A Public Library fit for the Name of the Rose

The Ceccano Municipal Library is housed in a huge, unassailable, pale limestone palace, the only gothic residential structure in Avignon which does not pale in comparison with the Palace of the Popes. This formidable dungeon built during the papacy of Benedict XII actually predates the famous Palace ; it was the "livrée" of cardinal Annibale de Ceccano. It holds about 50000 books, 7000 manuscripts, and 60000 prints and drawings. It is indeed a pleasure to wander through the bookselves under the painted rafters of the ceremonial rooms, or to rest on a stone bench by an antique window, holding a copy of Edwin Mullins' "Avignon of the Popes", wich brings to life the history of the city.
But it is thanks to an other author, David Lodge, (in The Year of Henry James) that I became aware again that Umberto Eco's famous bestseller of the eighties, "The name of the Rose" was staged right in the period when the popes where exiled in Avignon, then dubbed the 'Altera Roma'.

Remember the moving letter of dying Prior Adso ? Umberto Eco concluded this epistle and his palpitating and erudite crime novel with the famous verse :
STAT ROSA PRISTINE NOMINE, NOMINA NUDA TENEMUS
Only the name of the early Rose remains, nude names only are left to us

Mr. Lodge says, along with many scholars, that the'Rosa' so mysterious in the book as well as in the famous verse might have stood for 'Roma' due to a copying error. But here I beg to dissent : indeed in Avignon the museum holds a precious gold and jewel rose, wich was bestowed by the popes to their most grand and faithfull supporters visiting the Holy See in Avignon.
Umberto Eco's novel explicitly refers to the visit of Michael of Cesena in the benedictine abbey, while en route to Avignon, in the winter of 1321 under the papacy of John XXII, Benedict XII predecessor. So maybe this was the key of the power struggle in the abbey : they all wanted to please the pope and get a pretty "Souvenir d'Avignon" just like modern-day visitors.

Note : The mediatheque is about 100 meters from our studios and flats, the weather is now so warm that you dont't even need to put a jacket on to go there and to verify my ( precarious) theory by digging in its numerous books and manuscripts. Entrance is free, membership cards for borrowing books and CD's cost 9 Euros for Avignonnais and 20, for less happy mortals.

Avignon during the festival

During the July Theater Festival Avignon is a different sort of place. People say this is the worlds biggest theater festival, and it might well be true. But most importantly, this extraordinary time of the year gives the city a unique, youthfull atmosphere that lingers on for many months. Actualy there are two festivals at the same time : Rather like on Broadway, there is a "In" festival in the Pope's palace and a few other grand venues, for big officila productions, and an " Off" festival for smaller, independent compagnies, one-man shows, performances, etc.

The Off boasts 250.000 spectators, 800 theater companies, a thousand shows in a hundred different venues.
Here are a few photographs of the streets of Avignon last July, adorned with the billboards that advertise the shows. Even the most blasé of the Popes'city denizens love that period. Actors in costumes throng the streets, al fresco dining is the rule. Nights are hot and short. It is more than a cultural event : an experience, gathering artists and audiences from all around the world.
Every year, the festival welcomes artists and performers from many countries and many languages will be heard on the stages : French as well as English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Polish, German and Hebrew.

Accomodation at this time of the year will be a bit tricky to find. Prices of our studios and rooms must be discussed and booked well in advance.

This man is not Buffalo Bill Cody !

He is Frederic Mistral, the father of the "felibre" movement of writers, publishers and poets, based in Avignon and which revived the provencal language in the second half of the nineteen century .
One of his most notable followers, the Marquess Folco de Baroncelli-Javon, took a lasting fancy for the american hero and it's Wild West Show.
In a fascinating book : " Cock and Bull Stories: Folco de Baroncelli and the Invention of the Camargue", (univ of Nebraska) Robert Zaretsky links the most respected poet of Provence with Buffalo Bill, Sioux Indians, and the horse-mounted gardians, the cowboys of Camargue. The Cock is the Gallic symbol of France, and the Bull stands for southern France with its deeply different history and culture. Langage and economic issues of the domination by the northern " francimans" of the southern " povre merjonaux" are dealt with in this ingenious book which adopts a thesis little in vogue with french researchers, whose careers depends of the reveration of a French Republic united around ideals professed by the Paris media.
Folco de Baroncelli, a local aristocrat who married into wine, failed to be the follower of Mistral. A relatively mediocre writer, he was deeply moved by the fate of the Oglala Sioux, a Native American people, reinvented the history of Camargue, the Rhone delta region, rich in wild horses, bulls, pink flamingoes and mosquitoes. Galvanized by the example set by Buffalo Bill Cody, Baroncelli did recast the Camargue as 'le far-ouest' of France. The fun, and little know part of the story is that he himself created from scratch the 'immemorial' traditions he battled to protect. The costume, ceremonial, mythic origins, in fact the whole concept of " nacioun guardiano", developped in a few years and later endorsed by politicians and tour-operators alike, is entirely his doing. Creating one of the last myth of his country didn't bring him much money, though : Having sold his palace in the heart of Avignon, his wife's wine estates, he retired in Camargue and died in 1942 in Avignon when the civilan population delta was evacuated by the Germans in the preparation of the american landing in Provence.

Winter in the hills of Provence

Avignon is surrounded by hills. Tiny mountains, like les Alpilles, which tend to keep snow longer than the plains. Here are a few photographs of les Baux de Provence, a somewhat overtouristed place in the summer, but which seems to have reverted to its pre-war state of quiet abandon.
The sky is often incredibly blue, road conditions are back to normal, the temperature is at least five degrees warmer than in Paris, and in my opinion it's altogether a great time of the year to come to Provence, ans see light again. " Post Tenebrae Lux" as man wrote on the old lintel of this ruined renaissance window of les Baux.

From Venasque to Gordes

Both these cities, some 25 kilometers from Avignon, are " villages perchés", fortress-like heaps of house cluttered on a hill top and down its rapid slopes ; Gordes is world famous, of course, one of the prettiest villages in Luberon ; but Venasque, facing Mount Ventoux, and adorned with a very ancient church is quite interesting.
The road between them passes by the cistercian Abbey of Senanque, and some wonderful scenery, ( through wich it was not incommon to be attacked by brigands until late in the nineteen century). Read french author Jean Giono for the details.
The beehive-shaped houses are called bories, a whole village of these can be visited near Gordes. Guess what ? they even have a real estate value.