La Ciotat 1720

31 décembre 2009

MARSEILLE

Marseille, by the sea with its 57 km of coast, its dozen ports, at least, is connoted well in itself "boucanerly" speaking.

Privateers or Pirate ?

Since the Middle Ages, in time of scarcity, Marseille benefited from a surprising privilege: that to inspect offshore any foreign ship carrying a cargo of wheat (for Pastas!), and to appropriate this cargo. This exaggerated right was still confirmed by Henri III in 1589: " confirmation of the privilièges of the aforementioned city and to be able to seize wheat passing by the seas of Icelle. " On what Augustin Fabre so comments: " we this wheat, mostly, but sometimes we did not pay it because it was not rare to see the municipal box completely empty (...) In some circumstances, the city of Marseille put a solicitor and a bailiff on boats armed in running to give to the shipping a legal color. " (Augustin Fabre, The streets of Marseille, volume 1, 1867). This practice stopped in the XVIIth century.

The Piracy on the wheat having recently been forbidden, besides having pulled a decline of consumption of Pastas, the big plague beat came down on the city on May 25th, 1720. Proofs are still needed?

The etymological origin lost by Canebière (main street of Marseille) is Pastafarian. "To cane" = to die: a shortcut to evoke the passage in the pastafarian paradise and its volcano of beer (Bière in french) during the big plague: CaneBière passing then the celestial way to reach the Paradise, afterward this reputation passed in another street, maintaining " Street of Paradise ".

Let us note in the passage that Barack OBAMA campaigned under the banner of " Yes! We can! ": towards the return of the paradisiac American leadership: blown by one of its advisers, Pastafarian massaliote, Hinting at the road of the paradise Pasta from Marseille: Yes, we can-nebière!

The Americans risking to be a little lost by this exotic formula, the last part was truncated. But with Sa Savourity as banner, he was not henceforth possible that to win.

Well, the inhabitants of Marseille "molded" by English since famous "Férry Boâte" of Pagnol, fast retranslated by " Yes, week-end ": allusion to the idleness from Marseille, before taste of heaven on Earth.
Finally in inhabitant of Marseille " Pasta-fa-rien " means siesta, idleness for all: " the pasta makes nothing (in the rest) ".

LA CIOTAT

Every year La Ciotat, a port near Marseille, celebrates its resistance in the big plague of 1720, at the end of October.
In fact, since the lock of shipyards, it tries to prolong so the tourist season, to create the opportunities to pirate the tourist last time.
In brief, a merry spacio-temporal jump in the world of the pirates.
Our Monster in Flying Spaghetti wouldn't miss this remembrance in its honor for nothing in the world.