The monchu: what does this word mean?

Nowadays, this name, masculine or feminine, is used by Savoyards and Haut-Savoyards to designate a tourist, especially one who stands out for his clothing, his blunders, his arrogant air.

Formerly, this is how the mountain dwellers of the last century nicknamed the English and the wealthy Parisians, who, under Napoleon III, had invested the country either to come to the waters, especially in the spa town of Aix-les-Bains, high resort for princely families and wealthy people, or to come and breathe the fresh mountain air.

The elegant outfits of these tourists and their sometimes haughty behavior contrasted with the poverty of the people of the country, hence the use, to caricature them with very popular malice, of the appellation

(gentlemen in Savoyard patois).

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