Passadoc Gazette – No 164

The weekly 164

Under almond...

Almond... is one of the first fruit trees « domesticated » by man and one of the first notes of perfume synthesized in the XIXe Century!

Let's go back to time: 780,000 B.C. ... Less demanding in soil and water, the tree appears on the lands later called Iran, Armenia, Egypt. It will take a few millennia to learn how to use the shell and the fruit.

Its flowering announces the near end of winter and the renewal of life. Also in Greece, almond was a sign of fertility. In Christian iconography, the shape of the fruit – stylized by the union of two circles – welcomes humanity and divinity. In painting or on carved stones surrounding the porches of churches, Jesus, Mary, the saints are often represented in a mandorle*.

And in everyday life, we find almond on our plates, when grilled it accompanies the trout, or in pastry: a few days ago, we enjoyed the cakes of Epiphany, filled with almond paste!

As for the tree, it is the friend of the poets.

Jeanne Monin

Searches on different sites.
*Mandorle: oval shape

François Abbe : Each season reveals its own beauty, but every year there is something magical, this is the moment when almond trees burst into flowers in the middle of the lavender fields.
In a few weeks, this breathtaking transformation will begin.

This photo by André Abbe, taken 30 years ago, captures a scene that remains unchanged;
testimony of the lasting beauty of Provencal nature.

 

 

Mistral –  Mireille – Song X

I love him! I love him.
Like the creek
Love to sink,
Like a dru bird
Love to fly.

And we want me to turn it off.
This fire fed
Who doesn't want to die!
And we want me to twist
Flowery almond tree!

I'm the same! The same,
Coume lou valat
Amo de coula
Coume
Amo wanted.

E volontaire
Aqueu fiò fed
Don't die!
I don't know.
You're a drunk!


Theophile GautierFirst smile of spring

Mars laughing, despite the showers,
Prepare in secret in spring.

For the little daisies,
Sneezing when everything is asleep,
He's ironing collars.
And chisel gold buttons.

In the orchard and in the vineyard,
He's going, wig stealth,
With a swan hoop,
Almond powder

 

Georges BrassensAlmond

I had the best almond tree in the neighborhood.And, for the greedy mouthGirls from all over the worldI was growing almondsThe beautiful one, the nice one.

 
 

Standing on the far left of the image, the young and hairy Yves Duteil accompanies Brassens.

  • The Echoes of the Week
    Three women... Three stories!
    Quiz!
    Before leaving winter
    Feet in the water
    Small language training
    The house next door...
    La Bastide Neuve

  • Passadoc
    Thank you!

Three women... three stories!

Friday, 8 March*, Passadoc published this photo : Three women, three stories!

The Daughter of the Pisper, a film by Marce Pagnol, released in 1940. It is the story of a woman who does not let herself be done and who fights for her pride in the pre-war Provence. A real little movie jewel!

MarianneOur modern-day heroine, who fights for our rights.

An anonymous woman who, quietly, with his child, rides the Grand Rue de Roquebrune-sur-Argens.

*International Women's Rights Day...
It was widely discussed in Gazette No. 163.

 

Quiz!

Before leaving the winter...

Southern Alps 1985

It makes you want to, doesn't it? request François Abbe

Personally no, it would make me run away. ! answer Claude Boyer

I like to see the snow but to the mountain when it covers the trees and nobody has passedadd Maryse Laugier

... while Marie Josée Michel and Christian Cardelli Send two beautiful photos:

 

Feet in the water!

After winter and snow, a jump to autumn and more precisely September 1975, it had so pleased that some had made the harvest with their feet in the water!

And memories flow...

Giselle Penat-Lorde
Souvenirs of rainy harvest, very unpleasant and painful. Always a puzzle to put the tractor, trailers and dumpers dry, in the right place, to avoid upsetting; Sometimes we even had boards, riddles in case...

Boots or shoes adapted to the terrain for both cutters and wearers, which were frankly not at the party. Slips assured, imbalance with the canesteo. The feet in the gadow that sticked from everywhere, we shoved by dragging the buckets... Never a party of pleasure, far from needed ...
 
 
Marie-Dominique Germain
The feet in the ice gadoba...
Memories of 1976, year of drought elsewhere but a rotten summer for us where it had only rained...
 
 
Robert Giordanengo
I knew a lot of rainy harvest in Garéoult [Var]; I can't remember years, but it happened frequently!
 

Same memory for MyrMyr de Comps:
– Harvest 76... It kept raining!

Smile of Jean-Philippe Tinois : « If it continues, we'll plant rice!« 

Little language training!

We have already mentioned the masculine words in French that are feminine in Provençal: salt – water... the hare – the lebre.

The opposite also exists: female words in French that are male in Provencal, such as tile – lo tèule.

One word among others.


In Roquebrune - In the distant, snowy Audibergue massif - 1980s - A. Abbe
Claude Boyer
 
In nissart, the « taulissa » This is the roof:
 
O la mieu bella Nissa
Regina of blurred li
Li tieu vielhi taulissa
 
Oh, my beautiful Nice,
Queen of Flowers,
Your old roofs
I'll always sing
 

The house next door...

« Even South »
... in French: « We sweated it.« .
 
Undoubtedly, the owners did sweat to build their house with their hands or did they sweat to gain enough to build it.
 
The names of villas in Provençal create an complicity between those who chose them and passers-by who are able to understand them.
 
I don't blame them for writing « South » for « sudado ». In the Provençal spoken today, 0 or A – when they are final letter – pronounce themselves as a mute E.
It is the same evolution in Portuguese, Catalan...
 
I didn't ask permission to make this photo, the house seemed empty at that time. Also, I just told you that I took him somewhere in Provence!
 
Jean-Jacques Murat
Alevat que seguese "susade" seguese lo nom d'un avenc.
 
[English: Unless it's the name of a gulf]
 
 
 
Claude Boyer
My grandparents bought the family property where I still live a century later.
 
In front of the house was a majestic mulberry tree that I knew in my childhood.
 
Now, just like humans, trees one day die... When thirty years ago he started to give signs of fatigue – the green of his leaves became duller, they began to fall long before autumn arrived – my father took the precaution to bury several branches, one of which has made root and today it is this offspring which in turn became a solid tree that gives us its shadow in summer.
 
 
 
In the past, farmers planted mulberry trees to rear silkworms fond of their leaves to make an income supplement and many mas own their mulberry trees. This activity is called the Magnanery – of the occitan: magnan which designates the silkworm.
 
That's why my house is called Love (the mulberry in Provencal).
 
Magnan has also become a proper name.
 
Lili des Bellons, the childhood friend of Marcel Pagnol to whom he made discover the hills of the Star « under the Garlaban crowned with goats in the days of the last sheep », actually called Baptistin Magnan.
 

Jeanne Monin
Ah... the names of the houses!

We all know Sam Enough »... I mean... The Nid... The Pines ». On holiday, on my way to the beach, a non-humorous owner displays Coastal shelter !
 
Names sometimes have a history, such as that of one of my uncles: he had inherited a large land planted with vine feet. When he went to work, he always said, a little unnecessarily: I'm going to the vineyard!
 
The harvest was quickly made and gave to drink a « Horrible picket » Hey! A year of mildew, he ripped everything out and built a house that he naturally baptized. To the vine… 
 
Around him, some know this past; others ask: Why this name in this little wine country?

My mother's Castle – La Bastide Neuve...

Unforgettable reading pleasure

Then began the best days of my life. The house was called La Bastide Neuve, but it was new for a long time. It was an old farm in ruins, restored thirty years earlier by a gentleman of the city, who sold tent cloths, serpillars and brooms. My father and uncle paid him a rent of 80 francs a year (i.e. four louis d'or), which their wives found somewhat exaggerated. But the house looked like a villa – and there was « Water in the pile » : i.e. that the bold broom merchant had built a large tank, attached to the back of the building, as wide and almost as high as it was: it was enough to open a copper tap, placed above the sink, to see a clear and fresh water flow...

 
It was an extraordinary luxury, and I only later understood the miracle of this faucet from the village fountain to the distant peaks of the Star. It was the land of thirst: over twenty kilometers, there were only a dozen wells (most of which were dry from May) and three or four. « sources » ; that is, at the bottom of a small cave, a rock slit wept in silence in a beard of moss.
 
Marcel Pagnol My mother's Castle – 1958.

Two months ago, we were only at the exhibition.
Women of Provence.
And last Saturday we received the last visitors!

Meetings that we are not ready to forget, such as those ofÉtienne Tomatis and her companion Sabrina.

Stephen told us the moving story of his parents from Italy. They settle down as farmers in Sospel, then rent the farm. At the time, their milk left to produce yoghurts in... Monaco! Today the property of several hectares has been bought by the municipality of Sospel. This magnificent golf estate will have a second life!

Merci pour ces précieux témoignages. Vous relayez nos publications et c’est ainsi qu’on retrouve les traces des histoires derrière chaque image… Continuez s’il vous plaît !!!

Nous avons aussi été honorés par la présence de personnes figurant sur les photos, comme la bergère Martine Baron et son mari Bernard Bellini… la famille Laugier

 

Des proches de nos vedettes Mireille and Pauline ont fait le déplacement jusqu’au musée de Draguignan.

Un grand merci à ceux qui nous ont aidés pour cette belle aventure, en particulier Laura Chaumard and Sylvette Albrand du Musée du Patrimoine de Draguignan, Régine Soyris and Patrice Noël de Passadoc. Merci Guy Bouyer pour ses super photos de l’expo !

Enfin un merci tout particulier à Andre pour sa décennie de travail bénévole qui a permis de mettre en lumière une partie de cette incroyable collection de 100 000 photos.

Quelles sont les prochaines étapes ? Nous sommes ravis d’accueillir une nouvelle bénévole de l’association Abbe Photo, Gwendolyn d’Afrique du Sud, qui passera un mois à Roquebrune-sur-Argens. Suivez-nous pour en savoir plus.

 
 
 

 

  • These are cited in The Gazette :
    André Abbe
    François Abbe
    Claude Boyer
    Christian Cardelli
    MyrMyr de Comps
    Marie-Dominique Germain
    Robrt Giordanengo
    Maryse Laugier
    Marie-Josée Michel
    Jeanne Monin
    Jean-Jacques Murat
    Giselle Penat-Lorde
    Jean-Philippe Tinois

  • Editor in Chief
    Jeanne Monin

Passadoc