Hebdo 118
Along the roads...
[Jeep]... know all the paths, those that go up among the oaks to reach, at the top, the road which marries the route of a Roman way, and those that sway under the hazelnuts*...
Paths began to exist when man sedentated. Without going back to the age of caves, let's go through some Roman ways whose remains are known in almost all regions of France.
Of the approximately 100,000 km built, let us consider only the oldest: via Domitia which connects the Alps to the Pyrenees, inaugurated – lit-on – in 118 BC by Domitius, consul at Narbonne.
Let's skip the centuries to meet Trudaine, who develops the network of the royal lanes, provides them with indicator poles and kilometric terminals; to these, will succeed the imperial ways, Napoleon I and Napoleon III oblige! The roads will be classified departmental, then national ones that all would – it is said! – their point zero on the parvis of Notre-Dame (Paris).
♫♫♪♪♫
Of all the roads of France in Europe The one that I prefer is the one that drives Car or auto stop To the shores of the Midi...
National 7**
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It is André Michelin who sows the terminals along our roads; they are yellow for the department and red for the national; all have a number, names of localities; which does good service to travelers and ends – or almost! – to such dialogues:
– Tell me... Here, how do we win Roquebrune?
– At the exit of the village, follow the stone path; with the big oak, turn right. From afar, you will see a white bastide... You've almost arrived...
– Where is our road?
Patience! She's in the middle of Bormes-les-Mimosas.
* Jeanne Cressanges – woman of letters, writer-dialogist, essayist and novelist.
** Song by Charles Trenet.
Jeanne Monin
E not pierced « carriera broken » that, se siam nos other than cabussam, es ben ela que nos lo fai breake lo cuou...
- The Echoes of the Week
The most illustrious of Toulonnaises!
Known and unknown
Call Expo! Readers' Mail
- The Library of Passadoc
- Participate in « The Gazette » Hey!
The most illustrious of Toulonnaises!
Claude Boyer
When someone screws up their work they say: « A fa coumo lei daughter of Touloun, a fa la mita a oblida lei cantoun » (He did like the daughters of Toulon, he did half and forgot the contours).
Why girls « Touloun? », it's not because they're more demeriting than others but simply because it rhymes with « cantoun« .
Mireille Darc, born Aigraz, made the conservatory of Toulon at the same time as another – almost – Toulonnais, Henri Tisot, born at the Seyne-sur-Mer, an inescapable imitator of « General »...
Maryse Laugier
My mother said: She's like Toulon's girls! She sweeps the middle and not the corners!
Cyril R. Vergnaud
The list of reciters reads the name Mireille Darc. (against)
Known... and unknown
By sorting out papers, I found an envelope (and its contents) posted on Rue La Boétie in a beautiful district of Paris in March 1969 by a friend.
« André Abbe – 83 Roquebrune on Argens » And the letter came!
Today, a small half of the letters sent to me are lost because I live in an isolated house and the factors do not bother to look for my box. Yet I took the precaution to ask people to write the full address.
In 1969, almost everyone knew me in Roquebrune. Today, of the 14,000 Roquebrunois, less than 300 must know me, among the old families that are disappearing and among the lovers of Provençal. Two dozen « old » Roquebrunois remember seeing me on television.
Falling in anonymity is not painful.
André Abbe
This envelope caused many exchanges!
Claude Boyer
That's it when you're famous!
I'm sure if your friend hadn't put your photo on, the letter would have come to you too.
I remember, when Jacques Martin lit up our Sunday afternoons, he had received a letter with his picture on the envelope and only registered « Paris ».
Maryse Laugier
I knew your name... I didn't know I'd ever see you in person!
Gisèle Peinat-Lorch
I have to be one of those last 300. « Roquebruno mohicans »Even though I don't live anymore Roquebrune, who remember and who still know André ABBE!
SMS, Messenger, email, etc. It's so convenient and instant even when you're at the other end of the world.
Gisèle Peinat-Lorde
I do not dispute the practical side or all the advances of the virtual world, nor do I claim that « Everything was better before », only different. And I appreciate that some old friends – mostly strangers – in my age group (70/80) write – as I do elsewhere – still real novels, beautiful letters on beautiful paper, at least twice in the year (new year vows and birthday) as in our youth and did not succumb completely to the sirens SMS, email, Whatsapp etc. The latest writing mohicans to make the job work!! and sometimes even with full and well-worded addresses, the mail seems to take the way of schoolchildren and vagabond from there, cahin-caha !!
Jeanne Monin
I confess that I use emails a lot... one can write – and read! – late in the evening, in the middle of the night or from the potron-minet...
– Same with a letter! Tell me!
But one and the other are sometimes simultaneous... Barely have the words just been written that they can already be read... words that have simply been chosen because they are beautiful, elegant... Or funny!
– All like those in a letter!
Of course... But we can change without ripping, without making big pies! ... And nothing prevents writing in purple ink like that of the school children of Dantan... or blue, Colette's favorite ink color.
Jean-Philippe Tinois
Gisèle is right: dematerialization is our physical disappearance and dissolved human relations.
I see more and more that we (when I say we, again am I frankly not addict, far from necessary, and Claude even less, who still refuses a cell phone not to be emm*** and who ignores the computer, there is still a bolt and smoke signals!!! A K apart! – for my part, let's say a moderate and realistic use –) are hyperconnected with all our devices, (practices yes and useful – smartphones, tablets, computers, various and varied social networks) but more and more disconnected from the human, so obviously from the heart: (total disconnection of true feelings, respect towards the human beings) « old » and propriety « basic »), to believe that the oxytocin is really lacking to many or then it is reserved only for connected objects !!! But old people like us know the way, especially when we are relatively isolated, alone and without family, as is our case...
I keep preaching for the restoration of human contact and I know that you have a similar approach, but the dinosaurs have disappeared said the song, we may actually be unsuitable, fortunately more for too long!
Gisèle Peinat-Lorde
An interesting aside, linked to beautiful reading memories ...
A new epistolary, pured to the extreme, too brief but that succeeds in the turn of strength to passion, touch, sadden and surprise the reader...
To read again... to put in the PAL, to find first a local bookist! Or even at the media library because I no longer have the book...
"Expo" reminder
The Passadoc Gazette – No 117
Jean-Pierre Murat requests:
– Squeeze-Ponçon would not come from Serre e Ponchon (point, summit)?
Answer by André Abbe:
The Occitan name Serre Ponchaire, Serre Ponçon in French, was given by an uncle of André Faure and his friend whom I interviewed in front of the lake in the 1990s. These elders had worked on the dam. There may have been another name in use.
- Writing Passadoc – Participants included:
André Abbe
Claude Boyer
Maryse Laugier
Jeanne Monin
Jean-Pierre Murat
Gisèle Peinat-Lorde
Jean-Paul Tinois
Cyril R. Vergnaud - Layout
Jeanne Monin