Sunday 2 March 2008

La Bisbal : Review

This year I am attending the last level in the English courses organised by the CEU. Eventually it corresponds to an intermediate general level.
As the students are from different horizons and countries, Evelyn, our teacher has asked us to give a presentation about our hometown, family and hobbies.
I must admit that without being very difficult, it hasn't been that easy.
If I should count the time spent, I think it has taken me more than fifteen hours : make the choice of the pictures, grab the information, organise the sequences and compose the narration, choose the background music and finally put all together, synchronising the pictures, the music and the text.

For the pictures I calculated that I needed to have more or less 90.
The presentation had to be shorter than 15 minutes. Assuming an average of 7 seconds by picture I could have used 125, but as I knew that i was going to include some pieces of video, 90 pictures would be enough.
What to speak about ? Naturally : geography, history and economy adding some personal comments and notes.
How to organise the chapters ? First of all I started in a chronologically way but the result didn't satisfy me so I put it in chapters : Geography and generalities concerning the town ending with personal views. Facts about the Castle. The centenary shops. The river. The economy and the sardana. Before passing to the personal part of the presentation I needed a mixed link that I found speaking about the party for the people born in 1957 in the town and neighbourhood. Then I could start with my family and my hobbies.

The final result is this video of eleven minutes that I hope fits the goal.
Enjoy it.
I know that my pronunciation is not as good as I wanted. For that purpose I put here below the transcription of the narration. Some sentences weren’t read to respect synchronisation.
Music credits :
The music for the first part is "Paisatges" from "Passió per la Tenora" de Jordi Figaró.
In between there are two "sardanes", the first one "El Carrilet" de Ricard Viladesau. The second one, where I dance, was on live and I don't remember anymore which one it was.
Then an excerpt of "El Cant dels Ocells" de Pau Casal also from "Passió per la Tenora".
The last song is "Ave Maria no morro" sung by the group "Charango" that I made with Armando Matos and Francisco José Espinosa, during my military service in Melilla.
Geography, history and general facts
La Bisbal d’Empordà, my hometown has been built on the basements of a Roman settlement (Fontanetum) it got the full civil and criminal jurisdiction in 1.180. Since then the daily administration has become independent from other neighbour burgs.

It is situated in the natural area of the Empordà, at 30 kilometres from Girona, 60 from the French border and only 12 kilometres from the Costa Brava.

Even if it got the title of city in 1906 from Alphonse XIII, most autochthons, including me, continue to consider it as a town.

When I was born there were more or less 5.000 inhabitants. Today the population has grown to raise almost the double.
In the fifties it got a lot of immigrants coming from Andalusia mainly, among them those who were going to be my parents.

Its name, La Bisbal, comes from “bisbe” bishop in Catalan as the town was for a while, in 1019, the see of Girona Bishop.

Like most classical Spanish towns, there is a main road that crosses the municipality. The old part contains narrow streets, old styled houses as well as some arches and vaulted streets.

From 1887 to 1956 there was a tiny train that coming from Palamós went to Flaçà, some forty kilometres further. Arriving to certain uphill passengers had to descend and walk besides even sometimes push the train to help it to rise the hill. I have not had the opportunity to see the train but well the rail tracks.

Views tied to me
Some facts about myself and La Bisbal : That’s the house where I was born. The shop where I got my first shoes. My first primary school. The library where I spent almost everyday three hours reading books and doing the homework. The new primary school and the college.

The castle
The Castle, bishop’s palace, has a Romanic origin from the XII century. During the XIX century it was used as prison. Today it contains the historical archives of the area and acts from time to time as a museum for oriented exhibitions.

Here you can see some views showing past and present.

The shops
There are some centenary or nearly centenary shops that have “always” been there. Two of them have even kept the shape as they were years before. In one of the renovated is made the typical “bisbalenc” a genuine pastry from La Bisbal, made with pumpkin marmalade, puff pastry, sugar and pine apple fruits.

The river
The river Daró coming from the Gavarras flows into the river Ter (previously it flowed directly into the Mediterranean sea) Most often there is no flow at all and people uses to park their car in its bed, but from time to time it overflows.

Economy : cork, agriculture and pottery
Traditionally the economy of La Bisbal, at the fifties was based in cork factories, manufacturing mainly cork caps. The agriculture has always been a solid pillar of economy as well as cattle farming (I remember, as a child, going a few houses down street to get a chum of fresh milked milk).
Today there is no more cork industry.
The quality of the clay and the traditional craftsmanship have turned La Bisbal d'Empordà into the pottery capital. There is a museum that the town has dedicated to this activity, installed in an old pottery factory.

The sardana
Nobody knows when the sardana originated, but it has been popular since the 16th century. Modern choreography was established as late as the end of the 19th century. It has always been very alive in La Bisbal and neighbourhood. Today young people seems top give up it.
Music for the sardana is played by a cobla, a band consisting of 10 wind instruments, double bass and a so called "tamborí" (very small drum) played by 11 musicians.The cobla La Principal de La Bisbal got in 1932 the mention and title of official cobla of the Generalitat of Catalonia (the Catalan government) and seventy-six years late it is still the official one..
The sardana is danced in almost any festivity, not only in La Bisbal but in the whole Catalonia.

Here you can see a live performance and even me, dancing. Try to find me !

1957/2007
Last year there was a party to celebrate all those who had turned 50.
We were more or less 110, all born in 1957
I met friends that I hadn’t seen for years. We had fun.

My family
My wife and I in our early years, my children that have grown up with a nice complicity between them.

My hobbies : singer and watercolorist
I used to play guitar in my own but also with several groups through my teenager period.
Some of my paintings compared to the original picture from my town.
A painting from a French village. Two landscapes from Finland. Beget, a village in the Pyrenees, near the French border. Fanad Head in Donegal, Ireland and The Giant’s Causeway.
These last two were made from pictures taken during my stay at my teacher's hometown in Northern Ireland.

Sunday 25 February 2007

La bibliothèque


Voici une vue du pont nou, depuis le paseo, avec à gauche un apperçu du clocher de l’église et au fond du château. Le bâtiment au centre abritait au sous-sol la bibliothèque dont je vais parler ci-dessous.

La Bibliothèque

Je me vois quitter la maison pour me rendre à l'école. Je me vois attendant l'ouverture de la bibliothèque.
Je sens presque l'odeur du hall d'entrée et l'odeur des livres que je dévorais. Je ne saurais pas dire avec exactitude à quelles dates, mais probablement dès mes sept ans jusqu'à mes dix-huit j’y suis allé assidûment ; de six heures du soir à neuf heures. Certes au début étant gamin j’ai lu tous les Enid Blyton qu’il y avait pour passer petit à petit à des romans plus sérieux. Pourquoi préférais je aller à la bibliothèque plutôt qu’emprunter les livres. J’adorais le calme qui y régnait. A force d’y aller tous les jours un cercle d’habitués s’était crée. Généralement chacun avait sa place « attribuée » et d’un accord tacite personne n’envahissait l’espace privée des autres. Il y eut des fous rires étouffés, que quand ils devenaient insoutenables explosaient aux toilettes. Il y avait les bruits classiques des semelles qui grinçaient sur un sol ciré. Comme j’étais souvent le premier je bénéficiais aussi de la relative fraîcheur. Les saisons s’enchaînaient remarquables seulement à la lumière du soleil couchant qui en fonction de la saison éclairait différents rayons. Tant que j’étais en primaire j’allais pour lire et pour mon bol de silence. Une fois au lycée, il fallait partager la lecture avec la recherche et parfois les devoirs. Il arrivait que d’autres compagnons de classe y viennent. Alors, parfois, on sortait quelques minutes pour papoter. On s’asseyait sur les marches de la porte d’entrée. En face, sur l’autre trottoir, il y avait la pâtisserie « Can Sans » dont parfois l’odeur des gâteaux nous ouvrait l’appétit.

La Bisbal : mon village


La Bisbal d'Empordà, bourgade qui, sans être village n'est pas vraiment une ville. Voici une vue typique du vieux pont. Un pont fort impossant eu égard au peu d'eau qui coule en dessous.

A l'époque dont je vais parler il n'y avait que 5.000 habitants. Si on ne se connaissait pas tous par le nom, nous nous connaissions presque tous au moins de vue. Nous enfants, entre nous, nous nous connaissions pour ainsi dire tous. Les adultes j’imagine qu’ils savaient qui étaient les parents de qui. J’entends encore dans mon subconscient la phrase typique disant : oui, celui-là c’est le fils d’un tel.
J'y pense souvent. Plus qu'à la ville proprement dite ou ses rues ou ruelles à des situations et des moments vécus car ce fut le théâtre de mes premiers pas.
Je voudrais au travers de ces lignes passer en revue les endroits qui sont chers à mes souvenirs d'enfance. Je tâcherai, lorsque j'y retournerai, de faire des photos afin d'agrémenter. Je pense que je parlerai de : la bibliothèque, « les voltes », «el passeig », « la riera », « la font de l’arbre », « la font del Remei », « el ojo del buitre » , « la terrera », « el camp de fútbol », « la sardana », « el Foment », « el Mundial », « el Olimpia », « el convent », « la piscina municipal » etc. etc., les villages aux alentours, les amis, les sorties, la vie ….

N’ayant pas une très bonne mémoire des noms, j’espère, avec un peu d’effort et d’auto hypnose, parvenir à me remémorer et tâcher surtout de décrire l’ambiance telle qu’elle est restée imprégnée dans le plus profond de moi-même.