Passadoc Gazette - No 158

The weekly 158

The shepherd's star...

Daudet tells...

[On pasture, the shepherd waits for the food of the fortnight that usually brings him Norade, his aunt's watch.
And that Sunday, who's coming? Our lady, my children! our maiden in person, sitting right between the bag of bones, any rose of the air of the mountains and the cooling of the storm.
But the rain increased the Sorgue. The young lady does not know the way through; evening falls; she stays near the shepherd.]
J.M.

She always looked up, with her head leaning in her hand, surrounded by sheep's skin like a little heavenly pastry...

– There are! How beautiful! Never had I seen so many... Do you know their names, shepherd?

– But yes, mistress... Here! Right above us, here is the Way of Saint James (the Milky Way). It goes from France right to Spain. It was St James of Galicia who set him up to show his way to the brave Charlemagne when he fought the Saracens. Further, you have the Car of Souls (the Great Bear) with its four resplendent axles...
[…]
– But the most beautiful of all the stars, mistress, is ours, it is the shepherd's star, which enlightens us at dawn when we go out the flock, and also in the evening when we come in. We still call it Maguelonne, the beautiful Maguelonne who runs after Pierre de Provence (Saturne) and marries him every seven years.

– How! Shepherd, are there star marriages?

– Yes, ma'am.

And since I was trying to explain to him what it was like to have these weddings, I felt something fresh and fine to weigh slightly on my shoulder. It was her head heavy with sleep that leaned against me with a nice ruffle of ribbons, laces and ripped hair.

* The stars – Letters from my mill – First publication 1869.

The Echoes of the Week
Member
Casau des Cavalières
The fragrance of roses
February 2nd!
Passadoc

The emberluqué

Less the natural speakers of the Provencal – those who speak the language with the family, are numerous – the more the language is present on the facades.

André Abbe :

I found a beautiful example in Lavandou, a small town on the Var coast. In less than an hour in the center, names appeared:

– Lou Lavadou (washing) the origin of the city's name. My old man « Blue guide » says the name would come from the lavender that would grow in quantity at this place. The author did not have to set foot in the country because the lavender does not grow at sea level.

– Member It's amazing! I haven't heard that word since I was a kid, I haven't seen it written anywhere until I'm in front of this restaurant.

In Provencal (emberlucat) and regional French, we used to employ a boy dazzled by the charm of a young girl.

Hat to the person who went the destrauqué (out of the hole literally)!

I found others on the way to the port.

Claude Boyer

Not long ago, I learned that a tubaneù was a place where we gathered to smoke and the name the famous rue Thubaneau in Marseille comes from there.

Thubaneau Street is located in the 1st arrondissement on the right after the famous stairs of Saint Charles Train Station. It goes from Dugommier Boulevard to Belsunce.

In this street there was a room where people gathered to smoke.

For decades, it has been a high place of prostitution in Marseilles. Speaking of Marseilles, doing Thubaneau Street means sidewalking, and go to Thubaneau, It was go meet the ladies of small virtues or more trivialy « go to**** ».

La rue acquiert sa réputation de rue artistique en 1693 ; lorsque l’Opéra de Marseille ne peut accueillir la Troupe Royale, celle-là s’installe rue Thubaneau.

Cette voie fait partie des rues marseillaises à ne pas avoir changé de nom à la Révolution française.

Casau des Cavalières

André Abbe
Des mots que je n’ai ni entendus, ni prononcés depuis des années me reviennent parfois un beau jour à l’esprit.

Ainsi « casau »…

Mon père me parlait souvent de notre « casau » des Cavalières où nous allions parfois. Un casau, c’est une ruine ou une maison en mauvais état, en provençal.

Voici qu’Arthur Cazaux, jeune joueur de tennis (2002) de Montpellier, réalise des exploits à l’Open d’Australie, en parvenant en 8e de finale…

Et me revoilà par la pensée avec mon père à notre casau des Cavalières en voyant jouer Cazaux à la télé. Drôle d’association de mots.

Père se dit « paire » en provençal. C’est le nom de Benoît Paire, joueur de tennis lui aussi, originaire d’Avignon. J’ignore si Paire et Cazaux se sont déjà affrontés sur les courts…

The fragrance of roses

André Abbe
Roses à parfum de Provence !

Fayence (Var) – réputée pour le vol à voile – est proche de Grasse (Alpes Maritimes).

Chez les Rebuffel, la réputation est acquise par les roses. En 1990, j’avais fait un reportage chez eux. Aujourd’hui encore, les parfumeurs raffolent des roses de la région ! À tel point que certains champs de roses à parfum doivent être protégés par des barbelés…

Les fleurs des roses centifolia sont récoltées manuellement… en mai… et sont distillées par les parfumeurs grassois.

Il y a quelques années, on a craint que les importations de roses et les parfums synthétiques mettent fin à cette culture chez nous. Mais les parfumeurs se sont aperçus que pour obtenir des parfums de la plus haute qualité, rien ne pouvait remplacer les roses locales.

Ne pas manquer la visite du musée de la Parfumerie à Grasse.

Photo : récolte des roses à Roquebrune.