A friend asked for help in translating a presumably French word that she couldn't find in language dictionaries or on line translators. Someone sent her a photo of a grande bazar, something like a dollar store, lots of knick-knacks, gadgets, joke items etc. and wrote on the bottom of the photo prefaille. Any idea what it means?

It's a town in France; that's all I know.

Prefaille, France Surf Forecast, Tides, Surfcam and Sea Conditions
Prefaille in Brittany is an exposed reef break that has unreliable waves. Summer in particular tends to be flat. The best wind direction is from the north. ...
http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Prefaille.shtml - 24k - In cache - Gelijkwaardige pagina's.

Don't know if this makes any sense, Zed. Maybe.

This doesn't make much sense either, but I looked up faille and found:

1 faille Noun, feminine (a) (Geog) fault
(b) (fig) flaw, weakness, loophole;

The form faille could be from the subjunctive of the verb falloir

falloir
Verb (a) to take, require time, an amount of money

I thought pre might be, well, a prefix. It would mean the same as it does in English.

why can't it be a store in Prefaille?

My guess is the picture of the bazaar was taken in Prefaille.

Pip me, why doncha, eta.

Summer in particular tends to be flat.(The surf at the Prefaille reef, so you'd better go shopping if you like that.



Is not there some evidence here? Hm?

zowie! one minute!



and Bran, that may be how the town of Prefaille got its name?

"Prefaille in Brittany is an exposed reef break that has unreliable waves."

No town is mentioned.Maybe there's only something like a large souvenir shop. Mugs with pictures of flat surf on it. Earrings the shape of weak waves. And statuettes of elegant youngsters leaning languidly on their surfboards for the one wave of the day to come.

Prefaille

Prefaille

and too many googles in French...

Yes that looks very much like a little French town. Pretty little chapel and all.
I plead incompetence.

Chapeau! Anna Strophia.