Literal translation
Who rises from Toulon or Avignon rises from reason
Meaning
who rushes off from Toulon or Avignon has lost their senses
Explanation
This local saying expresses a deep rooted attachment to one's town, claiming that to leave it hastily is to abandon good sense itself. The verb leva (to rise, to leave, to go off) appears twice in an echoing construction, rises from..., rises from reason, tightly binding the geographic departure to the loss of reason, as though the two gestures were really one. The wordplay rests on the ambivalence of leva, which names both the act of getting up or leaving suddenly and that of removing, subtracting: leaving Toulon or Avignon is, in the same motion, subtracting oneself from reason. It is used, with a healthy dose of local pride and self aware self mockery, to gently mock anyone considering settling elsewhere, implying that no reasonable person would willingly leave a town so worthy of love. The register is familiar, partisan and affectionate, typical of local sayings tied to one specific town.