page_title: Du battant des lames au sommet des montagnes
section_title: Au sommet des montagnes
hierarchical_section_title: Du battant des lames au sommet des montagnes / Origins / Significance of the terms used / Au sommet des montagnes
context_page_description: Du battant des lames au sommet des montagnes is a French expression that formerly served to define the geographic concessions accorded by the French East India Company to the colonists of the island of Réunion when it was still called île Bourbon. Since then, the expression has become a common phrase, indeed a "fixed formula". In its strictest meaning, it acts grammatically as an answer to the question "how?" and explains the way in which the land was cut into straight bands that stretch from the shore to the highest points without ever stretching horizontally. On the other hand, considered in its broader meaning, the expression substitutes for an adverb of place, being a synonym for "everywhere".
context_section_description: The montagnes to which the expression refers are the island's two mountainous massifs, that of Piton des Neiges and of Piton de la Fournaise. However, the sommet meant by the original version is neither of these two peaks. Rather, Grand Bénare was meant: when the expression was devised, it was far more familiar to the settlers.
  At the time, in fact, neither of the former two peaks had been approached. According to Bory de Saint-Vincent, the first ascent of the island's active volcano (de la Fournaise) came in the mid-18th century, while that of the extinct volcano (des Neiges) came even later. The expression itself dates to the beginnings of the island's colonisation, about a century earlier.
caption: High point of the island, the Piton des Neiges is not the sommet des montagnes ("summit of the mountains") referred to in the original expression.
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