One of the abiding memories of my student youth was hitch hiking through France, pitching up at St Tropez as the sun set on another glorious day and wondering why they’d seen fit to celebrate my arrival with a quite magnifique firework display on the beach. Only when checking a discarded copy of Le Monde did I realize it was the 14th of July and that the display was for Bastille Day…nothing to do with little old moi!
Which set me to pondering our own French connections and why we’re called Belvoir Fruit Farms…or should we say, Beaver Fruit Farms? Suffice to say, the origin of this confusion lies in our French roots. Belvoir Fruit Farms takes its name from its location on the spectacular Belvoir Castle estate, which offers commanding views over the Vale of Belvoir. Accordingly, the first fortress built on these grounds by William the Conqueror’s Standard Bearer, Robert de Todeni was named ‘bel voir’, or ‘beautiful view’ in French.
Following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the ruling classes changed and new establishments such as Belvoir had their names Anglicized as only the nobility spoke medieval French. Whether the decision to pronounce ‘belvoir’ as ‘beaver’ was a direct snub to the French invasion or a perfectly innocent inability of Anglo-Saxons to master the French tongue is unclear.
Belvoir or beaver, whatever you wish to call us it’s more important you continue to enjoy the 100% natural, fresh and fruity taste of our mouth-watering range of cordials and presses…utterly delicious in any language and on every tongue!
In fact, why not celebrate La Fete Nationale on the glorious 14th with a long cool glass of your favourite Belvoir beverage…leaving me to reflect on my misspent youth on the highways and byways of a land like no other.
