Saint-Nicolas-de-Port () is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département in north-eastern France.INSEE commune file
The town's basilica, Saint Nicolas, is a pilgrimage site, supposedly holding relics of Saint Nicholas brought from Italy. It is one of France's Monuments historiques, and a minor basilica 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 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.
Population
People André Joly (1706–1781?), court painter
See also Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department
References