Dunkerque is a French name.
Lol, T(h)ink - as I see, you were already here; I can only ask you, if you had the occasion to visit Dunkirk and the Port Museum and if you liked it (I did not have the occasion to make the trip to Dunkirk, but heard a lot about the city and its pirates - Bart supported Louis XIV - and they recommended this museum). Too bad, there's not much local info available in English, except for tourists' guidance and records about WWII:
http://www.dunkirk-guide.co.uk/sights/port-museummusee-portuaire-dunkerque.html
No, Marianne, I have never been in Dunkirk, although it would be fascinating.
Lol - T(h)ink, I am in the same situation, there are so many fascinating sites and places I could only visit through books, maps, encyclopaediae, movies, music, poetry, pictures, documentations, tourist's information, etc.
Are you referring to Jean Bart?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bart
Dunkerque is the French name, and Dunkirk, the Flemish name can be translated with dune and church, i.e. church in (or on) the dunes.
Sadly, Dunkirk was also the site of a notorious WWII battle, in which the Allied Troops had to be evacuated in the Battle of France, also known as Fall of France:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation
Rooster, I had somehow picked up that 'kirk' means church...(maybe Star Trek famous Captain Kirk?), but I learned from Wikipedia that 'Dunkirk' is church in the dunes...because of the fishing village formed there on formerly submerged lands on the Flemish coast, Dunkerke. The monks drained the surrounding wetlands and added to the cultivated land.
I did not know about the pirates until reading Other Tink's answer.
This beautiful church is "Eglise Saint Eloi a dunkerque" in French, or "De Sint-Eligiuskerk te Duinkerke" in Dutch...
An excellent picture, Virginia, and that reminds me of Saint Eligius (goldsmith, treasurer, minister of finances to Chlothar II, treasurer, bishop, chief counsellor to Dagobert I, among other functions), who was said - among various other legends - to have saved Dunkirk and its remaining people (a village in these times, by converting one of the barbarian giants, Allowyn, who had raided and plundered the whole coastal region) and contributed to the fortification, growth and development of "Duine Kercke":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Eligius
Oh Marianne, I love their names! Clotaire, Allowyn, Dagobert (who was married to Queen Nanthild)!
Lol - there was even a song about "The Good King Dagobert"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_bon_roi_Dagobert_(song)
Marianne, from all this we have read, also I now realize that St. Eligius is actually a cognate of the name Eloysius!
Yes, Virginia, and in French it is Eloi. Eligius is "the one who has been chosen".
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