Passadoc Gazette - No 162

The weekly 162

You said February 29?

We know this: it is because every year it is missing 5 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds to our 365 days that every four years we add 24 hours to February.

Thus decided Gregory XIII in 1582.

Born on February 29, some people say they are frustrated... but smile, saying:
– Even with the right number of candles, the 28th birthday cake will never have the same flavor as the 29th birthday cake.

Others rejoice:
– I'm getting older four times faster!

One « Happiness » for actresses, such as Michèle Morgan, and for some others born on 29 February: Gérard Darmon (Comédian), Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) composer of The Barbier of Seville (1816), or Yves Rouquette (1936-2015), poet writer Occitan. We listen to him talk about Joe Bousquet, René Nelli, poets too:

In 1980, a bunch of happy lurons edit the first number of The Sapour Candle – a nod to Christophe [alias Georges Columbus], creator of the famous Sapeur Camenber, born on 29 February 1844 in Gleux-lès-Lure, sub-prefecture of the Superior Saône!
They will only publish every four years and therefore only in leap years.

Today, Jean d'Indy – editor since 1992 – continues The work and publishes No. 12

The Echoes of the Week
Quiz!
The Bravade of Fréjus
Sunday Market
Snow...
Childhood memories...
Passadoc
Roquebrune in images
Women of Provence

Quiz!

In the foreground, the little boy, little higher than his breadsticks!, is François Abbe.

Claude Boyer
This is the statue of André Estienne, The Drum of Arcole, native of Cadenet en Vaucluse.

Giselle Penat Laborde
The Little Drum of ArcoleAndré Estienne, by his real name, was born on 13 October 1777 in Cadenet (Vaucluse) in a modest family of peasants.

His musical talents will allow him to engage at the age of 15 in the battalion of the Luberon of Napoleon's army as a drum to support his family. He progressed with the master drum, Vincent Noël.

It will be illustrated during the Battle of Arcole, from 15 to 17 November 1796, (25 to 27 mist year V – during the first Italian campaign) – a battle that did not necessarily herald the best augurs for Bonaparte, the Austrian troops being superior to the French troops – and thus return to the great Napoleonic history. It becomes forever the Little Drum of Arcole.

A statue, commissioned by Jean-Barnabé Amy, in honour of this national hero who embodied the bravery and courage of youth, will be inaugurated in 1894 in Cadenet and still sits in the centre of the Vauclusian village.

This statue experienced some turbulence during World War II. Everywhere the Germans ordered the debunking of the statues to melt them and thus recover the metals. The » Small drum of Arcole », struck, like all the statues of the Vaucluse, by the diktat of the occupant, was « kidnapped » manu-militari on the night of September 4 to 5, 1943, by a group of resistancemen, who put him in a safe place. There's no way this iconic figure of Cadenet ends up sadly melted by the enemy!

He returned to his place at the Liberation on October 7, 1945.

The Bravade of Fréjus

Less known, less spectacular than that of Saint-Tropez, the Bravade of Fréjus has the advantage of having as its setting the cathedral of Fréjus which does not have equivalent to Saint-Tropez.

The uniforms have nothing to envy those of the Tropezians.

In this old photo, zouaves seen from the back to better show their panties and gaiters. If these zouaves are in fact Turkish, you will be indulgent. They wear panties identical to the color near!

Saint-François-de-Paule, who came from Calabria, had saved the Fréjussians from the plague, who each year showed their gratitude.

Text and photo : André Abbe

Sunday Market

François Abbe

20,000 soldiers or civilians work for the Toulon arsenal. So meeting sailors on the market is nothing unusual... Like here in 1979.

Christophe Malherbe

Run Lafayette! In front of fire Castel Chabre.

Jean Yves Dumay
It could be me. I returned to the Fleet Engineer Apprentices in September 79.

First exit allowed (in compulsory clothes), small tour to the market... Apparently it is the winter outfit (which no longer exists) with the blue cap !!

By the way, if you want to publish some archive on Passadoc: one address → romenzo2010@gmail.com

Snow...

A picture of the 70s in Roquebrune-sur-Argens to remember these vast fields bordering a village where sheep graze in particular.

(Pauvadou → stops for sheep)

Childhood memories

For a few days, the fairgrounders settled in the square... rides, chichis, lottery, roulette, shooting... The happiness of young and old!

Everything was only light, dust, cries, joys, tumult;
Some spent, others won,
One and the other equally joyful.
The children hung on to their mothers' petticoats
to obtain some sugar stick,
or went up on the shoulders of their fathers
to better see a dazzling escamotor like a god.
And everywhere, circulated, dominating all perfumes,
A smell of frying, which was like incense at this party.

Charles Baudelaire

[Photo A. Abbe – 1978 – The young pilot is François!]

Jeanne Monin
Remember... The ride of the Champ de Mars Paris.

I'm five years old, maybe six, and I proudly ride a wooden horse saluting my mother's hand every time... who says to me:

– It's the last lap! Then we go.

Only in my child's head, « one round » That's how long it takes my frame to see my mom again; Also, little girl docile and obedient, when ten or fifteen seconds later I see again, I descend from horse...

In familiar language, I think it's called a handsome gadin!

Claude Boyer
I remember the scallop ride in Puget, and the pompom that Mr. and Mrs. Dufferne were adept at flirting, the chichis frigi of Mr. Chichi whose real name I never knew, the big wheel of the lottery, the rifle shot too and the self-scooting but at the time when I was the age of the ride I didn't get it...

These four days of Santiago were expected all year round, it was the only distraction. Now, with all these amusement parks, she's lost her charm, people are blazed with everything...

SOLD HERE!

These are cited in The Gazette :
André Abbe
François Abbe
Claude Boyer
Jean Yves Dumay
Pierre Follet
Pierrette Haton
Christophe Malherbe
Jeanne Monin
Flavio Morello
Giselle Penat-Lorde
Editor in Chief :
Jeanne Monin