Le Cours Cambronne

Hello everybody! Here I am again in France, so I figure it is time for another blog entry.
I found an apartment not far from my school, which is really nice. But, what has impressed me the most about the location is its proximity to a beautiful square called Le Cours Cambronne. It's only about a minute's walk from my place. Here is a picture I took from one of the entrances.



It's name after the general Pierre Cambronne, a well known French general who commanded part of the Old Guard at Waterloo. When the British commander Coleville demanded that he surrender, he was reported to have famously declared, "la garde meurt et ne se rend pas" (The guard dies and does not surrender). This is written on the base of the statue of Cambronne in the center of the square.


And here's the statue itself.



Here's a closer look at the statue. Take a look at those sideburns! Wow, those are hefty.


You know, the term 'sideburns' actually has a long and rich history dating back to the mid 19th century. A certain General Ambrose Burnside, who wore them in the civil war, is almost wholly credited with their coming into fashion in the Americas, first catching on among his men, and later in society at large. Wanting to pay hommage to their innovator, Burnside's men decided to name them after him. But, knowing Burnside to be a modest man, it seems his men clumsily tried to disguise the term's namesake by merely inverting 'burn' and 'side'. Thus we have the word: sideburn. (It so happened that the diguised word did not for an instant fool Burnside, who blushed furiously upon first hearing it pronounced and, in order to cover his embarrassment, immediately led a foolhardy charge into enemy lines during which a full third of his men were killed or wounded.)[1]

Interestingly, sideburns might have also had a practical use in battle. In a frontal charge, the volume of hair on either side of the head greatly increased its area as percieved by the enemy. Reasearchers theorize that this caused the defending line to be somewhat lax when aiming for the head, thereby saving the charging sideburn wearer from excessive head wounds.[2]

Sideburns are not to be confused with friendly mutton chops: mutton chops amicably connected with a mustache. Toward the end of the civil war, there was a captain who started wearing friendly mutton chops in an attempt to upstage General Burnside, but he was almost uniformly looked down upon and his friendly mutton chops widely considered to be gaudy and ostentatious. [3]

[1] Original research by Dr. G. Aric, professor of causistry and hindsight ethics at Lambert University.
[2] Head Wounds: How Many Is Too Many? Dr. Angus Moosington M.D.
[3] From Sideburns to Friendly Mutton Chops: An Illustrated Guide to Identification. Bruno van Cattus.