis\u00bb is a general hydronymic root of Gallic origin meaning \u00abwater flow\u00bb (Is with \u00abar\u00bb for \u00abriver\u00bb giving: Isar, Isara, Is\u00e8re, etc...) which also corresponds precisely to la Grisse, the bed of a small winter stream that is now channelled, but still exists. As for the suffix \u00absse\u00bb, it is a diminutive of \u00abasse\u00bb, the vowel disappearing in Old Poitevin, derived from \u00abCasse or Gasse\u00bb, meaning locally a muddy and marshy place at the bottom of a very flat valley... This is exactly the case of the Grisse site, once a marsh linked to the nearby Marais Poitevin by the Troussepoil Valley. The Latin root also goes back to \u00abQuassus\u00bb (break, depression dug by the water down to the Bri) and the name Groies, Groie, Grois or Groix can more easily be found throughout the area, always linked to a superficial and fairly flat stony spot. ... It is therefore reasonable to think that this wide stony and muddy plateau in the shape of a marshy shore located at the bottom of a wide very flat depression became \u00abGRISSE\u00bb by contraction...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Origins of the Vend\u00e9e ...
Who doesn't know the Vend\u00e9e?
Located on the C\u00f4te de Lumi\u00e8re, the Vend\u00e9e is the only French department that is also a recognised tourist region! ...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Origin of the name \u00abVend\u00e9e\u00bb: The Vend\u00e9e takes its name from the river that flows through Fontenay le Comte (located in the extreme south-east of today's Vend\u00e9e), the town that was the original capital of Bas Poitou, then of the new d\u00e9partement created in 1790 during the Revolution (La Roche\/Yon did not exist as a town at the time)...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But the Vend\u00e9e could have been called something else ...
Indeed, when they were created, the most common rule was that each newly-created French department should take the name of the main river running through it. The Vend\u00e9e has a major coastal river, the Lay, with two major branches, the Grand Lay and the Petit Lay. The Vend\u00e9e should therefore logically have been called the \u00abDeux Lays\u00bb, like its Poitevin neighbour, the \u00abDeux S\u00e8vres\u00bb...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But, as the story goes, the two representatives from Bas Poitou at the new Constituent Assembly in 1790 were both short and tall, and not very spoilt by Nature either! Naturally, when they suggested the name \u00abDeux Lays\u00bb, the whole Assembly burst out laughing! ... The President then suggested that they find another name for their Department... So the more glamorous name of \u00abVend\u00e9e\u00bb, corresponding to the little river running through the current Chef Lieu, was voted in...
To complete the story, if La Roche\/Yon had been today's Chief Prefecture, our Department would no doubt have been called \u00abL'Yon\u00bb, like \u00abYonne\u00bb in another Department... Just goes to show that history sometimes has little to do with anything! ...<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

His motto: \u00abUtrique Fidelis\u00bb - \u00abFaithful to both\u00bb.\u00bb<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Its emblem: an interlaced double red heart on a white background ... part-vendee<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the West of France at the beginning of the 18th century, the double heart surmounted by a cross was originally the symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, in the era of the re-evangeliser Grignon de Montfort... But it was best known in its simple form, taken up by the Vendean rebels of 1793 \u00abFaithful to God and the King\u00bb...
Finally, in the 20th century, the double heart became the official emblem of the Vend\u00e9e, symbolising the rediscovered unity of the two Vend\u00e9es, the \u00abBlanche\u00bb and the \u00abBleue\u00bb... Loyal to both! ...<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La \u00ab Grisse \u00bb, un nom original et \u00e9trange \u2026 Ce nom \u00ab La Grisse \u00bb est unique, on ne le retrouve nulle part ailleurs, \u00e0 part quelques noms approchant tel \u00abGrissay\u00bb, ferme ayant donn\u00e9 son nom \u00e0 une Aire d\u2019Autoroute de Vend\u00e9e pr\u00e8s des Essarts, ou le \u00abFiefs des Grisses\u00bb \u00e0 Olonne\/Mer \u2026Sans explication […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47092,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47089\/revisions\/47092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campinglagrisse.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}