Last modified: 2012-10-07 by ivan sache
Keywords: loire-atlantique | saint-fiacre-sur-maine | ermines: 2 (black) | grapevine |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag of Saint-Fiacre]](../images/f/fr-44-sf.gif)
Flag of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine - Image by Arnaud Leroy & Ivan Sache, 4 June 2012
See also:
The municipality of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine (1,209 inhabitants in 2009;
597 ha) is located 15 km south-east of Nantes, at the confluence of rivers Maine (69 km) and Sèvre Nantaise (159 km).
The village is named for the parish's patron saint, St. Fiacre. An
Irish monk, Fiacre founded in the 7th century a monastery near Meaux, east of Paris; the patron saint of gardeners, he was invoked against haemorrhoids ("St. Fiacre's sickness"), chancre and canker.
Most than 80% of the municipal territory of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine is
dedicated to grapevine (the French record), used to produce muscadet
de Sèvre et Maine white wine.
The writer Marc Elder (Marcel Tendron, 1884-1933) died in Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine. Also the Curator of the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in
Nantes and a friend of the painter Claude Monet, Elder was awarded in
1913 the Goncourt Prize for his novel Le Peuple de la Mer. Long
forgotten, the novel was preferred by an ill-inspired jury to both
Marcel Proust's Du côté de chez Swann and Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes.
Ivan Sache, 4 June 2012
For a few years, citizens of Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine have been encouraged to display the municipal flag, borrowed from the municipal administration, when travelling in France of abroad. A photo published in the regional daily Ouest-France, 26 May 2012 (article), shows the flag as white with the greater municipal arms, surmounted by the writing "Saint-Fiacre-Sur-Maine" in black italicized letters. The writing is, unfortunately, incorrect, since "Sur" should be written here "sur".
The two ermine spots represent Brittany. The grape and the grapevine leaf, as well as the two grapevine branches surrounding the shield, represent wine-growing. The motto on the scroll reads "Saint-Fiacre au cœur de Sèvre-et-Maine" (Saint-Fiacre, in the Heart of Sèvre-et-Maine).
Ivan Sache, 4 June 2012