The Passadoc Gazette - No 172

The weekly 172

A festival!

Festival... A word that would seem old as the world but only appears after 1830. It is said to come from England while the Albion, having borrowed nostre FestivelJust give it back!

The oldest festival in France? According to the Ministry of Culture, The Choregies of Orange (Vaucluse): a classical music festival, founded in 1869 by Hector Berlioz.

But today, festivals are diverse and offer all genres: classical music, folk music, contemporary music... book, cinema, comics, theatre, etc.

There are nearly 7,300 festivals in France, some 1,250 of which are in the five regions of Occitanie. You will certainly find the one that suits you!

Jeanne Monin

Miscellaneous sources.

The Echoes of the Week
It's the party!
The Statue of Liberty
What is it?
Mrs. Clary
Goats and the vine
Postcards

It's the party!

André Abbe
It is an unusual occitan festival because it is not a religious festival.

The origins of the festival are mysterious and may be over 1,000 years old.

It takes place every five years in the high valley village of Sampeyre of Val Varaita and is called Baio de Sampeyre.

During the traditional procession, men wear embroidered, complex costumes and assume the role of women. The costumes of knights, Moors and drums also characterize the procession, and there is a lot of music and dance. »

In Sampeyre, Valley Varaita, province of Cuneo, Italy, there is an original festival which gathers 4 groups of men and boys called Baio (« Baio » come from the word occitan « abadiá » and send back to « abbots of youth », young people who had the function of organizing community celebrations). In 2007, André accompanied the Baio de Chucheis during one of the outings.

The Statue of Liberty

Here is a little known fact: the base of the Statue of Liberty is a Provençal stone, extracted from Cassis, in a quarry similar to that of Rognes, near Aix-en-Provence.

For over 2000 years, the Provencal landscape has been shaped by the beauty of its stone. The artisans chiseled granite, quartz and limestone in the quarries to create refined and rustic places.

Legend or truth?
Because other regions are mentioned: Damparis, in the Jura, Ruoms in Ardèche, Brouzet in the Gard, ...

Jean-Philippe Tinois
– So she « Fake New York » does not date yesterday but has simply changed name. As a king might say without being challenged by his court: This may not be the reality, but I like to believe it.

In an article quoted by Claude BoyerIt reads:
« Why would the Americans have brought tons of stones from Europe (the base is still 47 meters high, that is, boats!), even made them cross the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic to connect Cassis and New York? While they had quarries on site, including a very famous 130 km from New York, Connecticut, which at the time fed most of the major New York construction sites?... »

Gil Gianone
Indeed, having inhabited Valromey and well known the history of this charming region, it has always been said and even written in local historical journals that it is the very dense and hard limestone of Hauteville – Lompnes that would have been used to build the base of the famous statue...

But in fact, it would be pink granite from Stony Creek's American quarry in Connecticut that was implemented for the top of the base, the whole consisting of cast concrete walls, 6 meters thick. Like, they're stubborn legends! So much for Hauteville and so much for Cassis... It was more logical and rational to use an American stone than to carry blocks by sea.

What is it?

– What is this strange instrument?

– A bagpipe.

– A bagpipe? In Provence?

- Yes! The instrument is not just Scots! It is present worldwide, in Africa, Asia, and in Provencal folk music! This one is made of goat skin and has 3 pipes: air, melody and harmoniser; This type of bagpipe is also called bodega or musette.

[Société d'Histoire de Revel Saint-Ferréol. We read:
Handcrafted in sheep's or goat's skin, we tried to choose the animal. The animal was killed in winter preferably during the old moon. A female (the males smelled bad) was chosen for less than two or three years and had not been given birth more than once or twice.

For those who were not wealthy, bodega was made with an unconsumable animal with no commercial value – most often sick.]

Philippe Espinasse
– Picture of the left is a bodega (pronounced boudègo ) or craba (crabo) bagpipes of the Black Mountain, region of Castres Mazamet. It's like André Gabriel playing it. On the right-hand photo of the bagpipes of central France (Berry). So they're not bagpipes from Provence. There is no bagpipe known to date that is native to Provence.

Mrs. Clary

The shadows stretch, the light is beautiful... And the picture too. A portrait without pause, all spontaneous as knows so well capture them André Abbe.

On the side of the way, Madame Clary exchanges a few words with the photographer! She was a shepherdess in Valberg.

– How many shepherds are left in Valberg today better known for his skiing and hiking? questions François Abbe.

Jean-Philippe Tinois
Ski resorts... This concept is actually not very old; skis were a way of moving above all else.

I knew the ski where we learned to go back in ducks with a method as very artistic and physical as the locals or soldiers showed us which I would find difficult to describe but which looked like a kind of human dawn mill skis rotating on the sides alternately and quickly excellent to climb a slope but physically trying. We were learning conversion too, something that disappeared I think of teaching this sport.

My first holiday in the snow, I won my descents by the strength of the arms and legs the spanks were rare and the great days when my mother found that the budget allowed to take a map of so-called mechanical lifts, the tracker punched us the passages as at the Porte des Lilas...

We were going to look for the milk on foot with this silence, these pas suffocated by the scream of the frozen snow, this scent of cows who smoked from their backs in a steam condensed by the cold, straw, the disgusting smell of hot milk, the aluminum pot with the small lid, there was room for breeding again at that time, family with human size... Well... Yeah, I know things change...

Goats and the vine

André Abbe :

It's always a pleasure for me to see a flock of sheep eating grass in a vineyard; evidence that the wine grower does not use toxic chemicals to control weeds.

In Lower Provence, viticulture and sheep farming go hand in hand. Sheep feed on grass and provide slurry. In the cup-cut vines (as shown in the photo), the animals are free to move.

Today the vines are grown on wire, and the sheep can no longer move from one row to another without going to the end. I am sorry to see that goblet vines are so rare – they are beautiful to see in spring.

Postcards

Testimony of a time well over...
A postcard that was chosen on the display to tell the story of the trip and two words... That is enough, everything is said.

Written this way, everything seems simple but you had to buy the card, the stamp and find a mailbox.
– The approach is the same today!
Not quite... Josephine also had to find a pen and a bottle of ink.

Josephine today stretch her arm... the click of a smartphone... And a few seconds later the thousand kisses arrived!

Cited in The Gazette :
André Abbe
François Abbe
Claude Boyer
Philippe Espinasse
Gil Gianone
Jeanne Monin
Jean-Philippe Tinois
Editor in Chief
Jeanne Monin