Du for Place Names Starting with Le

Question

I debated whether it should be de Le Mans or du Mans, but as Le Mans is a place name, I thought it would stay as the full name. I was surprised that the correct answer is du Mans. So I assume this applies to any place name starting with 'Le' - like Le Havre.  So to say something 'of Le Havre' it would be du Havre.  Is that right?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Philip,
Because 
de+le = du 
The race is known as 
"Les 24 heures du Mans"
If you were coming from Le Havre, you would also say -
Je viens du Havre
Bonne Continuation !

Philip Hewitt · Answer

Thank you Cécile. The question for me was not the 'normal' contraction of de+le = du, but whether it would apply when the Le was part of a formal place name. Your answer clarifies that point of confusion. It does sound odd to English ears because we also know the places by their French names, and the Le is intrinsic to the name. So we would say "the 24 hour race of Le Mans" (or the Le Mans 24 hour race), or as in your example "I come from Le Havre".  Not having the Le in the name sounds somehow wrong.  But now I know it's not.

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Philip, 
the grammatical rule that the prepositions, ‘ à ‘ or ‘ de ‘ followed by the definite articles ‘ le ‘ or ‘ les ‘ must contract has only very limited exceptions.
 https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/how-to-use-a-to-in-and-de-from-of-with-cities-prepositions
See attached links to Laura Lawless site for more discussion : 
 https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/contractions/
 
 https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/contractions-with-proper-nouns/
 
To a native French speaker it is not a question of the definite article ‘ not being there ‘ - it is inherent in the contractions, which are effectively single words to replace two words ( formes contractées ).

Philip Hewitt · Answer

Thanks Maarten.  Very interesting! As usual, there are exceptions / special rules.  From the links you included, it is stated that for someone's name - like Le Corbusier - the Le is retained, but in (almost) every other case it is contracted to du or au. The example given is "Je lis une biographie de Le Corbusier". This is what I assumed would be the case with place names - but now I know it's not. And also for other examples I hadn't even considered like works of art  - like Le Mariage de Figaro becomes du Mariage de Figaro. I've learned a lot from that simple question.