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- We talk a little... a lot... passionately!
Saint Vincent-le-Paluel... September 1943, in Saint-Martin-Vésubie... The Manouchian group... Montpellier... 1622, the seat of Montpellier... The true history of the unfinished cathedral of the Canourgue... - On the side of Abbe.Photo
- The Library of Passadoc
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Philippe Levieux
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Dordogne
Built in XVe century on the site of a XIII buildinge, the castle consists of a house body flanked by two towers on both sides of the stair tower located in the centre of the house. Behind this building, and connected to it by a narrow passage, a rectangular dungeon of the XIIe century (now collapsed) completes the whole. Machiculi crown the towers and the house body.
With a medieval part, and a Renaissance part, it remains an important building with impressive charm, with its huge dovecote, chapel, Renaissance fountain, well, underground escape, cellars, cave ...
The building was set on fire in 1944 by the SS Das Reich division, which went up to Normandy following the landing of the allies.
The Château du Paluel has experienced a certain fame by welcoming the filming The Tattoo, Louis de Funès and Jean Gabin.
As part of the additional inventory of historic monuments in 1927, it has been owned since 2017 by Étienne Cluzel, a child of the country who began restoring it.
Clichés Ph. Levieux – September 24, 2022.
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Philippe Natalini
September 1943 ... in Saint-Martin-Vésubie (06).
Saint-Martin-Vésubie [Alpes Maritimes] had been designated by the Vichy government as one of the Maralpine localities to house foreign Jews under house arrest.
The village welcomed 300 Jewish families, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe. Under the protection of the Italian villagers and soldiers, they lived there a period of peace and serenity, able to practice their worship, send the children to school, find themselves in the village.
On September 8, 1943, the Italian capitulation put a brutal end to this happy parenthesis. Wanting to escape the « Jewish hunting » ordered by Aloïs Brunner, most of the families guided by the inhabitants of the village fled to Italy via the Cerise and Fenestre passes. Some, who remained in the village, were arrested by the Germans, despite the solidarity shown by the inhabitants to save them.
Those who, despite the difficult difficulties associated with walking in the mountains, manage to arrive in Italy, are expected by the Germans in Borgo San Dalmazzo.
328 were immediately arrested for deportation to Auschwitz. Only 12 of them will survive.
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The Manouchian Group
In memory of the Armenians active members of the Nazi occupying resistance group, a group of the Parisian FTP-MOI led by this adopted Marseilles that was Missak Manouchian. A resounding weapon will precipitate their loss; It happened 79 years ago.
It's in the morning of September 23, 1943, around 8:30 a.m., Petrarch Street in the 16e Paris district, which a team of FTP-MOI (Marcel Rayman, Léo Kneler, Spartaco Fontano and Celestino Alfonso) executed the officer SS Julius Ritter responsible in France for the STO (Service du Travail Obligatoire).
As he gets into his car, Celestino Alfonso shoots several shots that will be cushioned by the glass. The German officer tries to clear himself from the opposite side but finds himself in front of Marcel Rayman, who finishes with three bullets.
After this attack, the occupant no longer feels safe. The front page denunciation of the propaganda newspapers of this operation as a « abominable act », and the official funerals in the church of the Madeleine give even more impact to the operation.
Ritter's assassination had a huge impact in Berlin and Heinrich Himmler ordered his representative in France, Karl Oberg, to repress without pity the « terrorists ».
He followed the arrest of the 23 members of the Manouchian group at the end of 1943. The Germans will put on the walls of Paris the Red Poster, a tool of propaganda that stigmatizes the presence of foreigners and Jews among the French Resistance.
On 21 February 1944, members of the Missak Manouchian group were shot at Mount Valerian. A poem by Louis Aragon, [made in music and sung by Léo Ferré] will trace this episode.
Last stanza of the poem with seven.
On the day of his assassination, Missak Manouchian wrote to his wife: I am sure that the French people and all freedom fighters will honor our memory with dignity.
Never forget these men and women who love freedom... who sacrificed so much for our freedom.
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Alain Cathala
Montpellier
In the XVIIe and XVIIIe centuries, we find Montpelier but more commonly Montpellier, Current spelling. The most acceptable etymology is that established by Chabaneau : Monspitillarius, i.e. spices. It derives from both the philology and the history of the hill on which the spice merchants established the fame and glory of the city.
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1622: the headquarters of Montpellier
The siege of the Protestant stronghold of Montpellier by the Royal Army of Louis XIII will last from the end of August to 19 October 1622. It is one of the main events of the first Protestant rebellion at the beginning of the XVIIe century. After almost two months of siege, the city submitted without being defeated. The last local act of the religious wars, this major event transformed the face of the city.
Source: Departmental Archives
Figured plane of the seat dating from 1622 ... And a cannon ball.
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The true history of the unfinished cathedral of the Canourgue.
The site of the cathedral began in 1627, five years after the siege of the Protestant city; So we're part of the counter-reform.
The bishop Fenouillet who imagined the project appealed to the architect Pierre Levesville of Toulouse who had built the church Saint Stephen. The terrain is steep and geologically very unstable. The foundation preparation work therefore takes a long time and faces many problems. However, the talent of Levesville meant that the base that was to support the cathedral walls was finally built with a chapel below.
In 1629, Cardinal de Richelieu passed to Montpellier by going to Alès to sign a treaty announcing the next revocation of the edict of Nantes.
As soon as he arrived in Montpellier, he was taken to the cathedral construction site and then visited the destroyed old cathedral. (Fort Saint Peter).
Returning from Alès Richelieu returned to Montpellier on 26 July 1629 and gave the order to discontinue the work of the new cathedral to rather rebuild and restore the old (Saint Peter). A new plague epidemic confirms the decision.
The site remained abandoned until 1665, when, under pressure from the local residents, the bishopric gave the land to the municipality which transformed it into a public place.
What really happened?
Several pretexts were put forward to explain Richelieu's decision, the dominant position of the bell tower that in case of conflict could make it military post or the cardinal looking at the accounts estimated the bill too high... And a few more...
Historians conducted the investigation and no doubt found the real reasons for this sudden and brutal decision by Richelieu.
– First index : en même temps que la cathédrale, l’évêque avait chargé Levesville de lui construire un palais épiscopal . Or la construction de ce palais s’interrompt en même temps que la cathédrale, et surtout il ne fut jamais achevé.
– Deuxième indice : l’évêque avait une nièce, Périne, qu’il chérissait comme sa fille. Celle ci l’avait suivi dans son diocèse et s’était marié avec un certain Jacques Vallat, gouverneur du château de Montferrand. Soucieux de soulager l’oncle par alliance de soucis par trop matériel, on le retrouve sans arrêt sur le chantier de la maison, surveillant les travaux et signant tous les « prix-faits ».
– Troisième indice : le frère de Jacques Valat était Pierre Vallat et celui-ci avait été nommé par l’évêque « responsable de la recette et maniement des deniers destinés au financement de la cathédrale ».
L’historien d’Aigrefeuille, cent ans après, soulève un peu le voile : Les ennemis secrets de l’évêque firent cesser le travail( de la cathédrale) en insinuant au cardinal de Richelieu qu’il détournait à d’autres bâtiments les fonds destinés à celui de la Canourgue. On peut imaginer que les « informateurs » étaient du parti protestant.
Pour préserver ce premier évêque de la contre réforme à Montpellier, Richelieu a clairement étouffé l’affaire. L’évêque réputé très strict et intègre a sans doute été victime d’une escroquerie de Jacques Vallat qui se révèle par son mariage avec Périne être le seul héritier des biens de l’évêque…
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André Abbe
Le retour de l’alpage…
Chaque année, à la fin de septembre et au début d’octobre, je me souviens du « démontagnage » (la transhumance retour), avec nostalgie, de la descente du troupeau de Julien Raynaud, au cours des années 70 et 80.
Voici notre ami Claude, le plus fidèle des bergers bénévoles de Julien, qui traverse Valberg (Alpes Maritimes) en tête du troupeau suivi de Cocotte. Souvenirs, souvenirs.
Giono – Le berger, un homme d’une cinquantaine d’années, gros de gros os, sans grande chair,
sans rien qu’une sèche peau cuite sur des muscles cuits,
un homme de colline, fait de soleil, de poussière et de feuilles mortes, …
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Belles prises !
Quand je vais à la pêche aux photos dans mes archives, je fais souvent de belles prises. Ainsi, je viens de retrouver cette photo, vieille de plus de 30 ans, de mes amis pêcheurs professionnels d’Antibes, Joseph Blanchet (1905) à gauche et Alain Soli, à droite. Je ne reconnais pas le pêcheur du centre en partie caché.
Dans son jeune âge, le regretté Joseph se déplaçait sur son pointu uniquement à l’aide de ses rames et retirait ses filets à la seule force de ses bras. Un homme attachant dont j’ai enregistré les souvenirs en provençal en 1987.
Alain, que je n’ai pas revu depuis longtemps, que l’on voit ici ramener une langouste dans les filets, avait pour spécialité la pêche aux oursins qu’il plongeait sans bouteille d’oxygène. Il était à l’époque premier prud’homme d’Antibes, c’est- à -dire juge chargé de régler les litiges entre pêcheurs. La charge a perdu de nos jours de son importance.
Il est à noter que les pêcheurs français de l’Atlantique et de la Manche ne connaissent pas les prud’hommes...
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Un regard encore sur l’expo. Women of Provence
Click! Gisèle reconnaît des amies roquebrunoises…
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