PONANT strengthen its French heritage by naming the new expedition vessels after famous explorers. by Earl of Cruise Famous French explorers are choosen by PONANT to name the new expedition vessels, and to stress out the French character of the luxury expedition company and their ships. The quartet will inaugurate in the years 2018 till 2019. Rendering courtesy by STERLING DESIGN and PONANT The names are - LE LAPÉROUSE , LE CHAMPLAIN , LE BOUGAINVILLE and LE KERGUELEN . courtesy by PONANT You may ask why they use at first "LE"? As all vessels in France, so in French, are male. Any French ship should be adressed as "he the ..." or "der ...", etc. But that would be a tautology in this case, as the given names are selfexplaning with the article "LE" and so the sex. And then, why such "unpronaucable" names? At first not for those who speak ` la langue française´ - the French language (translate google may help w...