The weekly 144
Hello Rabbit!
Ah! Rabbits... Whether we're city dwellers or villagers, we all have a rabbit in our memories...
- The one on Uncle Martin's farm... or the garden of Uncle Gaston...
- The one from Alice and Lewis Carroll... Strange white rabbit, dressed in a rededote. Always in a hurry, he constantly consults his gossip watch and takes the girl on a long journey to Wonderland!
- Rabbits – or hares – by Monsieur de La Fontaine... The one the turtle challenges... The one who is dislodged by the cunning Lady Belette... The one Raminagrobis crucifies...
- Those of Mr. Daudet: The rabbits were surprised!... For so long they had seen the door of the mill closed, the walls and the platform invaded by the grasses, they had come to believe that the breed of millers was extinct, and, finding the place good, they had done something like a headquarters, a strategic operation center: the mill of Jemmapes of rabbits...
- Mr. Pagnol's... Occis by Uncle Jules, missed by Joseph, the father of little Marcel, but who will have his hours of glory by beating the tartavels! And all those who did so much harm to poor Jean de Florette.
- Rabbit's leg brings happiness, but not rabbits, Irony Louis Aragon. And the whole animal carries bad luck on a boat because it can nibble the tows thus creating water entrances.
- And then all the rabbits, the rabbits-doudous whose children love to suck their ears.
The ears of real rabbits often save their lives! They are indeed gifted with exceptional hearing: at the slightest danger they come, they defuse and leap to a shelter.
The animal has been on Earth for thousands of years, first wild of course; He will not be « Company » many centuries later. Egyptians love it: they created Bastet, a lapine goddess protecting cats and rabbits.
In the Middle Ages he was raised for his meat and fur. Some nobles keep him in a cage to distract their guests. Over the centuries, rabbits are present everywhere. In the 20th century, it became a pet animal.
– When are our rabbits coming?
Patience... Here they are! François opened the clapier!
Jeanne Monin
Research carried out on many sites.
*Lewis Caroll (1832-1898) - The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland – 1865
*Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) - Letters from my mill, published in 1869
*Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) – Fables.
*Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974) - My father's glory, published in 1957 – Jean de Florette, published in 1963.
*Louis Aragon (1897-1982).
André Abbe
In Europe I'm a lion, in China I'm a monkey!
Until next January, China is under the zodiac sign of Rabbit. There are parents who organize to give birth to their child during the year of the Dragon or Tiger, but no one makes any special effort to become a parent during the year of the Rabbit.
It will take me to wait 2028 to find a year of the monkey whose merit is to be able to stand on the back of the tiger without being worried.
I would like to pay tribute to this modest rodent who holds a great place in Provencal gastronomy, rabbit hunter, rabbit with mustard...
Nearly 40 years ago, François and I discovered among the Michels in Mézel, extraordinary rabbits with disproportionate ears, fed with the plants that nature offers.
Claude Boyer
That reminds me of my childhood, too... and my greatest fears when I had to go « give » chickens.
The grain was in a sheet metal closed by a random lid more symbolic than effective. If the saucepan with a long handle easily allowed an adult to draw the bottom of the barrel for me it was another story. I almost had to dive my head first to reach the grains where many mice had chosen to live; And that was nothing compared to the big rat running on the beams of the henhouse frame! I had to face the look of her little black eyes when I was going to carry the grass to the rabbits in their clapper. Needless to say, I didn't sneeze in the place.
What I liked was the morning egg harvest. I was having fun « Cot-cot » Disapprovers and outraged chickens that I pushed to get their laying under them.
At one point, wishing to renew their flock of gallinaceae, my grandparents had bought a cock, a true moth that scared me more than the rat. Luckily, once he had fulfilled his office by honoring these ladies, memme I was very much turned into a wine cock in which I bit with full teeth to avenge myself of the sneaky attacks of my calves.
There were pigeons too, but they weren't occupied, they made their lives.
Now, when I think about the pee's DIY to enlighten the henhouse, I think things have changed. At that time, I'm talking about the early 1960s, electricity was coming by an overhead line on two glass insulators fixed on the front of the house. My grandfather had fired two sons from these insulators to the henhouse where he had fixed two other insulators. To light it was necessary to grasp two rods each fitted with a hook intended to hang the bulb threads and all this obviously without any fuse or other protection of the installation. The only recommendation was not to use the poles in case of rain, and I was forbidden to use this DIY; Which was good in winter when the days were short because I wasn't going to feed the animals in the evening.
Ah! Rabbits...
Remembering childhood in one of my aunts who lived in the south of Paris. For the little city girl I was, it was the real campaign. At the end of his huge garden – he will shrink as I grow! – it was the fields.
- The Echoes of the Week
The truffles
The memories of Géraldine
Do you like sea urchins?
Michel Constantin - Passadoc
The truffles
François Abbe
Truffle, luxury ingredient! We're back to the bastide. My father, André, was lucky: he found truffles!
In Provence, they are offered in upscale restaurants, gourmet food stores and local markets.
There are specialized truffle markets and festivals, such as Carpentras (Vaucluse), where you can buy these mushrooms directly from the hunters and truffle growers. They are seasonal: they are found from late autumn to early winter for black truffles.
When you visit Provence, you must absolutely taste it!
André Abbe
Je dois préciser que j’ai « cavé » ces truffes chez des amis, pas n’importe où. Sur la photo, ce sont des truffes blanches qui ont beaucoup moins de valeur que les noires.
Jeanne Monin
Les prix fluctuent en fonction de la période de l’année, de l’offre globale du marché et de leur provenance :
– Les truffes noires (Tuber melanosporum) sont parmi les plus recherchées en raison de leur arôme ; elles se vendent à un prix élevé : entre 1 200 €/kg et 1350 €/kg, soit 60 € les 50 grammes.
– Les truffes blanches (Tuber magnatum) sont annoncées encore plus chères : de 2 000 à 6 000 € le kilo, voire 7 000 €/kg pour la truffe blanche d’Alba (Italie).
Claude Boyer
Si vous passez dans le Gard vers la mi-janvier, vous pourrez faire le marché de la truffe sur la place aux Herbes à Uzès.
Les souvenirs de Géraldine...
Vendanges à Puget-sur-Argens
1962… C’est avec beaucoup d’émotions que j’ai retrouvé des photos de ma famille paternelle, du temps des vendanges. Mon grand-père, Denis Lombard (1901-1995) était viticulteur à Puget-sur-Argens (Var) et mon père Maurice Lombard (1931-2011) travailla dans le domaine familial, de l’âge de 17 ans jusqu’à ses 41 ans. Puis, après son mariage avec ma mère en 1964 et surtout ma naissance en 1968, les produits de l’exploitation ne permettaient plus de s’octroyer un salaire décent pour faire vivre sa petite famille et il a laissé son vieux père terminer seul la culture des quelques hectares qu’il possédaient dans les Plaines de l’Argens.
Aujourd’hui, je poste trois photos de mon père prises durant les vendanges de 1962 et qu’il avait envoyées à ma mère, sa fiancée chérie, habitant encore à Paris 4e. Ils correspondaient presque tous les jours et se racontaient leurs vies respectives. C’était encore le temps… où l’on prenait le temps de la correspondance amoureuse ! Il fallait éblouir la belle parisienne pour qu’elle accepte de venir s’échouer dans ce petit village varois de 900 âmes environ en 1964… Quel courage ! Chaque photo était accompagnée de mots doux écrits au verso (mais ceux-là je me les garde !).
Géraldine Lombard-Violino
Do you like sea urchins?
Vous aimez les oursins ? Alors dépêchez-vous car ils disparaissent de Méditerranée. Il y a même un plan de sauvegarde (Référence : Arrêté de la région PACA du 29/9/2023 sur la réglementation de la pêche des oursins).
Dans les années 70, on pêchait les oursins même en été. Aujourd’hui en Provence : autorisation du 15 décembre au 28 février seulement (en 2024, vous aurez un jour de plus, le 29 février !).
Ai-je faim ? ai-je sommeil ?
L'acteur Michel Constantin
Les récentes photos d’André Abbe
- Sont cités dans « La Gazette » :
André Abbe
François Abbe
Claude Boyer
Géraldine Lombard-Violino
Jeanne Monin
Jean-Jacques Murat - Editor in Chief :
Jeanne Monin