Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "The death of Prince Imperial, The Last Napoleon" video.

  1. One of Napoleon's reforms which did not sit well with the people of France was changing from a seven to a ten day week. This meant that instead of working six days and resting on the seventh they had to work nine days and rest on the tenth. We must remember that France, like any other country at this time, was an agrarian economy and working for those three extra days before a rest day was to much for many of them. Napoleon, thankfully, realised his mistake and returned to the seven day week. On the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, which was a navel battle between the British Royal Navy and combined French and Spanish Fleets, a number of French officers were invited to visit Britain and were taken to see HMS Victory. Whilst on board the ship one French officer, seeing a number of cannonballs, asked if these were the ones fired at the French Navy. No, quipped a British officer, you've still got those.
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  2. Now you mention it yes you are right. Robespierre went from being against the death penalty to being one of the leading figures in the Reign of Terror. Then get guillotined. Does that count as Karma?
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  3. As soon as the Americans do. :)
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  4. Quick note about pronouncing British place-names. When pronouncing Woolwich do not use the second W. It should be pronounced Woolich. Though Wulich is closer. For those interested the word wich comes from the Old English wick meaning trading place, in this case wool.
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  5. I think that's the French your thinking of. :D
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  6. It does when they are teasing you about them speaking English backwards. :-)
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  7. Matt from Florida We do it to confuse the tourists. Once you lot have gone home we go back to using all of the letters. The Russians do something similar. They all speak perfect English when you are not there, but once you Americans arrive they start speaking English backwards. The fact that they write the letter R backwards is a clue. :-) Interestingly the Moscow Toys R Us was the only shop where no one went in to point out the letter R was backwards (that did actually happen in many of their stores). Historically there was popular trend in the thirteenth century to miss out certain letters when pronouncing words. Many others, such as Warwick came about because we tend to shorten words. Wick, by the way, comes from the Old English word Wic, which meant a trading place. Like a market. Where I live the old name for the settlement was Wyke which is a variation of Wic.
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