Passadoc Gazette - No 198

Hebdo No 198

Ding... Ding... Dong!

– And why the carillon?
– Because – as our gazette says – we are on the first of November, the holiday, and the bells ring! Listen. !

– Do you know that in Neolithic we could hear the bells?
– Are you sure about that?
– In any case, historians say: from the moment man mastered the fire, he was able to harden the clay and realized various objects which, struck, gave a sound.
- Ah! If historians say so!
– Don't be so suspicious... I believe them when they write that we find in Asia traces of bells dating back 4,000 years.
- Pristi! What a leap in time! But here I also believe them.
– Suddenly... Like this! Why not?
– Because we're in the bronze age!
– You're not serious... Let us return to the 1st November: in 610, Pope Boniface IV decides that all the saints will be honored every 13 May. A large century later, Gregory III preferred November 1st and imposed this feast on the world. 1789: The French Revolution abolished this day, which was restored by Napoleon (1802).
In the 20th century, November 1st is part of the 11 holidays « listed in the French Labour Code ». Many – believers or atheists – take advantage of this day to flower the graves of the loved ones who have disappeared, mixing the feast of all the saints at the feast of all the dead. And the Cemeteries look like flower fields! On all the tombs bloom cyclamen, heather and especially chrysanthemum, the Marguerite of the dead, as Brassens writes.
– I love the poetry and humor of this man!
– You're not alone! It's not that I'm bored with you, on the contrary... But time passes and there is already November 2, the day of the dead... Maybe we can hear the gla...

Jeanne Monin

Research on several sites.

The Echoes of the Week
Quiz of the week!
Gérard Lattier
Green olive, black olive
The two Jeannes
Passadoc

Quiz of the week!

Gérard Lattier

André Abbe
I found my friend Gérard Lattier at his home in Poulx (Gard), always good foot good eye, always in the middle of work.

He prepared the exhibition of his paintings with the subject « The Gospel », in Linkenheim (Germany), not very far from Strasbourg. It will take place from October 20 to April 6, 2025, at the temple of the city. At this very moment – and until March 2025 – Lattier also exhibited paintings representing the department of Ardèche at the castle of Aubenas (Ardèche).

I am glad that Lattier's talent as a painter and storyteller is recognized in his lifetime.

His work is in every way original. You will soon have three places to see it.

Claude Boyer
Libertaire, anarchist. During the Algerian war, he simulated madness to escape service and was interned in a psychiatric hospital. A great admirer of Georges Brassens to whom he has dedicated works, Gérard Lattier paints a naïve art where the characters of Dubout mix with the bright colours of customs Rousseau.

Jean-Philippe Tinois
There are so many messages in this web.

Green olive, black olive

– How do I know if the olive tree I planted will produce green olives or black olives?

To this question, Bernard Molinier replied with a smile:
– If you plant the olive tree facing south it will give black olives, if facing north it will be green! It's the same for oranges!

Monique Marcellino
The green olives are harvested from 6October and the blacks are usually after a few days of frost that makes them become black.
Greens are on Pichouline olive trees preferably, blacks on Nyons and other special qualities for black olives mainly used to make oil.

Denise Linsolas
– I thought you needed the gel for the blacks...

Jean-Philippe Tinois
– Pa) necessary: they mature black without freezing; But with frost, I think they become more pasty like cynorrhodons.
After you apply the method of industrialists to have black olives but firm as green, you have to make them undergo a chemical treatment in my mind totally inept but people buy. It tastes disgusting, stuffed with products, but it has a beautiful green olive shape that has become black!
It goes in the movement of « It's not good, but it looks good.« . It's like strawberries, tomatoes etc.

The two Jeannes

AEdré Abbe
Do you know the two Queen Jeannes?

They gave their names to places in Provence:

– There is the castle of Queen Jeanne in Guillaume in the Alpes Maritimes.

– And the Queen Jeanne Bridge in Entrepierres in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. There is also Queen Jeanne's tower, destroyed after the 1909 earthquake (Salon-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône).

But by the way, who are these two queens?

– Jeanne I (the Queen of Naples) remained in Provence until 1648.

– The second, Jeanne de Laval, stayed longer: 11 years in total.

In Bearn, the expression "as old as Queen Jeanne”.

Claude Boyer
Queen Jeanne is « Heroin » a very horrible legend.

She was the little daughter of Robert d'Anjou, first of the name, Queen of Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily, Duchess of Puglia, Princess of Capua, Countess of Provence, Nice and Piedmont.

It is said, that retreating to Rocca Sparviera castle, (the rock of the squirrels) whose walls dominated the Pass Saint-Roch, the Queen, very pious wanted to attend the Christmas Mass and descended to Coaraze by a path through the rocks.

On the way, he heard a disturbing prediction:

– The regina from the messa, trouverà taula messa.
[The Queen on returning from Mass, will find table set].

The queen, obsessed with prophecy, rushed out of the office, to the great emotion of the faithful.

Taking advantage of his absence, his enemies seized his children, killed them to roast them, and made a dish of them...

The appetite sharpened by tiredness and cold, she saccomomoda very well, on her return, of the meal prepared... And ate his own children.

But, learning who she had just eaten, she ran away like a madman and went down to Coaraze screaming at a curse against the cursed place where such an execrable package had just been accomplished:

– O ròca, ròca marida, a jorn sell that above liti ty cimas canterà plu neither gal nor galina, mas soles lu esparviers e other acèus sarvatgiers !
[A bad roche, a day will come when on your tops, no more roosters and chickens will sing, but only squirrels and other wild birds!]

Well, that's the legend. The truth forces Jeanne not to have children of her first three husbands and never came to the valley...

The curse remains...
Initially affected by an epidemic, Rocca Sparviéra gradually died, was destroyed by an earthquake in the 19th century and then deserted by its inhabitants...

And stay the hawks...

Amazing, isn't it?

« If not e vero, e ben trovato ».

Giselle Penat-Lorde
Not to mention the famous lady-jeanne, this large bottle, of fairly large volume, which we all certainly had one day in our cellars and then in decoration, glass bottle with a very rounded shape and a fairly short neck.

She should also name our Queen Jeanne.

Notre fameuse dame-jeanne, objet « le vent », l’atout vintage de nos intérieurs, que tout le monde s’arrache depuis quelques années chez les brocanteurs et/ou dans les magasins de décoration, connaît deux versions de sa création et de son origine. Il ne reste plus qu’à choisir celle qui s’inspire le plus de la légende ou celle du récit historique !

Il semble que la reine Jeanne de Naples aurait donné une partie de son nom à cette bouteille en verre soufflé.

Après avoir été chassée de sa ville au XIVe siècle, elle se serait enfuie en Provence. Lors d’un orage, elle se serait réfugiée au plus près dans la maison d’un artisan verrier. Elle lui demanda de pratiquer son art devant elle. Lui, intimidé par sa beauté, il souffla trop fort et réalisa une bouteille de près de 10 litres, bien plus grosse que d’habitude et de forme sphérique.

C’est ainsi qu’il créa celle à qui la reine voulut donner un nom plus modeste que son propre titre, et de « reine « elle devint « dame-jeanne ».

Voici l’histoire probablement réelle de cet objet voluptueux !

Appelée à l’origine dāmghān, ce sont les artisans verriers persans qui ont conçu cette bonbonne très prisée. Idéalement situés sur la route de la soie, ils auraient diffusé ce contenu et ses marchandises dans toute l’Europe.

Son nom se serait modifié au fur et à mesure de son passage dans ces différents pays. Ainsi en Catalogne il aurait pris le nom de damajana, en Afrique du Nord damacana, ou encore damajuana en espagnol…

La dame-jeanne servait à transporter de l’eau-de-vie ou du vin, de l’huile ou du vinaigre. Le volume important de cette bouteille était particulièrement adapté à ces produits liquides (un bouchon de liège les rendait hermétiques et elles étaient recouvertes d’osier tressé avec des anses pour les transporter et les protéger).

Clin d’œil à ma dame-jeanne, d’un âge très avancé, qui trône près d’une fenêtre avec quelques beaux feuillages d’automne, non loin de moi. Elle a survécu à pas mal de péripéties, à l’occupation allemande durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et à quelques déménagements.

Photographe André Abbe… photographié François Abbe devant un ordinateur aussi vieux que la reine Jeanne !

Georges Brassens

La Jeanne, la JeanneElle est pauvre et sa table est souvent mal servieMais le peu qu’on y trouve assouvit pour la viePar la façon qu’elle le donneSon pain ressemble à du gâteauEt son eau à du vin comme deux gouttes d’eau

Gilbert Bécaud

Les madames qui venaientVoir notre oncle après dînerOn les appelait tante JeanneCe n’étaient jamais les mêmesMais on les aimait quand mêmeOn aimait nos tantes Jeanne

Deux chansons proposées par Giselle Penat-Laborde.

Cited in The Gazette : André Abbe – Claude Boyer – Alain Cathala – Denise Linsolas – Monique Marcellino – Jeanne Monin – Giselle Penat-Laborde – Jean-Philippe Tinois.

Editor in Chief :Jeanne Monin.