Passadoc Gazette - No. 59

The Quiz!
We talk a little, a lot, passionately! « Se canto » Hey! ♫♫♪♪♪... Barberousse in Toulon... Her name was Esther Poggio... A disaster avoided... Miss Susan Travers... Montpellier, two hundred years ago... Besse-sur-Issole...
Vagabondages...
Photos yesterday.
The Library of Passadoc

André Abbe

Who knows the words of « Se Canto » ?

SoundCome on. « Canto que recante » (and not « than recanto »). Why? Because it's the subjunctive.

A falsely naive painter, Gérard Lattier delights with his paintings and the texts that accompany them on his paintings. Here is an example of the famous « Se canto » (Se canta) known singing in all the countries of Oc, become an anthem. Lattier opposes this song of love and peace to « Marseillaise », a warrior anthem of a France in danger, sung for the first time 230 years ago. You who live in the Montpellier region, go to Museum of Art Brut Montpellier where Lattier exhibited until April (Wednesday to Sunday).

Click! ♫♪♫♫♪♪♪♫

Giselle Penat-Lorde

Barberousse in Toulon

The oldest iconographic representation of Toulon comes from Turkey and dates from the 16th century. It was found in the early 1960s in a manuscript held in the Old Serail Treasure Library in Istanbul. The valuable document describes the military expeditions of the Ottoman Empire in 1543 led by Khayr ad-Din Barberousse, great admiral of the fleets. It is illustrated with four miniatures representing Marseille, Nice, Antibes and Toulon.

Click! Passion Provence

Philippe Natalini

Her name was Esther Poggio...

She was born in 1912 in Toulon, Italian parents.

Early entry into the Resistance, she is quickly monitored and suspected of hiding grenades with her sister in the cellar of their stand. But Esther Poggio is in contact with partisan police officers who give him fake ID cards.

At the same time, it actively participated in the supply of FTP guerrillas during 1943. She later became a member of the Reims-Jenny network in the Alpes-Maritimes as a member of the « mailbox » and liaison officer, she is in contact with Nice twice a week. Known as « The Marquise »She was arrested in Monaco on 7 July 1944. Imprisoned at the New Prisons of Nice, Esther Poggio is one of 23 hostages who will be shot in the Ariane district on August 15, 1944.

The municipal halls of Toulon bear his name (two plaques mentioning him were inaugurated on 13 October 1956). A plaque commemorating his sacrifice was also installed in Monaco.

Avoided disaster

1965. On 15 February, Lieutenant Leflaive, commander of Flight 10 S, was conducting a regulatory control flight on the Bréguet 1050 Alizé No. 54. The aircraft took off at 1254 hours from BAN Fréjus, piloted by the vessel sign Menu, which had already flown 4 hours on such aircraft.

At 1410, as he was preparing to land, he made a very pronounced turn at about 200 metres above sea level, but he lost altitude and struck a power line tower, making the aircraft uncontrollable.

From then on, the pilot used to direct his aircraft – which was descending straight on a building – by having it crashed in the courtyard of the building. « The Thoron », narrowly avoiding the building and its occupants. Lieutenant Henri Leflaive and the ship's sign Philippe Menu died instantly, the plane was destroyed.

Miss Susan Travers...

... an English lady with an out-of-standard course, Provencal adoption since she spent her youth on the French Riviera.

She is at the Foreign Legion what Marguerite Yourcenar is at the French Academy: the first and only woman to be admitted there, number 22166, nickname « Miss ».

On June 28, 1945, Chief Warrant Officer Susan Travers was assigned to the Logistics Division. Nothing predestined this aristocratic English woman, educated and dedicated to being a distinguished lady, to this out-of-class destiny. Other than possibly her surname, which perhaps inspired her not to walk « right » on the path of his birth.

Before joining the army's most virile battalion, Susan Travers had already proved his courage during the Second World War: 11 medals attest to her heroism, which saw her on the front line in Bir Hakeim alongside the colonel, who became general, Koenig. Together, they will know the trials, then love.

At 91, this exceptional woman published her novelesque biography in which we take a beautiful lesson in vitality... Suzanne Travers died in Paris on 18 September 2003.

Alain Cathala

Montpellier, two hundred years ago...

Montpellier's people's menu preserved almost intact its pre-revolution customs. It is divided among all the small traditional occupations, among which one of the most common is that of field worker. They live, these travalhadous, especially in the areas of Valfère and the Plan de l'Olivier, the high and narrow houses that are still seen there, with their three floors, their narrow and rotating staircase, their terrace at the top, their stable for donkeys below.

The woman cleans or chats in the street, while the man is at work, or at the canard, or at the ball game, and the girl, the greyberry, is at the courdura. The front door is an order appointment for endless chattering; even the evening meal during the summer; and the foreigner sees in it dishes, aiga-boulida, orteta, white soup, which amazes him, and which he quickly describes if he has the spirit of observation...

Extract from « Montpellier, 100 years ago (1811-1812 » by Louis J. Thomas)

Patricia Tritiapat Gueirard

Besse-sur-Issole

Lake Besse is fed underground by a source whose waters come from the massif of Saint-Quinis, which surrounds the village to the north. With an area of 4 ha, it is 33 meters deep. Canals have also been built to supply water from the Issole.

This lake has its legend: it was once said, a wheat threshing area. Now on the day of Saint Anne, who at the time was unemployed, two unbelievers came to beat their harvest. A powerful spring then sprang forth, which drowned mules and unbelievers. To the Sainte-Anne, it seems, they are still heard turning at the bottom of the waters by slamming their whips.

Alain Cathala

Puget-Théniers

Click! The olive train!

Another steam locomotive, Krupp 040 T 1751 of 1937.

After a long time of inactivity, the whole team took care of her! The goal is to make it work.
All the mechanics have been renovated. Here she is ready for the route from Saint-Jean-du-Gard to Anduze.