Too much gardening yesterday pushed us both into an easier lazy day today, but what arrived in the post at lunchtime ? but the copy of ''Two Vagabonds in Languedoc''by Jan and Cora Gordon. You will remember I told you this book first published in 1925 is actually all about the village of Najac [our little jewel in the regions crown] Now we know Najac is just in to the Aveyron, not Languedoc and we also know it is Najac and not Janac, which is the name the authors choose to give it.. My 2007 reprinted version has a foreward by K.J. Bryant of Wiltshire and I tried to discover by googling if K.J. Bryant was still with us.
I could not determine that but found a blog by Laura McKenna with a written post about the Gordons. Laura McKenna has written a book on a totally different subject but I am interested in that now.
So two sites to look at janandcoragordon.co.uk and
http://writeso.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/jan-and-cora-jo-gordon/
On the book by the Gordons I am up to page 37 and seriously nothing has changed nearly a 100 years on. I find the writing very dated, a bit condescending and patronising about the villagers and the odd use of the word'' nigger'' reminded me of the language of that time.All that said it is going to be a good read with many passages worth a ''quote''
The Gordons arrived by chance at Najac getting off the train at Laguepie and being great walkers fancied the walk to Najac. They were told the way was along the railway tracks, which it still is. Jan asked the peasant ''But are we allowed to walk by the railway tracks'' the peasant shrugged his shoulders and said ''Ma foi'', one is not allowed but never-the less one goes that way'' And indeed the side of the railway is a well trodden path, even marked with the spoor of bicycles.[some friends did that same walk last year.]
We have also discussed many times how the Spanish came here, over the borders in great numbers and even before the Spanish Civil War. Spaniards came for work and below is a quote from the book which shows the attitude reflected at the time by the local French.
''Raymond's principal business seemed to be the listing of Spaniards who came into Najac in dusky groups, odorous and unwashed, to work upon the railway. The Frenchman does not like these strangers whom lack of labour forces him to hire: they are counted as pariahs and as dangerous. It is curious how predjudiced we are against a dusky skin, associating it with a suppressed eagerness to kill''
OK, back to the book I go.
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