The Passadoc Gazette - No 85

Quiz!
Apero of the month!
Article of the week
We talk a little, a lot, passionately!
The legend of Princess of the Baux... If Montpellier was told... Birth of a consulate... Briançon... The fortress of Mount Agel... The semaphore of the Dramont de Saint-Raphael...
Vagabondages...
The Library of Passadoc

Daniel Bizien – Treasurer of Passadoc

Claude Boyer

Marie Martin

Claude Boyer

The legend of the Princess of Les Baux

A history that has its place in the framework of European Heritage Days!
Princess Barbe has just reached her twentieth year. The noblest lords have already asked for his hand but it is to his cousin the lord Guilhem d'Estoc of the city of Aix that his parents grant it on condition that he waits for the brides three years.

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Ah! I « Apero » Passadoc... It's always a pleasure! We talk a lot about everything... And a little bit of nothing... We drink to happiness... André tells the Provence... You don't see the time passing and you're surprised when you look at the clock:
- Already!
What a smile and malice in André's gaze when he scratches the Vikings! We're listening.

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A poetry in Provençal dating from the XI^e century written by a woman from Provence.
This poem is actually a « Tenson » (two poets opposed) by Garsenda de Forcalquier (born around 1170): « by birth and marriage, she belonged to two of the most powerful families in Provence. Her husband Alphonse He was lord of Provence and brother of King Aragon. After her death, she ruled Provence. The character she addresses in this tenson has not been identified. »
The biography and poem are taken from the book: « Troubadour women » by Mel Bogin (Denoel/Gonthier editions). Meg Bogin, American writer begins her book with this beautiful quote: « A totas las valens femnas asan cantat sense estre cantadas« .

Alain Cathala

If Montpellier was told...

... A montpellieraine in the bed of Louis XIV, Anne de Conty de la Mothe d'Argencourt... benefactor of the work of Mercy. By his birth, even though his father had been requisitioned by King Louis XIII to return to his service and to bring to his kingdom his engineering talents, she was Montpellieran, since she was baptized in our city on 20 Sept. 1641.

[...] It is about the age of 20 that the public career of this noble charitable lady begins. Indeed, thanks to her family relationship with the royal court, she took on the prestigious position of daughter of Queen Mother Anne-d的Austria. She then evolved to the closest to the king of which she became one of the first mistresses.

In her memoirs, the Great Mademoiselle, Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, daughter of Gaston d'Orléans and cousin of Louis XIV paints this Miss of La Motte-Argencourt. In his words, « She had neither a brilliant beauty nor an extraordinary spirit, but her whole person was very kind. His skin was neither very delicate nor very white, but his blue eyes and blond hair, with the blackness of his eyebrows and the brown of his complexion, made a mixture of softness and vivacity so pleasant that it was difficult to defend himself from his charms. The features of her face were perfect, she had a very good look and a very nice size. She had a way of speaking that pleased and she danced beautifully. As soon as she was admitted to a little game where the king sometimes entertained himself in the evening, he felt such a violent passion for her that Minister Mazarin was worried about it.« . But she did not seem to be able to satisfy herself with the desire of the King of which she was one of her mistresses despite her...

Anne loved with passion the Marquis de Richelieu Jean-Baptiste Amador de Vignerot du Plessis... And he loved him just as much. As one may doubt, this passion was not of the King's taste, which dispelled his ardour against him and made him know a disgrace.

The mother of the young Montpellieran resolved to remove the fruit of discord, which was to cast reproach upon the name Conti d'Argencourt. She locked her up in a convent, at the daughters of Sainte-Marie de Chaillot... Many at the court were getting tired of her and soon satyrical songs were stoned to death in the streets of Paris.
But the Montpellieran had the possibility, having not clothed the dress of chastity to live a life outside her convent and to meet whom she wished. This was the case in 1671, when she married Gabriel de Grasset, with whom she settled in Montpellier. Her husband, seigneur of Farlet and other places, worked there as an adviser at the Court of Auditors Aids and Finances of Montpellier.
She then lived a life of Montpellieran... participating in local events, but took care to stay away from the court. In particular, she became the Lady of Mercy, following the example of her mother-in-law, Constance de Rouch d'Arnoye, who was the first treasurer of this work.

To complete the religious construction of his life... It was by a will of September 6, 1715 that this noble lady, who had a time on the tablets of the mistresses of the sun king and then of the Marquis de Richelieu, Jean-Baptiste Amador de Vignerot du Plessis, handed her home Montpellieraine, rue Montpellieret, to the Congregation of the Ladies of Mercy, with its apartments and outbuildings and in which one can discover the famous pharmacy of Mercy.

She died in Montpellier on 9 January 1718, having laid the foundation for an institution that we will soon be talking about...

Text Fabrice Bertrand – Illustration : Portrait of Anne de Conty d-Argencourt, attributed to Jean de Troy, oil on canvas presented in the pharmacy of Mercy.

Birth of consulate

From mid XII^e The Languedocian lords were forced to fully delegate certain powers to the local communities through franchises.

It is then the birth of the consulate, a municipal system where power is exercised collectively by consuls. These are representatives of the communities who are gradually taking their independence to become real political actors. Each community, even the most modest, has a consulate.

ADH, 114 EDT 11 Book of deliberations of the Consuls of Gignac, 1524.

Philippe Natalini.

Briançon

Following operations related to the Disembarkation of Provence: 78 years ago, Briançon was finally released a second time from the German occupation.

The German troops occupied Briançon since September 1943. On August 23, 1944, Briançon was released for the first time by a small contingent of allied troops landed in Provence assisted by resistancemen and FTP guerrillas (francs snipers and partisans). But after the Americans left, the city was taken over a few days later by the Wehrmacht.

After serious fighting, the city was finally liberated on 7 September 1944 by 4^e Moroccan Shooters Regiment of the 2^e Division of Moroccan Infantry, assisted by these same resistors.

Fortress of Mount Agel

...is an advanced position, built to the northeast of the Nice stronghold. It is built at an altitude of 1148 metres on Mount Agel, overlooking Monte Carlo and the coast. This fortified ensemble consists of a small and six artillery batteries.

Its role was to monitor the valleys of the Paillon, the Gorbio and the bay of Roquebrune Cap Martin as well as to disrupt and take back attacks on the various forts of the place. The works also controlled the Cape Martin Tunnel and its track, the Corniche Road, the shoreline to the border, the Menton to Sospel Road and the Menton to Gorbio and Peille Road.

After the Armistice, the fortress, like the other forts of the region, will be occupied by the Italians, then by the Germans in 1943, who will install several artillery parts included in the defensive system of the Sudwall.
During the liberation of Nice, these German cannons from the fort will fire on the allied troops and the population. The fortress will be heavily bombed on the night of September 5 to 6, 1944 by allied cruisers (including the Malin) which will cause damage in particular to the monumental entrance. This shelling will force the Germans to flee the stronghold, leaving there two Polish soldiers, whose mission is to activate the 200 kilos of explosives supposed to destroy artillery pieces. The fortress was finally taken on September 7, 1944.

Since 1953, the fortress of Mount Agel has been occupied as Air Base, then radar station by the French Air Force. Today the site is still operational piloted from Lyon and remains a military site.

The semaphore of the Dramont in Saint-Raphael...

The history of the Dramont semaphore dates back to the Middle Ages, the Agathonian territory (d的Agay) depended on the bishopric of Fréjus, which ordered the construction in 1562 of a watchtower on the hill of Dramont as well as at the Baumette. The current semaphore was built in 1806. It was closed eight years later during Napoleon's abdication, and reopened during the Hundred Days in 1815 and closed again. In 1966, the semaphore was rearmed. The last renovation of the building dates from 2020 and since the 1st^and May 2010, the semaphore is armed on permanent watch.

Cape Dramont (127 m above sea level), located in the commune of Saint-Raphaël, is dominated by a semaphore. It is used by the National Navy for maritime, air and land surveillance. The semaphore offers panoramic views of the Esterel, the Agay harbour and the Mediterranean Sea. The watch is a glass cab reported on a white cylindrical tower. It is accessible by a spiral staircase from the technical room from 3^e building level. Its area is 20 m2. The standby cabin is 20.8 metres above ground level. Accelerated to the watch tower are buildings of red ochre colour, like the rock of the Esterel.

This building, recently restructured by long works, is open to the public only on Heritage Days. The site remains a beautiful idea of release all year long!