Friday 30 September 2011
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Amnesia, Maths and book-defacing
Mathematician Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) was also born in Toulouse, but unlike Count Odo of Toulouse (886-918) Fermat wasn't absent-minded, he just ran out of space. He scribbled in the margin of a book "I've found the answer to this seriously-difficult maths problem ("Fermat's Last Theorem"), but there isn't room in this margin to tell you what it is." Of course, if he hadn't written all that stuff in the margin, there might have been room to tell us what the answer was. And in any case, scribbling in printed books is hardly a thing to be encouraged. Let's hope Toulouse Library fined him for defacing public property.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Monday 26 September 2011
Chorso, Beggo, Odo and Harpo
Unlike, for example, Franche-Comté, Midi-Pyrénées doesn't relate to a historical French region. It was created in the 1970s so that Toulouse could be capital of it. Job-creation on a grand scale. It worked, and Toulouse, formerly a bit out-of-the-way (think Taunton) is now Europe's fastest-growing city. In 1999 Toulouse paid off its debts and became France's first large city ever to achieve solvency. Toulouse is now exempt from overdraft charges and probably gets free ski insurance and AA membership.
In the Middle Ages, Toulouse was ruled by the Counts of Toulouse, including Chorso (c.790) Beggo (806-816) and Odo (886-918). No mention is made of Harpo. Little is known about these early rulers, except that Odo married Garsenda, daughter of Ermengol of Albi, and "probably had three children" - which suggests a degree of absent-mindedness inappropriate in a man of high office.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Saturday 24 September 2011
Friday 23 September 2011
Thursday 22 September 2011
Saints and helicopters in Lower Normandy
In more recent times, Lower Normandy has produced a saint and a helicopter pioneer. St. Thérèse of Lisieux was born in Alençon, and is the patron saint of florists, tuberculosis, Cheyenne (Wyoming) and aviators. The connection is obvious.
Talking of aviators, Paul Cornu, also of Lisieux, achieved the first manned helicopter flight in 1907. As the pilot, crew and only passenger of his pioneering craft, Paul had to do all the flight announcements himself: "In the event of an emergency landing, the exits are located here, here, here, here and here. Everywhere, in fact. We will be flying at an altitude of 30cm and arriving at our destination of that gorse bush just over there in approximately 20 seconds."
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Tuesday 20 September 2011
Sex and violence in 11th century Normandy
Mystery surrounds one tableau of the Bayeux Embroidery, in which a priest is seen slapping a lady called Ælfgifu, while two naked men crouch nearby, one of thm shamelessly displaying his meat-and-two-veg. One theory is that the scene may depict a well-known celebrity sex scandal of the day. If this is so, it suggests that prurient, invasive journalism was already rife in the eleventh century, though unlike today's paparazzi, the Bayeux needleworkers would have had to embroider really quickly to be sure of getting a scoop.
A Victorian reproduction of the Bayeux Embroidery hangs in Reading Museum, and is accurate in every detail, except that they gave meat-and-two-veg man some pants. The Victorians weren't great turnip-eaters. Even more mystery surrounds the Embroidery's missing panels. Apparently, two sequels were planned, provisionally entitled The Bayeux Supremacy and The Bayeux Ultimatum.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Saturday 17 September 2011
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Willy, Tilly and the Bayeux embroidery
Willy and Tilly co-star in the Bayeux Embroidery (yeah, you needle-workers, I've done my research.) In the world's first embroidered comic-strip, Norman-Man does battle with evil mastermind Harold Godwinson. You can tell the good guys from the bad guys because the Saxons all have droopy moustaches, while the Normans shaved the back of their heads. Mmm sexy.
How Harold actually met his end is the subject of some debate. The Latin text "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!" appears over three mortally-wounded Saxons: one (as you know) with an arrow in his eye, one with a spear through his chest, and one with his legs chopped off. One modern theory is that they're all Harold, which suggests that the Norman army was nothing if not thorough.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Friday 9 September 2011
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Willy's left leg
Willy (the Conqueror) and Tilly (Queen Matilda) were cousins, and the Pope was not at all happy about their normal-for-Norfolk union. Will soon smoothed matters over by building the Pope the Abbey of Saint Étienne at Caen. Everyone has a price, even the Pope.
Will was buried at Saint Étienne, but his bones were scattered twice, once during the Wars of Religion and again, just for good measure, during the Revolution (see our Ile-de-France blog). Despite all this upheaval, the Abbey custodians are pretty sure they still have his left leg.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
Monday 5 September 2011
William the Bastard
Lower Normandy is France's leading producer of turnips, and breeds more horses than any other region. They must like the turnips. The region also leads in the production of butter, apples, leeks and flax, but has yet to combine these into a successful regional dish.
William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and was also known as William the Bastard. William's dad was Robert the Magnificent, so Will's nickname must have come as a disappointment to him. Will's missus, Matilda, was only 4'2" tall and in 1066 she became England's smallest Queen. Matilda was famous for her long pig-tails. (Though, Matilda being vertically-challenged, they may in fact have been normal-length pig-tails). Legend has it, that Will courted Tilly by dragging her off her horse by her pig-tails. It must have been the turnips.
La Résidence - THE French Property People
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