The Passadoc Gazette - No 73

The Quiz! This week: eight quizzes!
We talk a little... a lot... passionately!
1973, last cart towed by a mule... Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, abandoned village... Raymond Maufrais or Les Aventures d'un Varois en Amazonie... 1909, the earth trembles in Provence... The story of the Kermes and the Garance... The petanque! Cicadas! June 12, 1944... The sinister and terrifying Brandbourg company...
Vagabondages...
Photos from yesterday
We sing on Passadoc too!
Passadoc library.

André and François Abbe

1973. Last cart towed by a mule in Roquebrune.

A century earlier, an ancestor crossed the Esterel to sell his wine to... Cannes! The journey lasted 12 hours, with 400 meters of elevation to cross the Esterel from the Var. His cart certainly looked like Mr Fabre's. He was the last to use in the village of Roquebrune-sur-Argens (Var).

Photo André Abbe

– It was Mr Fabre... Or Francis Lambert? wonder Sébastien Perrin and Giselle Penat-Lorde.

Click! Next to this page

Claude Boyer

I knew that in the '60s. My mom and mom were doing the harvests at Yvonne and Charles Giraud, maybe there were readers at Passadoc who knew them? They lived on Rue Saint-Jean in Puget.
We were leaving in the blue tomb drawn by Butterfly (all the horses called Butterfly!) But he was my boyfriend; When my mom cooked artichokes, I wanted to keep the hay for Butterfly. Charles held Papillon by the bridle and we went at the pace of this crew to Canevère... Rex the dog (all the dogs called Rex!) trotted behind and it hurts me.
The horse and Charles, it was normal for them to walk but the dog... I thought it was unfair.

I don't remember anymore, but the trip lasted a while. Upon arrival, the pickers began to work; Charles, the canesteu on the shoulder, carried the grapes until the tomb and I picked up the grass that I gave to Papillon, who was waiting placidly towed in the middle of the vineyards.

Charles Giraud had his horse tied to Lucien Regis in Puget-sur-Argens.
(I do not guarantee that the horse is Butterfly)

Giselle Penat-Lorde

I've known these « Vehicles » and/or « means of locomotion » In the 1950s and early 1960s, the joy of Thursdays and school holidays. A thousand memories. All work in seasonal fields, including harvests.

Several paths for the Vergers/Roquebrune, and I loved that we would return by « top », as I said – I had to be wise and the horse not too tired – because it climbed and there were rocks which gave with the vegetation of the garrigue a small air of far west ! In my childish imagination, I certainly had to wait to fall nose to nose with some Sioux or other lost Indians!

evoking « this way up », it was yes a draille in fact, a square, square, square, or cairade = these paths of passage of animal circulation, sometimes cashed, whose in theory the right of passage is immutable. Right who was and who is how much flouted, ignored, happily trampled.

Robert Chauvier

On Thursday, my grandfather Chauvier tied up his horse, and my brother and I went in the cart, heading for the cabanon of L-Iscle.
We went through Les Prés Chevaux, where he now has Cabasse college, the land of the Martin des Jaume and the neighbour Victor Chauvier who sometimes came to eat with us.
My grandfather and Victor spoke in Provencal. We didn't understand, but we were still listening.
After dinner, my grandfather came out with a communist newspaper called « The Earth » And made us make a dictation on an article, I don't count the mistakes we made!
Then we could play along the Bual or the Argens.

Other memories...

Painting of Louis-Edouard Garrido (1893-1982)

Patricia Jouve

Return of fields in the 1960s in Provencal Baronies ... We were 2 or 3 children at the top of the hayload of the neighbouring peasant, proud as Artaban, the kings of the world!

Giselle Penat-Lorde

The time of harvests and fenaison, a happiness to be juised at the top and have a breathtaking view, to dominate the world on its small throne of hay or straw balls ... « And you don't chuckle, don't fall » ... I still hear the voice of my grandfather speaking most often in patois of course ... Happy children we were, to curl in the hay but not in the sofa in front of the TV and/or tablet and co!

Jean Paul Dubroca

Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, abandoned village

1957... The small Provençal village was emptied of its inhabitants. The artisans closed shop one after the other, the faithful were rarer in the little parish and the few children were now gathered in one class. Exodus rural, the disappearance of handicrafts, this charming village seems to be dormant.

Click! The INA video on this page

Claude Boyer

Raymond Maufrais or The adventures of a Varois in Amazonia

Raymond Maufrais was born in Toulon, the 1st^and October 1926. He is the only son, and pampered by his parents. He is such a turbulent and fighting child that his parents send him to boarding school when he is not nine years old. Far from being calmed he makes the wall with two comrades and all three disappear in the wooded hills of the High Var.
The three runaways find refuge in a cave where the gendarmes guided by their dogs find them only after four days of search. They are in good health, the budding adventurer had planned supplies; he tells the gendarmes that he counted « join a colony in the mountains« .

In order to give him the illusion of the adventurer life he dreams of, his parents enroll him in Scouting, he will become totem « Temerary sea lion » The other scouts are impressed by his swimmer and diver skills, thanks to which he will obtain his certificate as a school swimmer/saver.
However, he is not strictly speaking a brilliant student except in literature. His teacher of French who detects in him gifts of writer will baptize him « the future journalist » And he does not hide his ambitions to become a great reporter.

Click! The continuation of the article to this pagee

1909... Earth trembles in Provence

The most violent earthquake in France in the 20th century^e century.
On 11 June 1909 at 9 p.m., the earth began to tremble about 50 kilometres north of Marseille ravaging Lambesc, epicenter of the earthquake, followed by a second tremor about 20 minutes later.
A magnitude estimated at 6, the earthquake causes 46 deaths, 250 serious injuries, a large number of homeless people and ravages several surrounding villages.

Click! The rest of the storyt…

Giselle Penat-Lorde

The story of the kermes and the garance

The eggs of a small parasitic insect, the kermes, and the crushed roots of a marshy plant, the garance, were the substances that for centuries allowed to dye the fabrics in red, i.e.: vermilion, scarlet, scarlet or Turkish red.
The vermilion and scarlet were obtained by picking on an oak the tiny eggs of an insect, the kermes. Female kermes hung on the oak branches, covered at the time of laying a kind of shell to protect their eggs filled with red colour. Gathering the kermes was like gleaning, a right of the poor consecrated by use. It was done around May, by women and children, who had allowed themselves to grow their nails to better detach the small capsules of bark. We were extending these « seeds » on large canvases that were watered with vinegar to kill animals. We let the sun dry, then we sieve.

Text Passion Provence.

Click! The rest of this page.

The petanque!

Alain Cathala and Giselle Penat-Lorde

Cicadas!

Click! Let's hear them!

The legend of cicadas

History takes place at the blessed time, very, very, very long ago, when angels came to spend their holidays on Earth, sent by God to come and rest in a full year...

One fine day, two angels arrived on a sunny afternoon as are the afternoons of our home (45° in the shadow!), on the 15 o'clock blow, in the middle of our beautiful Provence. They expected to find successful orchards and vegetable gardens, well-maintained fields, roads and ditches. So they were greatly surprised not to meet anyone between the calanques and the restanques, to see many fields in wasteland, to see dilapidated fences and paths invaded by the briers.

Then they said,
– But where did we land? What is this country where nobody works? Let's go to the village to find out…
When they arrived at the village, they were a little thirsty, but they found only doors and shutters closed: no one in the streets! Not soul that lives, nothing, desert! In the final solution, they headed towards the presbytery in the hope of meeting the priest and having the explanation of this great mystery which was very disturbing to them! They knock at the door, and instead of finding the priest busy in his ministry, they found him taking a nap.
– Father, what is going on here? Nobody's working? Where did the inhabitants go? They said. The priest replied:
– We can see you've come a long way. God gave us the sun and its warmth. Also, at home in Provence, in summer, we can only work a little in the morning and a little in the evening, when it is not too hot. The rest of the day we take a nap, in the shade and in the cold! That's why you didn't meet anyone! Everybody's asleep!

The angels rushed back to Paradise and told God about their stay in Provence.
– Something must be done to prevent the provencals from sleeping so that they can work their fields! They said in a choir! The angry God, think for a moment by scratching his beard. He then decided to create a new species of insects that would prevent people from sleeping. When the sun is too hot, throughout the summer, these insects would hide in the pines and perform, like a military band, strident and stubborn notes, with the secret purpose of preventing Provençals from sleeping too long.

Thus the cicadas were born, symbolizing Provence but also the art of taking a little nap, for the Provençals, far from being annoyed by the cicadas, used their « melody » to get even faster into a good penequet (sieste)

Text: Made in Humanity

Philippe Natalini

June 12, 1944...

In memory of two resistance fighters who died for France: François Duchâtel and Émille Millet.

Né le 15 octobre 1916 à Nantes , François Duchâtel était gendarme à la brigade d’Aups dans le Haut-Var.

Dans le courant de l’été 1941, il verbalisait le maire d’Aiguines, que Vichy venait de limoger et qui écoutait ostensiblement la radio britannique. Mais il était signalé le 3 février 1944 dans un rapport d’un agent du Sipo-SD de Draguignan comme avertissant les résistants menacés, notamment par son chef de brigade. François Duchâtel était alors pleinement dans la Résistance. Il fournissait des informations au sous-réseau Burin (SR des MUR) et prit le maquis le 7 juin 1944 avec deux autres gendarmes, dont le gendarme Bouet. Ces trois gendarmes de la brigade d’Aups entraient ainsi en clandestinité en emportant avec eux machine à écrire et mousquetons. Ils rejoignaient le maquis AS Vallier que François Duchâtel aidait déjà alors qu’il se déplaçait dans le secteur du Plan de Canjuers au nord d’Aups.

Le 12 juin 1944, effectuant une mission de ravitaillement, la camionnette dans laquelle Duchâtel se trouvait avec Ernest Millet, le gendarme Bouet et Roger Donadin, est arrêtée à un barrage établi par des miliciens de Marseille à l’une des entrées du village d’Aups alors que la milice investissait cette localité.
Une arme est trouvée dans le véhicule. Le gendarme Bouet situé à l’arrière du véhicule eut à peine le temps de sauter pour échapper au contrôle, tandis que Donadini essaye de fuir mais est arrêté avec une grenade dans la main.
Dans la cabine du camion, Duchâtel et Ernest Millet ne peuvent s’enfuir. Ernest est tué d’une balle en pleine figure tandis que François Duchâtel, après avoir épuisé les munitions de son revolver, est fusillé sur le champ, au garde à vous, par la milice.
Les miliciens ont laissé son corps et celui du conducteur du véhicule Ernest Millet “dehors au soleil toute la journée avec un écriteau portant la mention “C’est ainsi que meurent les traîtres de la France“.

Une stèle a été érigée à leur mémoire sur les lieux de l’exécution devant la « Villa Rose » le 14 juillet 1945 par la commune et la Résistance. Le nom Duchâtel a été donné à une place du village. Il fut honoré aussi à La Valette-du-Var, près de Toulon, où il avait des attaches. Il figure, parmi les autres morts de la résistance locale, sur la plaque apposée sur la mairie par le Secours Populaire le 23 août 1945 ; son nom a été donné à un chemin de la commune par décision du conseil municipal du 12 juillet 1945.
La nouvelle caserne de Gendarmerie du Groupement du Var, à La Valette, porte également son nom.

Il obtint le titre de Mort pour la France. Une manifestation commémorative en hommage à Duchâtel et Millet est effectuée le 12 juin de chaque année à Aups, sur les lieux de leurs martyrs. C’est le cas encore cette année.

La sinistre et terrifiante compagnie allemande Brandbourg

L’histoire, d’après Jean-Marie Guillon …

Les éléments d’une colonne allemande, composée aussi d’un détachement de la 8^e compagnie Brandebourg (détachement Schorn) arrêtent le 16 juin 1944, vers 6 h30, aux environs d’Allemagne-en-Provence (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), un groupe de jeunes gens venant du Var et cherchant à rejoindre le maquis FTP.

Cette colonne était envoyée pour faire la chasse aux résistants regroupés dans le secteur depuis le 7 juin. Elle arrivait de Vinon-sur-Verdon (Var) où, le 14 juin, elle avait abattu un résistant, l’ancien maire du village André Arbaud, et un autre habitant, puis s’était livré à diverses exactions.

Les jeunes gens arrêtés assistèrent à l’exécution de neuf personnes sur la place d’Allemagne, puis furent conduits sur le territoire de Saint-Martin-de-Bromes, au lieu dit le Ravin des Bayles, où ils furent tous massacrés vers 11 h 30. Le curé était parvenu à faire relâcher un jeune bûcheron membre du groupe. Les Allemands leur avaient préalablement dit qu’ils seraient envoyés travailler en Allemagne. Mais il n’en a rien été car quinze corps furent découverts le 19 juin.

Quatorze de ces jeunes gens furent identifiés, ils provenaient tous de Brignoles (trois) et de villages environnants (trois du Val, trois de Montfort, trois de Carcès). S’étaient joints à eux, deux ou trois anciens soldats de l’armée italienne employés, comme certains d’entre eux, dans les mines de bauxite du secteur. Ils formaient un groupe d’amis âgés de 17 à 24 ans, tous décidés à « monter » au maquis.

L’un d’eux, Gabriel Unia, de Carcès, avait accompagné à Montagnac chez les FTP son camarade Floréal Fuentès qui sera tué le 11 août 1944, non loin de là à Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, et serait redescendu ensuite pour y conduire ses autres camarades. Le groupe s’était regroupé à Cotignac pour prendre le car de Riez vers 22 h, le 15 au soir. Leur projet était connu dans leurs villages. D’autres amis devaient partir avec eux. Ils étaient sans armes.

Plusieurs versions ont circulé sur ce groupe et sur les circonstances de son arrestation. Inconnus dans la région de Saint-Martin-de-Bromes, ils ont été considérés comme des bûcherons se rendant sur leur chantier, alors que, dans le Var, on évoquait, soit une trahison par un ex-soldat italien, soit une infiltration par un membre du détachement Brandebourg alors installé à Brignoles.

Une stèle fut érigée à leur mémoire sur les lieux du drame, à Saint-Martin-de-Bromes avec des erreurs de prénoms et un inconnu. Une autre stèle se trouve dans le cimetière de Montfort.

Liste des exécutés : Bagarre Louis – Bertolucci Orlando – Botto Eugène – Cabasse André – Cantoni Ezio – Fabiono Raphaël – Fagginolo Jean – Heraud Camille – Magakian Jean – Mares Max – Prestia Guiseppe – Sappa Marius – Simondi Gabriel – Unia Gabriel.

Maryse Laugier

Le lac de Saint-Cassien

Juin… Le lac d’émeraude à son plus haut niveau.
Il alimente la Siagne qui ne tarit jamais… Je vous envoie un peu de fraîcheur !

Philippe Levieux

Revoici les marmottes des Alpes du Sud !

Les marmottes (Marmota) forment un genre de mammifères fouisseurs de l’ordre des rongeurs. C’est le deuxième plus gros rongeur de France après le castor. Son corps allongé est recouvert d’une fourrure beige sur le ventre, grise au niveau des oreilles et de la tête et marron sur le reste du corps. Elle se nourrit de racines, de feuilles et de tiges de fleurs.