The French presence

After visiting Onuku I headed back to Akaroa -still before the heat of the day and the later rush of fellow tourists -to see a little more of the French connection.

My first stop en route back to town, was to the Catholic part of the Akaroa cemetery. I had visited here once before, as one of my great-uncles married a woman who hailed from here, and I had previously found her parents' headstone. Her father was named François, so I have presumed he is quite possibly French.

I was very surprised by what I saw in the cemetery. Akaroa is not all that close to Darfield where the recent huge earthquake was centred, and I wasn't expecting to find a damaged headstone. But there was in fact considerable damage to the headstone I was seeking, and to many others in the cemetery.

 

Yes, maybe this is a bit of a cliché shot, with the agapanthus flowers in front of the harbour view- but I am sure you don't mind seeing another pic of this beautiful harbour.

On the outskirts of Akaroa, near the coastline, is the 'Britomart' memorial, and it commemorates the raising of the British flag here in Akaroa.

The British flag was raised here on 11 August 1840, just days before the arrival of the French ship, L'Aube, carrying the first French settlers to the South Island.

 

In the centre of the Akaroa township, a different flag flies near the place where it is believed that the first French settlers came ashore.  Here the French are celebrated.

Whatever political power ploys were in action in 1840, today Akaroa is proud of the French part of its heritage.

(You can read more about the French colonists in Akaroa here.)

Lourdes Movie

I might be so far gone from things Catholic that I don't even count as one anymore- but I visited Lourdes and it has left its magic in my soul. There was a review about this movie about Lourdes on the America website. And there is a beautiful trailer for it on YouTube with English sub-titles. I hope we at least can see this movie in a film festival or something.... eventually.... (Just listening to the French is a wonderful treat for me!)
Apologies.... I know that the embedding only shows part of the screen here on my blog, and I don't know how to alter that... I suggest you take the link to YouTube itself.

Eauze

Well, well, well, ain't I doing well with the internet lately! There was quite a thunderstorm yesterday evening, followed by rain all this morning. But it was quite light rain, and it wasn't cold, and I quite enjoyed it! I stayed in the Relais St Jacques last night - in Montreal-du-Gers - with several others I have come to know quite well lately. My French has stopped improving as there are two Quebecois who have been practising their English with me, and who I look to for a translation when I don't understand. There was just one hard working lady doing most of the work where we stayed... as well as demi-pension for all of us, she serves a midday meal in the restaurant, so she doesn't get much of a break.

This morning we walked through lovely vineyards early on, getting greener quite quickly. A trifle muddy in places, but I have walked in worse! Then we got onto an old railway route where they have lifted the rails, so it was less muddy. I loved the peacefulness there under the trees, listening to the raindrops fall. (Would have been lovely shade on a hot afternoon!)

Had lunch under a kind of medieval arcade I have seen in a few places now. There was also a large school group sheltering, about 11- 12 years old. I relished the fact I never had to teach them!

Have had a slight recurrence of the ankle problem I had at home, but know how to stretch so need to do it. Also got a homeopathic product from the pharmacy. Was worried about how to explain what I wanted, but one of my French speaking buddies did the job for me!

It is supposed to be really wet here this weekend, then warm up to be quite hot. Oh joy! Who knows what will happen...

Time to go exploring again!

La draille

I have been a bit immersed in French today, finishing the first of the three TopoGuides for the Chemin de St Jacques, trying to make sure I understand all the directional/ landscape vocab. Then I walked downtown but somehow I was almost still in France. I passed a funeral parlour, where it seemed like a funeral was in progress (even though it was Sunday.) I felt very sorry for the people inside, too nice and sunny outside to be mourning someone's loss inside so soon after Christmas. And I was reminded of funerals I had passed by in French towns. The church bell tolled... and I mean tolled.... repeatedly.... one note. There was no way you could be in that town and not know that one of its own was being buried from the church. Whereas this poor local person was passing almost unnoticed by the wider populace, in a city in summer holiday mode.

Home again, I have updated my vocab list from a few postings back, four words still eluding me and babelfish no help. So I just decided to Google.

Turns out 'draille' is a word specifically from Languedoc, to do with the trails when they muster and move the animals between seasons.
From this website - Vocabulaire d'Aubrac - I found:
"La draille
La draille est un mot employé en Languedoc pour désigner le chemin de transhumance. Pendant des siècles, les troupeaux hébergés l'hiver (dès la mi-octobre) dans les étables des vallées abritées montaient l'été (vers le 25 mai), par ces chemins, pour pâturer librement sur l'Aubrac.
Aujourd'hui, on pratique encore -peut-être même de plus en plus- la transhumance. Chaque année elle donne lieu à une fête dans le village d'Aubrac, qui attire un monde fou.
Mais on fait encore souvent monter les troupeaux dans des camions...
La draille est en général marquée par des murets de pierre, qui s'élargissent de temps en temps pour ménager des espaces plus larges, permettant de regrouper le troupeau.
Certaines d'entre elles, qui utilisaient le tracé d'anciennes voies romaines, ont été à leur tour "récupérées" sous forme de sentier : le GR60 qui passe sur le plateau utilise le tracé de la Grande Draille du Languedoc.
Elles passent souvent sur les lignes de crête, tirent droit dans les montées, et offrent des paysages splendides. "

From Google again I found out that "le buron" is also a local word in this part of France, a stone cottage used in the warmer season by someone looking after the flocks.

Wikipedia says:
"Le buron est un bâtiment en pierre que l'on trouve dans les pâturages que les éleveurs de vallée possédaient et exploitaient de façon saisonnière dans les montagnes du Cantal, de la Lozère et des Monts Dore, ainsi que sur les plateaux de l'Aubrac dans l'Aveyron aux XVIII^e et XIX^e siècles. Les burons servaient à loger les vachers s'occupant des troupeaux et de la fabrication du fromage (le salers, le saint-nectaire) lors de l’estive (de mi-mai à mi-octobre)."

This is a striking photo of a buron.

I haven't found out what "le foirail" is yet, but there is a festival going by its name, and varied restaurants and hotels. There is a hotel in Figeac with it as a name. My TopoGuide used the word in Nasbinals, where you could cross Nasbinals by 'le foirail" and the main street. I will keep looking, but it could be another regional word.

My last word is "la sagne". I haven't found anything useful about it yet, other than that it is the name of a place in Switzerland.

You can tell I am relaxed and on holiday when I am 'wasting' time so frivolously. But isn't Google a wonderful invention!

Latest French Vocab list

Now I am on holiday, without school filling my brain, the trip to France seems imminent, even though it is still just over three months until I leave home. So I resumed reading the TopoGuides, this time 'properly', to work out all the French 'walking' vocab I will need to be exact with. I will keep a link to my most updated list near the top of my sidebar -soon......

Vocabulary List – pour les randonneurs
Landscape Features:
l’abreuvoir: watering place
barbelés: barbed wire
la bâtisse: big building
le bosquet: copse, grove, thicket
le buron: stone cottage used in summer by farmer
la butte: hillock, mound
un chemin charretier: cart track
une châtaigneraie: chestnut grove, plantation
la clairière: clearing
une clôture: railing, enclosure
la combe: anticlinal valley
la corniche: ledge
le coteau: slope, hillside
une crête: crest, ridge
(un chemin) creux: sunken (path)
un croisement de chemins: crossroads
les dalles (de granit): (granite) paving stones
une draille: track used for moving herds to/from summer pasture
un embranchement: junction, fork
l’enceinte: wall
la falaise: cliff
le foirail: ???
la fourche: fork
les frênes: ash trees
à gué: by ford
le hameau: hamlet
une hêtraie: beech grove
les lacets: bends
main courante: handrail
un mamelon: a hillock, knoll
le muret, la murette: low wall
le parvis: square in front of church
la passerelle: footbridge
le piton: peak
le portillon de bois: wooden gate
un pré marécageux: boggy meadow
un raccourci: shortcut
le replat: projecting ledge
le repère: marker
le ressaut: projection
une sagne: ???
un sentier: a path
la trace: track, trail
la tourbière: peat bog
le tronçon: section
le virage: sharp turn, bend

Position:
Two words I often tend to muddle:
*au-dessus: above
*au-dessous: underneath, below
amont: upstream
contrebas: on a lower level, lower down
à l’orée de la forêt: on the edge of the forest

Verbs:
s’abaisser: to fall away, slope down
aboutir: to lead to (something)
atteindre: reach
bifurquer: fork, branch off
contourner: go round, bypass
couper un virage: cut a corner/bend
déboucher: leads to, comes out on
décrire une courbe: route bends
l’emprunter: take it
s’enfoncer: plunge down, go down
enjamber: to span (of a bridge over a river)
en escaladant la pente: by climbing the slope
se faufilant: threading its way
franchir: to walk through (stream, river), cross, to jump over, clear
s’infléchit à droite: bends, curves to the right
longer: follow, go along
obliquer: bear eg obliquez a gauche, bear left
se rétrécir: to narrow
se scinder: to split up, divide
virer: veer

Adjectives for track/road surface:
(un sentier) abrupt: sheer, steep
une assise empierree: a layer ( stratum) of metal
un chemin caillouteux: stony path
un chemin castiné: untarsealed path?
dégagé: clear, open
goudronnée: tarsealed
gravilloné: gravel, grit
parsemée de pins: scattered with pines
pierreux: stony
une route revêtu: sealed road

Miscellaneous:
les pèlerins égarés: lost pilgrims
livre d’or: visitor’s book (in sanctuary of church in Le-Puy-en-Velay – reserved for pilgrims and walkers.)
des poignées pour se hisser: handholds to hoist yourself up