La Gazette de Passadoc - No 119

Hebdo 119

Wolf... who are you?

The wolf... The oldest traces of its existence are recorded on the American continent and are dated some 2 million years ago.

As time passes, we find it all over Eurasia; It is part of the history of men who tame catching young cubs, and thus prepare the current breeds of dogs.

He has various fortunes:
– Deified in Egypt: Anubis, « white jackal » who knows all about embalming techniques.
– Sheep in Rome: Luperca Breastfeeding Romus and Romulus.
– Nurse love also at Rudyard Kipling: Raksha collects Mowgli (The Book of the jungle).
– It is White Croc with Jack London and son of a half-chienne mother and a wolf father; He hates men until...

In ancient Greece, those who slaughter certain wolves (the dangerous ones obviously!) receive bonuses; thus begins the folklore of the ferocious beast.

In Europe, in the Middle Ages, wolf is not considered a cruel and bloody animal. But because of repeated famines, the barns are empty and the game is scarce in the forests; wolves come to find food in villages and become thieves of chickens, scavengers of domestic animals weakened, etc.

It really appears antipathetic from the Renaissance: it is then the image of evil and its case will not settle with:
– Charles Perrault and The Little Red Riding Hood,
– Jean de La Fontaine and Wolf and lamb,
-...and ignoble Gevaudan beast.

He then became the big bad wolf whose parents threatened the children: If you are not wise (variant If you don't finish your soup, The wolf will come and eat you! ... educational and reassuring, isn't he!

Iinexorable hunting is started... In addition to this, deforestation and urbanization are added: in 1937, the wolf was completely eradicated in France... to return in 1992! He arrives from Italy and settles in the Mercatour! To XXI^e There would remain only 300,000 people in the world, mainly in the large wilderness, the mountainous mountains of Europe and Asia. A backup program reintegrated them into North America.

Individuals were recorded in Occitania; packs extend their territories to the region, as reported by predator-affected breeders. And the polemics are born:

– The wolf is a hunter who only kills for food! with some reason the advocates of wolves.

Yes... but then why these sheep « only » Shrunk found near a single eaten carcass? Scientists call « Surplus slaughter » The domesticated sheep have lost the reflex of the escape and panicked, and are in any sense agitating.
If he hunts the deer in the forest, the wolf will attack only one individual... because others spread as quickly as they can!

From the wolf come many expressions, such as:
– A cold wolf,
"Screaming with wolves,
– Known as the white wolf,
– Tail leu leu
– ……

Some rhymes: « Let's walk in the woods, while the wolf is not« ... and some songs (A. Vidalie – L. Bessières):

♪♪♪♫♫♪
Wolves, oh-oh, oh-oh,
The wolves were far from Paris,
In Croatia, Germany,
Wolves were far from Paris
I loved your laugh, charming Elvire.
Wolves were far from Paris
♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

– Where is our wolf?

Patience! There he is, close to Roquebrune!

Jeanne Monin
Research on about ten different sites.

Just a few steps from my farm, a wolf just ate a goat.

For several months, we know that wolves have reached the sea on the coast of the Moors (Var).

On several occasions, wolves have been filmed by infrared cameras that trigger at night when an animal passes through their shooting range.

Wolves attack sheep, goats and wild boars. They have a method of shredding carcasses that is their signature. They attack the marcassins and the young because they would not have the upper hand against adult boar. It turns out that too many wild boars do a lot of damage in crops. From there to think wolves can be useful, there's only one step I won't take.

Wolves can occasionally attack humans but the subject is taboo...

André Abbe

Marie-Odile Beraud
By experience, dogs also attack herds. Sheep and lambs had this sad fate in the neighborhood where you live; It was labradors that their owners saw coming back with blood on them, and warned the cops...

The flock was my brother's so I know what I'm talking about. I'm not a wolf, maybe I'm a wolf. « Assholes who should end up eating wolves » because I think there is room for them too, as for bears in the Pyrenees ....

Maryse Laugier
I won't get into the debate. « wolves – wild boars »...but the statue is beautiful!

Alain Cathala
In Isère wolves approach homes and do not hesitate to attack humans...

Patrice Gulder
The proliferation of wild boar, and even piggies, is also the risky result of the manipulations of hunters who crossed pigs and wild boars for a better reproductive rate...

Marguerite Ughetto
In the Drôme, farmers and foresters dreamed of it, wolves did it!
Read article

The Echoes of the Week
The patecq
Debates prohibited
May Day!
1900: heading for China
Exhibitions and Conferences
The Library of Passadoc
Participate in La Gazette!

The patecq

Those passionate about Provençal traditions and especially Varoese must know this right of condominium which allows a number of families to make use of a rural area...

This is the patecq which allowed its beneficiaries to trample wheat or chickpeas on a threshing area. This right is not recognized by new owners who are anxious not to owe anything to anyone at home. There have been trials that they have generally lost. The right to co-ownership remains, it seems.

At Rayol (Var), there is a large circular space with a magnificent sea view, called Patek. The « k » in place of « cq » was chosen – I suppose – to give the place more prestige.

Don't miss going there.

André Abbe

Jean-Jacques Murat
Estrani que lo TDF (1869-1886), a son entrada « pategue, patec, paeigoul », oblida de mencionar aquesta nocion de drech d

Gisèle Penat-Lorde
Reminding me of having certainly read in the library of Draguignan's law school, or elsewhere, while I was confronted with the usurpation of various rights of passage (old drailles – another specificity of the customary law of Provence, the drail of transhumance, or road ofcarrary, is a way encumbered by an easement of passage for the benefit of the owners and drivers of transhumant herds – almost as problematic as with a patecq and source of major legal problems) and other pataquès of the kind, some twenty years ago, an article dealing with patecqs, in which reference was made to a book « the patecqs in Provence » written by Mr Doublat, notary and shepherd, associate professor of law at Aix-en-Provence, I did some research.

I found the existence of this publication The patecqs in Provence, but published by Me Corinne Doublat, notary in Lorgues. Brief written during his law/notarial studies. Information.

I think that perhaps there were some confusions and errors about this work mentioned in this already ancient article, with however an indisputable relationship of the alleged author, with Mr. Corinne Doublat. It is possible, therefore, that this small, very useful work may still be available.

Also published in the Bulletin of the Society of Scientific and Archaeological Studies of Draguignan and the Department of Var/1999-2000Volume XL, pp. 123-135.

For example :
– There are some 21 patecqs on the communes of the Garde-Freinet and the Plan of the Tower,
– 5 patecqs in the commune of Mayons, only in two small communes of Varoese 26 patecqs,
– One can easily imagine the number of patecqs not recognized not only in the Var but throughout Provence; Perhaps also elsewhere throughout the national territory.

When we know the value of land today, it is therefore important to take a close interest in this matter, in order to know its rights and obligations and avoid unnecessary and costly litigation, even if it is an outmoded survival of ancestral rural and agricultural use.

François Nardou
In countries of Aquitaine Oc, Garon, they say « Lo Sol » (Loul) to designate the threshing area.

And sometimes we find places called « Pàtus del Sol » (Pâtus del Sol) « Place », or « Area » Of threshing area » (repetition due to « Pàtus » means any plot...).

A Pàtus can be common to residents when they form a « Vezinal »(Community of Vein/neighbours) « Beziss » with the « Z/J » in the Aquitaine Basin).

Debates prohibited

Five mayors of the Pyrénées Orientales met before the Administrative Tribunal for daring to allow debates to take place in Catalan during the Municipal Council. Translation into French was ensured but this was not enough.

It is not permitted to speak in the language of the country to speak of the country's problems. Incomprehensible!

Laura Bauràs, President of the Parliament of the Generality of Catalonia, came to support the mayors in court.

In the neighbouring provinces of Lleida and Girona, Catalan is an official language... A little linguistic harmony between the two sides of the state border would be welcome. France and Spain are both members of the European Union.

André Abbe

Annie Bonnafoux
Art. 2 of the Constitution: the language of the Republic is French.

The municipality is the smallest division of the Republic. We must therefore use French in the breasts of the institutions of the Republic.

The parallel should not be with Spain. A regional identity can be defended, but it cannot replace the rules that govern a country and that impose on all citizens.

May Day!

The happiness of the First May is a little like the wish of the New Year of the First January: we are not sure that it will work, but it cannot harm!

Glane here and there :

Originally from Japan, the muguet arrived in France in the Middle Ages. This « valley lilies » has the reputation of bringing happiness: the more bells on the muguet strand, the more luck smiles at its beneficiary. The most superstitious will even say that only the muguet strands that possess thirteen flowers truly bring happiness!

In the Drôme, on the side of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, it is said that « Catherine de Medici would have come in 1560 with her son Charles IX » then ten years old. A forced visit because « the queen mother and her son were to go to Avignon but they were denied access to the ville »against a background of tension between Catholics and Protestants.

The owner of the establishment at the time [the private hotel], the knight Louis de Girard de Maison Forte, honoured to welcome a royal character « offers a bit of muguet to Catherine de Medici. She brought him back to the court and Charles IX decided to establish this tradition, to offer the ladies a bit of muguet on May 1st.« .

Similar history :
According to tradition, offering mugue on May 1st would go back to the sixteenth century.
In the Renaissance, Charles IX was said to have launched this fashion after having received from the knight Louis de Girard, a bit during a first May.

We must wait until 1941 for the First May to be holiday*. Philippe Pétain declared today Labour Day and the day of social harmony with the hope of rallying the workers to the government of Vichy. Not won!

However, we must not forget that « In 1886, specifically in the state of New York, every 1st May there was a general upheaval of the working class due to the renewal of employment contracts for a period of one year.« .

And on May 1, 1886, thousands of workers marched all over the country for this one claim. In Chicago, some 40,000 workers are on strike.

On May 3, a confrontation between strike breakers and strikers unfortunately killed 4 people. A meeting is organized the next day. At the end of the demonstration, a bomb bursts. Three years later, he « It is stated that a large international event will be organised on a fixed date, so that, in all countries and in all cities, on the agreed day, the workers warn the public authorities to legally reduce the working day to eight hours.«

* The day became a holiday, unemployed and paid in 1947.

Text: Jeanne Monin – Photos : Personal collection of Marie-Odile Beraud

1900: Head to China

A distant memory of an ephemeral French territory whose capital was Fort Bayard (do not confuse with Fort Boyard Island!)

Who is this beautiful soldier of the "Colo" (colonial army), now called "marine troupes"?

Around 1900, this young man from Var left for military service in China. This photo is remarkably preserved 120 years later.

Hat to photographer A. Nang!

The territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan (1,300 km2) was lent to France in 1898. Administratively linked to Indochina, it was on the Leizhou Peninsula (South China). He was returned to China in 1945. France wanted to compete with Great Britain which owned Hong Kong and Portugal with Macau, but the lack of money made the project run out.

Today Fort Bayard is called Zanjiang, one of the largest Chinese war ports.

That soldier must have been a close relative. In fact, the family had given us a gift of the photo that was supposed to be very expensive at the time.

My father François Abbe (born 1906) said that he was Louis Brinès, born in Puget-sur-Argens, the first cousin of his mother Marie Gautier. But Louis' grandson, Jean-Marie, to whom I had shown the photo did not recognize him.

André Abbe

SOLD HERE!

Writing Passadoc – Participants included:
André Abbe
Marie-Odile Beraud
Annie Bonnafoux
Alain Cathala
Patrice Gulder
Maryse Laugier
Jeanne Monin
Jean-Jacques Murat
François Nardou
Gisèle Peinat-Lorde
Marguerie Ughetto
Layout
Jeanne Monin