de ou du?

Question

Why do we have Office de Tourisme, amateur de vin, Miroir d'Eau, amateurs d'histoire, protégé de France ( why not de La France?)but, Cité du Vin, de l'histoire du vin, Fontaine des 3 Grâces?

Accepted Answer

Hi Linda,
This is something that we are often asked so I'll go through the cases you mention :
1. Preposition de (without the definite article) 
The noun following "de" is used to qualify the noun preceding it, i.e. "what type of ..." is it

amateur de vin /d'histoire  ->what type of amateur
miroir d'eau  -> what type of mirror (here, made of the reflection created by the water from the pool

protégé de France  -> what type of "protégé"
(Just a note in the case of masculine countries you will use du, des so it would be,  protégé du Portugal, du Maroc, des Etats-Unis)
2. Preposition de + definite article ---> du, de la, des, de l' 
refers to a specific person, object related to the previous noun
cité du vin -> here it's a city about wine
i.e. if you said "cité de vin", that would mean in French that the city was made of wine, a wine city.
La Fontaine des Trois Grâces -> Fountain of the Three Graces specifically
Office du/de Tourisme -> both are correct here, as it could be either a type of office, tourist office, or an office about tourism
So we've now added both options as correct. 
hope this helps!

Answer

You mentioned in that  masculine countries  use du, de la, des so it would be,  protégé du Portugal, du Maroc, des Etats-Unis".Why do you use de la?

Answer

Hi Ramona,
Thank you for pointing this out, it has now been corrected!