On the subject of recurring names, we holidayed several times in the villages of Haute Savoie, and it was clear from the cemeteries that there were perhaps 3 or 4 dominant families in each. village. The same surnames accounted for 70 or 80% of the graves.
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Apparently not as he has flagged all of my posts because he wants to keep an eye on the three ‘Troublemakers’ - You, Eddie and me. So tagging him really doesn’t seem childish at all. If James and you want me to get my coat please just say so and l will be on my way.
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He obviously hasn’t enough to do if he can spend time checking people’s posts just in case
You make me smile because this is exactly what I thought, as the doctor examined my (then) baby while explaining to me that the uk was basically incest city. We’d just been driving though the quieter corners of Lorraine, frankly given the long winters and villages of about twenty people I don’t see how incest could’ve been avoided. Only saved by the fact that various armies were always tramping across the region, leaving a few wild oats.
You are so right!! I think this is one of the few real cultural differences between France and UK . For me a name belong’s to the named, theirs to keep, reject or change as they see fit. For my husband and name is an identification for state purposes and therefore not to be fiddled around with on a whim.
Cheap bicycles helped a lot to reduce in-breeding 
there’s a little social sciences/anthropology exercise we did at university in Germany which asks people how far apart their parents and grandparents were born and that is apparently quite revealing, of what I can’t tell you because mine were born almost 10 thousand km apart grew up speaking different languages etc so I didn’t feel concerned and stopped listening.
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