From the printed "Guide du promeneur" of the Parc Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, near the site of the workshop where I spent the past couple of days, I learned a new French word, or more exactly a new meaning for a common French word:
De petites fabriques dédiées aux vertus de la nature humaine et disséminées ici ou là, illustrent ce project révolutionnaire d'un nouvel espace social où l'homme vit en harmonie avec le milieu naturel.
My small mental lexicon of French glosses fabrique as "factory", but this is clearly not what the word means here:
Little factories (?!) dedicated to the virtues of human nature, and scattered here and there, illustrate this revolutionary plan for a new social space where man lives in harmony with the natural environment.
I deduced that fabrique must mean something like "structure" in this context. And indeed the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française confirms this
ARCHIT. Petite construction destinée à l'ornement d'un parc, d'un jardin. Les fabriques du XVIIIe siècle. Une fabrique de treillage. Une fabrique chinoise. – PEINT. Élément architectural, bâtiment, ruine, pont, etc., qui entre dans la composition d'un tableau, par opposition aux personnages et au paysage. Les fabriques des scènes mythologiques de Poussin.
An interesting side note, as explained in the Wikipedia article:
Temple de la Philosophie Moderne: c'est l'une des fabriques majeures du Grand Parc qui domine le deuxième tableau, autour du grand étang. Son concepteur fut Hubert Robert. Le temple est consacré à Michel de Montaigne, et les six colonnes toscanes à six hommes qui étaient utiles à l'humanité par leurs écrits ou leurs découvertes. Ce sont Isaac Newton (pour ses découvertes), René Descartes (pour ses théories), Voltaire, (pour ses combats contre les préjugés et la superstition) William Penn (pour son action dans la création de la Pennsylvanie), Montesquieu (pour sa défense de la justice) et Jean-Jacques Rousseau (pour sa célébration de la nature).
Temple of Modern Philosophy: This is one of the main structures of the Great Park, dominating the second scene, around the large lake. Its architect was Hubert Robert. The temple is dedicated to Michel de Montaigne, and the six tuscan columns are dedicated to six men who were useful to humanity through their writings or their discoveries. These are Isaac Newton (for his discoveries), René Descartes (for his theories), Voltaire (for his fight against prejudice and superstition), William Penn (for his activity in the creation of Pennsylvania), Montesquieu (for his defense of justice), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (for his celebration of nature).
It comes as a surprise to most visitors, I think, to find William Penn ranked in this pantheon of philosophers with Newton, Descartes, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The fact that this attitude prevailed among French intellectuals in the period 1765-1776, when the park was planned and constructed, sheds new light on the warm welcome that Benjamin Franklin found in France when he arrived in 1776 as the ambassador of the rebelling American colonies.
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