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- The Quiz!
- We're talking a little, a lot... passionately!
The little thief... The dean of humanity... Sainte-Croix, an old area of Montpellier... Ice saints... The neighborhood of Saint-Firmin... The Dolmen des Barrières... the Latécoère 550... Eugène Cornu... The birth of the Var villages... Fourteen monasteries... - Some pictures from here, beyond... a little further...
- Photos from yesterday
- Passadoc library.
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Claude Boyer
The little thief
We are in Aix-en-Provence on July 9, 1884. Marie is 13 years old, she is a well-dressed little girl, covered with varnished shoes, calves covered with thin white socks, a nice knot enclosing her hair into an imposing horsetail. A bourgeois girl we don't trust.
Her school books under her arm, she goes in and buys a cake in Mr. Rolland's pastry. There is no one in the store, Mr. Rolland who is in the back of the shop has made it imprudent to leave the cash drawer open. It is too tempting for Mary, she throws a quick circular glance, sends her little hand into the drawer and removes 9 francs which she immediately makes disappear in her pocket.
Unfortunately for her, from the lab an apprentice saw her ride. He alerts Mr. Rolland who holds the little thief and sends the clerk to alert the marshal. The affair made great noise, a crowd soon formed in front of the shop where the crying of Mary, retained by the gendarmes, began to disarm the most virulent straightens of wrongs who already wished him to know the damp straw of the dungeon a few moments before.
It is then that Mr Savournin, the local grocer, comes to pass and does not fail to enquire about the reason for the crowding. He asked to see the little thief and exclaimed:
"Oh, but it's still her!" A few days ago I took 53 francs from her, which she took from my drawer. So she makes it her job!
This revelation makes all the good arrangements pass away and Mary is led under good escort to the commissioner. The investigation is conducted roundly and we see that the small industry of Mary does not date today, we have to do to a kleptoman. In fact, it was common that her books under her arm, she presents herself in any shop, asks for a penny of anything and, as soon as the merchant's eyes were lost, the hand of the little one sits immediately on the first object, preferably on money. The trick was played and the girl was doing it again.
At that time, the authority was not subdued, and Mary's father, who was deemed responsible, was condemned to lock up his child.
Source: Geneprovence, New Provence13 July 1884.
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The Dean of Humanity
After the Arlésienne Jeanne Calment, this is the born Alesienne Lucile Randon, crowned Dean of Humanity .... We breathe from Good air in Passadoc...
After the death of Japanese woman Kane Tanaka, who was the oldest of mankind at the age of 119, she was a French woman from Alès who succeeded her. This is Sister André, residing in an Ehpad of Toulon. [A recent quiz evoked this more than a century ago. ]
Lucile Randon, alias Sister André, celebrated her 118e anniversary in Toulon. Since Monday 25 April, the dean of the French and Europeans has become the new dean of humanity.
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Alain Cathala
Sainte-Croix... an old area of Montpellier
1120. Guihem d'Ermessande builds this « urban palace » from several houses then located in the western extension area of the city (which was not yet fortified) just on the edge of a overlook overlooking the north plain (our place of the Canourgue). He also built on the square in front of his palace Saint Croix Chapel for his personal devotions.
He then behaves like most of the « urban princes » of the time that settle in a certain comfort in the heart of their city.
It begins to develop a large area that covers the entire western part of the city designated by the names: « al pettrun », « Peiron » or « Peyrou ». The first enclosure is then built and includes the summital plateau from the hill to the Palace and church of St. Croix.
When the revolt of 1143 came out of his city, Guilhem must reconquer it militarily, this palace did not protect him at all. After the revolt, he was built a fortified castle on the extramural promontory at the end of this neighborhood (present-day Palace of Justice). He then gave the Palace and the Church of St. Croix to the clergy who transformed him into « Duck », name that will remain to him. The former residence of Sainte-Croix transferred to the Prior of Saint Firmin became after 1150 the seat of the ecclesiastical government. The « Presbyteral house » of Saint Firmin, The Duck, is therefore home to the numerous services of the prior, high dignitary of the chapter of Maguelone and head of the only medieval parish of Montpellier. This transfer of property prefigures the strong clerical specialization of this neighborhood over the centuries and until today.
To enhance the area close to its new castle, Guilhem d'Ermessande first establishes a market according to the traditional pattern of the « Fair » And the castle.
A girdle and a leather market settle on the outskirts of the castle and writings attest to the presence of « tables » against the bedside of the castral chapel and along the wall closing the city square. The lord and nobles of the city have many.
Between 1168 and 1172 the lord issued a decree prohibiting any construction on the square in front of his castle to preserve the area reserved for merchants. After creating its own place reserved for « coyraciers » It is a monopoly: the sale of leather will not be possible elsewhere, especially in the former place of sale of leather, which now takes the name of old corratery.
The rise of the market of Sainte-Croix and the massive investment of the seigneur and the families of his clan in the neighbouring district of Saint-Firmin surely at that time caused the piercing of Rue Saint-Firmin that transversally cut this village in circles to connect the market of Sainte-Croix with that of the Condamine around Notre-Dame-des-Tables. This transverse drilling did not exist at the origin of Saint-Firmin.
The piercing of Foch Street has definitely disfigured the medieval aspect of this western neighborhood by opening a large trench in its middle...
Source: Fabre&Lochard: The Medieval City – Heritage Studies 1992.
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Ice saints
When May arrives, apprentice gardeners only have one desire: sowing, planting, cutting, etc. But the wise recommend not to rush because « When Saint Urbain passed, the winegrower is reassured » and « Mamert, Pancrace, Boniface are the three ice-cream saints, but Saint Urban holds them all in his hand. » It's May 25th!
- Be careful! the first of the ice saints, you often keep track of it.
– Before Saint-Servais, summer... After Saint-Servais no more frost!
But others say:
– It's a belief that goes back to the Middle Ages. Sunday gardeners and professionals alike are recommended to wait until the three days have passed before taking up new plantations.
Do we really have to be wary of Saint Mamer, Saint Pancrace and Saint Servais, since 1960, Saint Estelle, Saint Achilles and Saint Rolande? In reality, there is no real weather justification for ice saints. Alain Baranton, « on » gardener of Versailles, says:
– For 40 years, I have been telling my colleagues not to wait and plant. Never a plant in Versailles frozen because of the ice saints.
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The Saint-Firmin district
This absolutely circular central area of Montpellier is built according to the model of « villages in circles » (do not use the word « Tourism » not used in archaeology or history) fairly common in Languedoc around the XIe century. A group of houses surrounded in circles whose exterior walls form a circular rampart. It was probably originally surrounded by a defensive ditch.
History and Enigma
Its special status in the heart of the city has long remained a mystery of medieval Montpellieran history... « ... At the origins of the city this core of habitat seems to have an autonomous existence, in fact it does not legally belong to any of the powers in place. ...Then the parish of Saint-Firmin suddenly appeared on the documents in 1113 as the only parish of the seigneury of Montpellier in the same way as the parish of Saint-Denis of Montpellieret (on the current Lycée Joffre) part of the city under the authority of the bishop of Maguelone... From then on, the bishop of Maguelone will systematically oppose the creation of other parishes on the lands of the seigneury of Montpellier despite the considerable increase in the population... »
(extracts from Fabre-Lochard Heritage 1992)
Fabre-Lochard's historical hypothesis
According to many clues that Fabre and Lochard expose, the story actually seems to go back to the end of the XIe century. In 1096, Guilhem de Montpellier left for the first crusade.
A year later, Guilhem Arnaud nephew of Bishop Arnaud de Maguelone and cousin and guardian of the lord of Montpellier also left Palestine and left before his departure what he might inherit from the lord of Montpellier to the bishopric of Maguelone.
The episcopate would have taken advantage of the opportunity of the absence of the seigneur of Montpellier and his heir to erect Saint-Firmin as the only parish of Montpellier and create this « Priory-cured » of which the holder is the highest dignitary of the chapter of Maguelone.
Maguelone would thus grant a right of control over the destiny of the nascent city... with substantial income from « tithes ».
The independence and importance of the church of Saint-Firmin and its neighbourhood for the religious and academic life of the city would explain this... The area is then inhabited by aristocratic lines linked to the origins of the Guilhem and which will play a major role in the feudal Montpellier.
What about Sainte-Anne?
Outside the village in the round, at the edge of the steeper slope of the hill, was located at XIe century the cemetery of Saint-Firmin. To XIIIe century, it is on this cemetery now disused that one will build the church Saint-Arnaud which will later be called Sainte-Anne...
[Search by Jean-Pascal Girou]
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Ludovic Lhopital
Barrières' dolmen
... or raised stone*. One of the many dolmens* Lot, and one of the most majestic. It is located in the town of Miers which counts 14. A well marked 7 km circuit allows you to discover some of them, including this one.
[« Dolmen » : Breton toal which means table and men meaning stone... « Menhir » : of Men, stone, and hir, long.
In Quercy, Rouergue, many places are called « Dolmen de... « , even where there are no (or more) megaliths; It is assumed that menhirs (raised stone) may have been found there.]
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Philippe Natalini
The Latécoère 550...
In the area of Fréjus/Saint-Raphaël there are many shipwrecks of which I share fairly regularly history.
But there are not just boats resting in our seabed. 89 years ago, a seaplane, Latécoère 550, fell into the bay of Fréjus. His wreck has been lying 70 metres deep.
In April 1933, flying for the first time a strange four-engine bomber, the Laté.550, built more or less in the margins of a BN5 program (five-seat night bombarder) issued in 1932. For the specialists, its four nine-kdrs Mistral nine-cylinder air-cooled Gnome-Rhône engines are mounted two by two in tandem on engine spindles plated under a large wing of 33.97 m wide.
After difficult preliminary tests during which the shape of the drifts, the wing dihedron and the cowlings of the propelling engines were modified several times, the aircraft, rigging in seaplanes thanks to two huge floats, one of which ripped off, flowed at peak during the sea holding tests just in front of Fréjus.
A second machine, equipped with a rather fragile fixed land-lander, will fly in November 1935, but will have no suite.
For more detailed information on this wreck, see the book whose cover is illustrated.
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Eugène CORNU
... born 1and April 1906 in Méailles (Alpes-de-Hautre-Provence). This valiant resistor was shot down on 25 April 1944 in Annot (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence).
Eugène Cornu, a father of five children, a forestry operator and owner of a sawmill in Annot, was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Jokey network led by Francis Cammaerts. It was given to the German police by a member of the network arrested in the Alpes-Maritimes in early April 1944.
It is not known why the investigation is entrusted to the branch of the Sipo-SD in Draguignan (Var), an investigation led by one of its French agents, Julien Viard. The information gathered by this service allows them to come and arrest on 25 April 1944. The operation is carried out by three German branch police officers (including the postmaster) and three of their agents.
Eugène Cornu was shot dead that day around 3 p.m. by one of them, Marcel Massiach, also from Draguignan, while the resistanceman tried to seize the machine gun that one of the German policemen had laid at the back of the van with which they had arrived. At the same time, this Sipo-SD team arrested two workers (one will be deported). One of them leads the Germans to a cabin in the hill where small arms (4 or 5 pistols, machine guns) and ammunition are found.
Eugène Cornu was buried in Annot on the 1stand May 1945 in the presence of a large crowd who came to witness his solidarity. A commemorative plaque giving him the rank of lieutenant was placed on the scene of his assassination.
As a reminder, Viard and Massiah were tried by the Draguignan Tribunal in October 1944. Recognized guilty of several murders, they were sentenced to death and shot.
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Giselle Penat-Lorde
The birth of Var villages
[...] The ancestors of our villages, the oppida develop towards the VIe century BC In the Var, their traces are very numerous. However, the fabric of the villages as we know them was truly formed only in medieval and modern times. Among the ten villages that serve as an illustration, only the old Cannet-des-Maures uses a protohistoric site and Cuers that of a Roman settlement.
Click! Old Cannet des Maures
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To discover: fourteen monasteries built between the XIe and XVe centuries
... which make the richness of the Var heritage both by their architecture and by their role in history.
Click! On this page.
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Alain Cathala
Brouse it-Château in Aveyron... Beautiful place to visit!
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The Abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Bonnecombe (Aveyron) is located in the commune of Comps-la-Grand-Ville.
Click! A few more pictures...
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The Roque-Gageac, Dordogne ... Black Perigord.
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Juvignac – Herault
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The Old Bridge of Béziers is new.
It welcomes its new coating, part of which is made of basalt pebbles, in an aged broken finish.
Characteristic of Romanesque architecture, it has resisted the Orb floods since 1134.
Ranked at Historical Monuments since 1963, it has been destroyed and restored over time.
For a long time it remained the only crossing point of the Orb on the way from Marseille to Toulouse.
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Philippe Levieux
A sunny walk through the streetsAnsouis
Ansouis Again... You will not miss the place of the village and enjoy soaking in this Provencal atmosphere on the terrace of coffee under shade of plane trees.
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Alain Cathala
These Roman ways still remain around Montpellier
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Pascale Fernandez will sign his works – including this one... The last one! – at the bastide of Albugnac,
the Dourn (Tarn) in August, then the Orpelières (Hérault), a commune of Sauvian.
