Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois

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Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois is a village and commune in the Loire département of central France.

The inhabitants of Saint-Maurice-en-Gourgois are known as Gargomançois or Gargomançoises but are nicknamed Les Escargots. Gourgois roughly translates as "The Gorgeous" on account of the reputed great beauty of the indigenous population. Upon his arrival in the village in 346 St Maurice is reputed to have abandoned his monastic existence in favour of a life of pure pleasure and snail eating. This may be the origin of the inhabitants sobriquet.

Among its most famous inhabitants is Emilie Ravel who changed the world by discovering a new way to make molten metal flow uphill. This technique is now widely used in her adopted home of Sheffield, England to cast many "lighter than air" metal products such as balloon hammers.