Bluet de France

[GRT17]

Why do the French wear a Bluet de France (Cornflower) sticker for Armistice day ?

We have our Poppies in the U.K. which I think are a great symbol. I have looked on the internet but cannot find much information.

Gill

[Missy]

[quote]Why do the French wear a Bluet de France (Cornflower) sticker for Armistice day ? We have our Poppies in the U.K. which I think are a great symbol. I have looked on the internet but cannot find mu...[/quote]

The equivalent to the British Legion's Poppy appeal is in France the Blue Cornflower which can also be found along side poppies in the wheat fields of Picardie/Northern France with the white ox-daisy which makes its Nature's own tricolore to look over all these poor dead souls....

....Nature berce le chaudement... (Nature hug him-the dead soldier-warmly) Taken from a poem by Arthur Rimbaud about a dead soldier of the First World War... Ask any primary school master to teach your child this poem : Le Dormeur du Val... The  last line was a choker to me when I first learnt it aged 10/12...

 

 

[GRT17]

Thanks for that Missyesbut.

I was at an Anglo- French party on Saturday night and a charming French man gave me more or less the same explanation, saying that poppies and cornflowers are both flowers of the field. The British chose the poppies as their symbol and the French chose the cornflower as a symbol for France. I hadn't thought of the tricolore connection.

I was in France for Armistice day this year our local Maire read out the official words and then kept adding odd sentences with his own comments.

Gill

[Loiseau]

Is there any connection between the bleuet (flower) and the fact that the French WW1 uniform was "horizon blue" ?

Angela

[Loiseau]

Is there any connection between the bleuet (flower) and the fact that the French WW1 uniform was "horizon blue" ?

Angela

[Missy]

[quote]Is there any connection between the bleuet (flower) and the fact that the French WW1 uniform was "horizon blue" ? Angela[/quote]

No the Bleuet came after the war.

The uniform was coloured so to blend 'in' the horizon.... Early camouflage technique....

Though I think the bleuet was chosen because of the bleu horizon colour of the uniform....

Which came first chicken or egg?....

[GRT17]

All is now revealed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

When I went into Google and spelt the word properly there was loads of information!

Angela and Missyesbut you are both right.

The Bleuet (flower) was chosen because of the colour of the uniform of the young soldiers, who were known as "Bleuets",

Note: I tried to put in a link here but my computing skills are not up to it

Gill

P.S. I shall now go away and write BLEUET 100 times for homework

 

[Loiseau]

QUOTE
...The uniform was coloured so to blend 'in' the horizon.... Early camouflage technique....

 

Only marginally better camouflage than the colour of French uniforms for the first months of the Great War: dark blue jacket and SCARLET trousers!

In fact at the excellent museum in the Centre Européen de la Paix/tourist office, near Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (62), there's a poignant quote from a French poem about a mass of "coquelicots" spread over the field that on closer inspection turns out to be the scarlet-trousered bodies of French soldiers...
(Anyone know the poem, by the way?  I'd like to read the whole thing.)

Angela

[Mochas]

A bit more info gleaned from Google:

Rimbaud was born in 1854 and died prematurely in 1891 aged only 37. Thus he couldn't have been referring to WW1 victims in his poetry. In fact, it was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 which inspired his poem.

This is a still from a film "Rimbaud Verlaine". I don't know how historically accurate it was but it shows Leonard di Caprio wearing a blue uniform, no red trousers there.

[Missy]

[quote]A bit more info gleaned from Google: Rimbaud was born in 1854 and died prematurely in 1891 aged only 37. Thus he couldn't have been referring to WW1 victims in his poetry. In fact, it was the Franco-...[/quote]

Yes! sorry about Rimbaud and my dates!... I realised my mistake once I had logged out...Silly me...but school was such a long time ago!....

Still... I remember every year that poem on Remembrance Sunday or on VE day.....

[Missy]

[quote]A bit more info gleaned from Google: Rimbaud was born in 1854 and died prematurely in 1891 aged only 37. Thus he couldn't have been referring to WW1 victims in his poetry. In fact, it was the Franco-...[/quote]

Also we can't see the still about the film you mention.... Well... I can't on my computer, it's just showing a little red cross.......

[Christine Animal]

Here’s Le Dormeur du val in French and with an English translation…

Le dormeur du val

C’est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D’argent; où le soleil de la montagne fière,
Luit; C’est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune bouche ouverte, tête nue,
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,
Dort; il est étendu dans l’herbe, sous la nue,
Pale dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme:
Nature, berce-le chaudement: il a froid.

Les parfums ne font plus frissonner sa narine;
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au coté droit

Here’s an English translation by Lisa Yannucci…

The Sleeper in the Valley

There’s a recess in the greenery, where the river sings
Tangling wildly in the tattered grass
Silvery; where the sun from the proud mountain
Glimmers; It’s a little valley that sparkles with light.

A young soldier, mouth open, head bare,
And nape bathing in the cool blue cresses
Sleeping; he’s spread out on the grass, under the clouds,
Pale on his green bed where the light rains down.

Feet in the gladiolas, he sleeps. Smiling like
A sick child would smile, he dozes.
Warmly lull him Nature, he’s cold.

The scents no longer make his nose quiver
He sleeps in the sun, hand on his chest
Tranquil, he has two red holes on his right side.

[Mochas]

Yes, Missbut, when I posted last night the picture showed up but now I've only got the red x as well...beats me, these techy things.

Incidentally, I've since found that the Rimbaud-Verlaine film the still came from was actually called Eclipse Totale so a bit more googling on that will no doubt make more shots available.