It's quite an insult to call somebody a pear (poire) in French! It's equivalent to calling your target an imbecile. It's bizarre that such a neutral fruit can carry peary pejorative connotations!
The graphic satirist Honoré Daumier drew the 'citizen' King Louis - Philippe I with a fat and very pear shaped knoggin. The last French king didn't like his fruity face or reigning the hexagon shaped country either. Louis- Phillippe abdicated the throne and then fled to England using the name Mr. Smith!
