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The name "Traboulet" ?

Traboule [trabull] :  (from the latin trabulare, transambulare : to pass through, 1900) Dialect. Name given to narrow streets or paths in the city of Lyon, France. This small passageway provided a way linking two streets through buildings and courtyards.



Trabouler : intransitive verb (a typically Lyon word, France) Amable Audin, historian and archeologist, explained that the word "traboule" comes from "trans-ambulare," meaning literally "to pass through", hence the verb "trabouler" and the noun "traboule".

For René Dejean, graphic artist and professor, the name "evokes both a shortcut and the idea of intimate knowledge of the city. The traboule can be defined as a pedestrian passageway, often in a narrow space, which starts as an entryway and crosses through one or more buildings and courtyards, connecting one street to another". The first traboules are thought to date back to the 4th century, when the inhabitants of Lugdunum, in search of easier access to water, moved down Fourvière hill, settling alongside the Saône River. The traboules were created as shortcuts to the Saône. Later, when drinking wells were dug in the courtyards of buildings, it was no longer necessary to go to the river. But the shared drinking well in the center of the building acted as an ideal meeting place and, according to René Dejean, "greatly contributed to the ongoing importance of the early traboules". In the following centuries, the design of the Roman patio with its galleries and central drinking well was often imitated in the many Renaissance constructions.

 

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And by the way, in the word « traboule », you can find the French word « boule » meaning ball and to a matter a fact « bille », the French word for the balls you can play marbles with.…

This name is perfectly appropriate to design my game. Actually, you can play this game with big glass balls, that you have to move to pass through (trabouler) other bunches of balls.

 

 


 

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