bateau mouche

MaryW commented on the word bateau mouche

as we sat on a bench at the edge of the Seine and embraced with a long kiss we suddenly heard loud applause, only to discover that we had an enthusiastic audience on the decks of one of the Bateaux Mouches passing by.

Charles Rowan Beye, My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 250.

Bateaux Mouches (French pronunciation: ​bato ˈmuʃ) are open excursion boats that provide visitors to Paris, France, with a view of the city from along the river Seine.1

The term is a registered trademark of the Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches, the most widely known operator of the boats in Paris, founded by Jean Bruel (1917-2003);2 however, the phrase, because of the success of the company, is used generically to refer to all such boats operating on the river within the city. Bateaux Mouches translates literally as "fly boats" ("fly" meaning the insect); however, the name arose because they were originally manufactured in boatyards situated in the Mouche area of Lyon.

Bateau Mouches, Wikipedia.

March 6, 2016