"Adishatz! This means hello or goodbye in Gascon. Gascony has a distinct identity, and a history that sets it apart from the rest of France. For Gascons, northern France is another country - and as for Parisians! This is France, but not as we know it.
Gascony stretches from Toulouse in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west, from the River Garonne in the north to the Pyrenees in the south. Gascony is a golden land of rolling hills and wide horizons, swathed with vineyards, sunflowers, maize and pastures. Wild boar and roe deer roam in the oak forests.
Gascons are honest, welcoming and independent. In the towns in summer, locals and visitors can join in with the music of the joyeuses bandas, lively brass and percussion street orchestras of musicians dressed in colourful costumes. The Gascons have their own particular customs, and the French outside of Gascony, when confronted with their funny ways, will shrug their shoulders: it's the southwest, what can you expect?
Gascony is the home of the swashbuckling heroes D'Artagnan and Cyrano de Bergerac, gutsy red wine, fine sweet wine, Armagnac, cassoulet, magret de canard, medieval bastides, open fields of sunflowers and more geese than people!
To learn more about the long history of Gascony, a good place to start is Louis Puech's Histoire de la Gascogne, originally published in 1914 by the Archaeological Society of the Gers."
E lo Martin que ns'i balha ua mapa deu país de Pèir de Garròs, qui ns' amuisha de qué e parla. Aquiu que l'avetz:
Enqüèra que i sembla mancar la Gasconha trans-garonesa, que nse podem totun regaudir qu' aqueth senhor non con·hon pas Gasconha dab lo departament de Gers, e que i balha ua mapa anotada en gascon.
E jo qu'èi seguit lo conselh de l'autor en crompà'm l'obratge de Louis Puech, qui èi pagat ua fortuna pr'amor n'ei pas mei editat, clar.
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada