Tuesday 20 July 2010

Cyrano and St Maurice

Vicky asked about Cyrano de Bergerac, and though everywhere you go in Bergerac you see the name, and there are at least two stautes, I’ve never taken much interest. He seems to have been more documented than Arthur, but still reads as a weird kind of fellow. Petri Liukkonen (author) claims:
“French soldier, satirist, and dramatist, whose life has been the basis of many romantic but unhistorical legends. The best-known of them is Edmond Rostand's verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Bergerac's major works were two posthumously published accounts of fantastic voyages, VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1657) and L'HISTOIRE DES ÉTATS ET EMPIRES DU SOLEIL (1662). According to Arhur C. Clarke, Cyrano must be credited both for first applying the rocket to space travel and, for inventing the ramjet.”

I understand the man wasn’t in Bergerac for more than a few nights in his life, so I don’t know why Bergerac has latched so deeply onto him. Even the name related back to a family estate. Petri explains, and if you want more detail, check out the website : http://kirjasto.sci.fi/bergerac.htm
The weather continues at 30-31 degrees for the second day, so we’re confining our walks to early morning, before eight o’ clock. I sunbathed and edited my wip with a red pen on hard copy from 9am to 10am and then crept inside where it was cool. There I transcribed all the changes onto my lap top. So work is still being done. Honest.
You remember my walk with the alsation escort? Well, approached from another direction yesterday, I saw that a couple of conifers making up the screening hedge have died, and been felled, leaving a swift squint of the Chateau for nosy people like myself. So here it is. You can get married there if you wish. The church outside the chateau walls looks absolutely ancient, but it is literally only ten yards from the gates, perhaps a hundred yards from the house. So very romantic, neh?

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