Countryside from my past

When I think of Aisne, images of fields come to mind. Fields after fields, with sometimes a few cows or sheep grazing. Some very old brick houses and barns. Very old ads on walls. Every time we visited our cousins, I felt like I returned to my childhood. Nothing ever changed. I was told that it still looks the same.

Beautiful colza fields can be found everywhere in Picardie. They truly look awesome.
It's a pleasure to drive by in the spring or summer.

Poppies are my favorite. They remind me of my childhood, and a little story that happened to me, and that still makes me laugh. They're so fragile. I wish I had poppies to look at every day.

A field in the département of Aisne, close to Oise

Bohain and Matisse

Bohain is the first place where my dad lived when he arrived in France. It is situated at about 15 km from Fresnoy.

As with other villages in the area, there was a lot of textile manufacturing there.

The famous painter Henri Matisse's grandparents were weavers from the area. Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, not far from Bohain and the Belgium border. He grew up in Bohain. His parents had a grain/seeds shop that also sold house paints. Matisse was probably first interested by the colors his mother mixed for custom orders. His mother also gave him a set of art supplies when he was recovering from appendicitis and that's when he started drawing. She used to paint on vases herself and was an inspiration to Henri.

Today, you can visit the home where he grew up in Bohain. It was restored and there is even a color room with educational activities. There are also some grain machines. You can take a guided tour, get some refreshment in the café, buy souvenirs.

That home is situated in the same street as the home of some of my cousins!

Information and reservation :
Maison familiale d'Henri Matisse
26, rue du Château
02110 - BOHAIN-EN-VERMANDOIS
Phone : 09 64 43 84 63
E-mail : maisonmatisse@bohainenvermandois.fr

Matisse's childhood home, then

Matisse's childhood home, now

You've probably heard of something funny that happened, concerning his painting "La Danse" ("The Dance").

Apparently, when the Rio 2016 Olympic Games' logo was revealed, some people noticed that it looked like the Telluride Foundation logo.

It turns out, the foundation borrowed it from Matisse... See the resemblances below:

Picardie

Here is Picardie. Like I said before, I was born in the Aisne département (o2), which is near the Ardennes (you may have heard of the infamous battles there), Belgium and the Champagne région. Yes, the one where the bubbly drink comes from (if it was not made in that region, then it's not champagne, it's just some bubbly wine. In order to be called champagne, it needs to come from that place. Just a side note.)

Later, we moved to Oise (60), in the city of Compiègne. More about that later...

As you can see, Picardie even has a coast near the Channel.




Here is what I found online about Picardie:

Area:	19 399 km2
Population:	About 1 863 500
Climate:	Tempered humid
Capital city:	Amiens
Departments:	02 - Aisne (Laon), 60 - Oise (Beauvais), 80 - Somme (Amiens)

Historically, France was born here when Clovis made Soissons the first capital of the Franks, in 486, and later Hugues Capet, elected king of France at Senlis, was crowned at Noyon in 987. This proud past made Picardy the first French region, not only for historical buildings and monuments but, also, the premier region for its Gothic cathedrals. Amiens has been specially honoured, by UNESCO, for its architectural heritage.

From an area 30 kms North of Paris, close to the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, the southerm boundaries stretch eastwards towards Champagne and the Belgian border. Westwards, it extends to the English Channel. This ancient and hospitable region will not disappoint the visitor, with its choice of 4,000 hectares of lakeland, 1,200 kms of rivers, 70 kms of dunes, cliffs and luminous beaches, coastal marshes, forests and the bays at the river mouths of the Somme and the Authie.

It comes from this website:

http://www.francekeys.com/english/regions/picardie.shtml

My région and départements

Now, we're getting closer.

I have always lived in the Picardie région, which is in the northern part of France, right above Paris. Paris is situated about a 45-minute drive from my home.

When my dad first arrived in France, he lived in the Aisne département, and that's where I was born. My family lived in a very, very little village called Brancourt-le-Grand. Only 618 people lived there on the year I was born. According to the last census year (2008), there were 625 people there.

I was born in the nearest city: Saint Quentin. My brother and younger sister and many cousins were born there too, in the same hospital.

Shortly after my birth, my parents moved to a bigger village, Fresnoy-le-Grand. It was bigger than Brancourt, with 3729 people on the year I was born, and recently, 3019.
Fresnoy-le-Grand is the first place I can remember, and that's where I've started going to school, at 2 years old.

You may have never heard of Fresnoy, but I'm sure you've heard of something very famous coming from there... Le Creuset!

Yes, the famous enameled cast iron cookware is from my small village.

In fact, my family lived very close to the factory, and my dad worked there for a number of years, until he got sick and we moved to another town.

I have some cousins who worked (or still work) there, whenever I see a Le Creuset plate or dutch oven, I wonder if one of them made it.

If you ever visit France, it's very well worth going to the Le Creuset factory store, where everything is waaay cheaper than anywhere else. The prices of Le Creuset stuff in the US are awful and I'm sad that I can't afford anything decent without wanting to cry about the waste of money.

They're cheaper anywhere in France, but not as much as at the modest factory store.

Of course, it would be best to have an empty or almost empty bag so you won't have to pay too much at the airport! It would also cost a lot to mail them to the US, since they're pretty heavy (my sister said she could send me some but that the post-office fee scared her, and that I should never ask her to mail me a dutch oven. Too bad.)

I grew up with Le Creuset stuff and I can tell they're really great!
Fresnoy-Le-Grand is also known for La Filandière, now classed a historical monument. It was the only place where they still made tapestries and fabric for furniture, using a "métier a tisser Mécanique Jacquard" (mechanical Jacquard loom)
You can visit their museum and expositions.

The area was well-known for making fabrics such as linen, cashmere, etc.

Then there is Le Bourget, which makes socks and hosiery. Its brands are well-known in France and you can buy them cheaper at the factory store in Fresnoy.

I will talk more about the Jacquard weaving and what it did to the region. Perhaps you may have heard of the role of Jacquard in the industrial revolution?

France

France is divided in "régions". Until recently, there were 26 of them, and a 27th was added. So, 5 of them are DOM-TOM (Département d'Outre-Mer, Territoire d'Outre-Mer) , or overseas territories.

The capital of France is Paris, and its région is Ile-de-France.

My région is Picardie. You can easily find it on the map below, right above Ile-de-France, in green.


Each région is divided in "département", and there are 101 of them. Mayotte was added recently.

95 of these départements are in metropolitan France, and then there is Corsica. The others are in the DOM-TOM.

The départements are classified in alphabetical order, and each has a number according to their rank in the alphabet. The first département, for example, is "Ain".

I was born in the Aisne Département, which is 02. I grew up in the Oise département: 60.

These numbers are used in the zip codes and in license plates. So, you always know where a vehicle is coming from, and you can easily tell where a town is situated just by seeing its département number. Unless you've never learned your Geography lessons!

Turkey and neighbors

Here is a map of Turkey and its neighbors. A little part of it is in Europe, but the majority is in Asia:

Here, you can see the different Turkish regions with their capital. Afyon is in blue, on the west side, almost in the South. We're included in the Aegean region:


Turkey is surrounded by 4 seas: the Black sea, the Mediterranean sea, the sea of Marmara and the Aegean sea.

Where my parents are from

My parents are from Turkey.

Turkey is often mistaken for an Arabic country by less-traveled people, or people who don't like to learn about Geography or History.

This mistake might be because the majority of Turks are Muslim. There are also Christian and Jewish Turks.

Turkey is a secular country. The State is very well separated from any religion. In fact, it is forbidden to wear a religious veil, for example, in school or while working in a government building.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey is seen as a hero, and his portrait is everywhere: on bank notes, framed on walls in homes, businesses and schools, on flags, and you can also find many statues of him about everywhere.
I might talk about him in another post. I'm very grateful for what he did for my country.

My parents are both from the same area: in the region of Afyon (which comes from the word "opium", because there are many, many poppy fields in the area).

My dad's village is right next to my mom's, but the villagers in my mom's village will say that my dad is a "foreigner", and those of my dad's will say that my mom is a "foreigner" :D
There is some kind of rivalry between the two villages and it's funny to hear them trying to top each other in their conversations ("yeah, but we have a gendarme station" "of course you do, you're hooligans and you need them!)

In the 70s, many Turks answered the call for more workers coming from France and Germany, who were still rebuilding their countries after WWII. My dad and his older brother wanted to go to Germany, but then his brother died just a couple of days before getting his letter saying that he can go there.

My dad had to serve in the military, and by the time he finished, it was too late for Germany, so he went to France, where a job and a home were waiting for him.

My older sister was born a few months later. She and my mom joined my dad but had to wait a bit because of the unrest in Cyprus.

Finally, when they arrived in France, my sister was 6 months old.

They lived in a very small village in the north of France.