Saint-Nicolas-de-Port () is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The town's basilica, '' Saint Nicolas'', is a pilgrimage site, supposedly holding

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Dem ...

brought from Italy. It is one of France's Monuments historiques, and a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

since 1950. The town's inhabitants are known as ''Portois''. In the past, the ''Portois'' were known as loudmouths; their neighbours across the Meurthe at Varangéville liked to gather on the opposite river bank to bombard them with a chorus indicating a wish to defecate in their mouths: :::''Booyaî d'Senn 'Colais,'' :::''Tend tet ghieule quand je...'' which in the local

Lorrain Lorrain may refer to: * Claude Lorrain (1600–82), a 17th-century French artist of the baroque style * Lorrain language, a Romance dialect spoken in Lorraine region in France and Gaume region in Belgium See also * Lorain (disambiguation) Lorai ...

dialect means: :::Loudmouths of St Nicks, :::Open your gob when I'm taking a...Graham Robb, ''The Discovery of France'', p37, Picador (2007), , citing Vital Collet "Sobriquets caractérisant les habitants de villages lorrains" in ''Le Pays lorrain'', Nancy (1908), pp442-449 and Henri-Adolphe Labourasse, "Anciens us, coutumes, légendes, supersititions, préjugés, etc. du département de la Meuse" in ''Mémoires de la Société des lettres, sciences et art de Bar-le-Duc'', 1902, pp3-225 St Nicholas-de-Port is also known for fossil remains of very early (late Triassic) ancestral mammals. Basilique St Nicolas de Port 2006

Population

See also