French and Occitan Phrase Books Adopt The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Summary: French and Occitan phrase books adopt The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians in 14th-century southwest France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

La fête de Saint-Étienne (from French la fête de Saint Étienne, "the feast[-day] of Saint Stephen [from Greek στέφανος, “crown, wreath” via στέφω, “to surround” and Latin Stephanus]") and la fête de la transhumance (from French la fête de la transhumance, "the festival of the [summer-highland winter-lowland migration, from Latin trāns humus, “across, beyond ground”]") accept accolades accorded respectively in all ambiances and in country and small-population ambiances throughout Occitan-culture areas. City and country Occitanians appreciate St. Stephen (AD 5?-AD 33?/36?) December 26. Country Occitanians applaud summer transhumance festivals traditionally 50 days after Easter; "Saint Stephen," half-length depiction in 1476 tempera on poplar was created by 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli (ca. 1430-1495) as part of double-tiered polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) for small church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno in east Central Italy's Marche region, became known as Demidoff Altarpiece through ownership by Count Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato (Russian: Анатолий Николаевич Демидов; April 5 [OS March 24] 1813-April 29, 1870) from 1852 to 1866 and was purchased by London's National Gallery in 1868 (David Savage, "Crivelli," Cavallini to Veronese website): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

French and Occitan phrase books adopt The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians, affirmed as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”), in 14th-century southwest France.

The Mosse novel bears 14th-century Occitan and 20th-century French phrases and words respectively from 1328 and from 1928 and 1933 and from before the 20th century. It contains such common commerce as bistro-café (from Poitou-French bistingo, bistraud, bistro, bistrot, “lesser servant” or from north-French bistouille, bistrouille, “brandy-coffee” via French bistro, “tavern proprietor”). It domiciles not only bistro-café (from Arabic قهوة via Turkish kahve, Italian caffè, French café, “coffee, coffee-shop”) but also boucherie (from French boucher –erie, "butcher shop").

Commercial endeavors such as boulangerie (from French boulanger -erie, “baker shop”) and librairie (from Latin liber -ārius, “book-pertaining” via librāria, “book-holder” via French librairie, “bookstore”) emerge.

Other familiar commerce such as mercerie (from French mercier -erie, “textile-merchant shop”) and as patisserie (from French pâtisser -erie, “to make pastry shop”) figure there too.

General commerce guards pharmacie (from Greek φαρμακεύω, “to use drugs” via φαρμακεία and Latin pharmacia) and tabac (tobacconist, from Arabic طُبَّاق [Dittrichia viscosa]” via Spanish tabaco). Châteaux (from Latin castrum -lum, “little castle”), chez (“at”), côté soleil côté ombre (“coast sun shade”), quartier (“neighborhood”), salle à manger (“room to eat”) honor places. Flambeaux (from Latin flamma -ellus, “flame little”), patron (“boss”), sabot (from French savate, “wood shoe”) and vielle (medieval, stringed, violin-like hurdy-gurdy, from Occitan viola) invoke things.

French and Occitan phrase books and The Winter Ghosts jubilate apéritifs (from Latin aperītīvus, “opening”), la fête de la transhumance and la fête de Saint-Étienne.

Il y a quelqu’un (“Is anyone there?”), Salut! Quel temps! (“Hello! What weather!”), Messieurs, bonjour à vous (“Gentlemen, good day to you”) keep phrase-book keepers knowledgeable.

Je suis perdu (“I am lost”), Ma voiture est crevée (“My car is dead”), Là haut (“Up there”), Je comprends (“I understand”) leaves language-learners everyday-language learned. Une chambre pour ce soir seulement (“one room for this evening only”), Il n’y a personne pour vous aider (“There’s nobody to help you”) manages likewise. Viens ici (“Come here”), S’il vous plaît (“If it pleases you”), par ici (“over here”), Alors à ce soir (“Then until this evening”) nurture everyday conversations.

French and Occitan phrase books and The Winter Ghosts offer Je m’en vais (“I’m leaving”), Soyez le bienvenu (“Be welcome”), madame (“Ma’am”), monsieur (“Sir”), moitié-moitié (“half”).

First-positioned phrase “Lo vièlh Ivèrn ambe sa samba rasca” paraphrases as “Pitiful old winter has returned” poetically, as “The old winter with its limping dance” literally.

Second-queued “Ara es tornat dins los nòstres camins” qualifies as “Limping up and down our roads” poetically and “Now is come back in our paths” literally. The next-last, Occitan-language, third revelation that "Le nèu retrais una flassada blanca" renders itself, Anglicized poetically albeit still realistically, as “Spreading his white blanket of snow.” “E'l Cerç bronzís dins las brancas dels pins” Anglicized sequences lastly as “While the Cers wind cries in the branches of the pine trees” (Mosse:front matter).

The Winter Ghosts tenders French and Occitan phrase books Vous devez vous lever (“You must arise”), Voilà la voiture (“There’s the car”), na (“Ma’am), sènher (“Sir”).

Country Occitanians assemble traditionally 50 days after Easter for the first migration, la fête de la transhumance (from French la fête de la transhumance, "the festival of the [summer-highland winter-lowland migration, from Latin trāns humus, “across, beyond ground”]"), of two annual migrations of their grazing animals. The Occitanian region assimilates Ariège, Aude, Aveyron, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Hérault, Lot, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne departments of southern France; scan of 1930s postcard of "Cabane de berger sur les monts de Lozère" (shepherd's hut on Mont Lozère [Occitan: Mont Losera]): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

La fête de Saint-Étienne (from French la fête de Saint Étienne, "the feast[-day] of Saint Stephen [from Greek στέφανος, “crown, wreath” via στέφω, “to surround” and Latin Stephanus]") and la fête de la transhumance (from French la fête de la transhumance, "the festival of the [summer-highland winter-lowland migration, from Latin trāns humus, “across, beyond ground”]") accept accolades accorded respectively in all ambiances and in country and small-population ambiances throughout Occitan-culture areas. City and country Occitanians appreciate St. Stephen (AD 5?-AD 33?/36?) December 26. Country Occitanians applaud summer transhumance festivals traditionally 50 days after Easter; "Saint Stephen," half-length depiction in 1476 tempera on poplar was created by 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli (ca. 1430-1495) as part of double-tiered polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) for small church of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno in east Central Italy's Marche region, became known as Demidoff Altarpiece through ownership by Count Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato (Russian: Анатолий Николаевич Демидов; April 5 [OS March 24] 1813-April 29, 1870) from 1852 to 1866 and was purchased by London's National Gallery in 1868 (David Savage, "Crivelli," Cavallini to Veronese website): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St-stephen.jpg

Country Occitanians assemble traditionally 50 days after Easter for the first migration, la fête de la transhumance (from French la fête de la transhumance, "the festival of the [summer-highland winter-lowland migration, from Latin trāns humus, “across, beyond ground”]"), of two annual migrations of their grazing animals. The Occitanian region assimilates Ariège, Aude, Aveyron, Gard, Haute-Garonne, Gers, Hérault, Lot, Lozère, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne departments of southern France; scan of 1930s postcard of "Cabane de berger sur les monts de Lozère" (shepherd's hut on Mont Lozère [Occitan: Mont Losera]): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cabane_de_berger_sur_les_monts_de_Lozère.jpg

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 February 2024. "Kate Mosse Archives Cathar Country Cuisine in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/kate-mosse-archives-cathar-country.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 February 2024. "Animals Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/animals-are-allowed-lives-apart-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 February 2024. "Plants Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/plants-are-allowed-lives-apart-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 February 2024. "Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/brian-gallagher-adds-graphic-art-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.

Kate Mosse Archives Cathar Country Cuisine in The Winter Ghosts

Summary: Kate Mosse archives Cathar Country cuisine in The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus, from Greek κύναρα, “artichoke [Cynara scolymus]” and Latin cardus -unculus, “artichoke, wild thistle, -little”) members of the aster, composite, daisy, sunflower family Asteraceae (from Greek ἀστήρ, “star” via Latin astēr [Aster amellus, “European Michaelmas daisy”] and -āceae, “-like”), through their blanched, cloth-buried, honeyed flower-bud paste, act as dessert adored in Cathar-culture areas. The edible-flowered, the edible-stalked perennial addressed commonly as artichoke thistle and taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) agrees traditionally with Christmas fare, in such Cathar-diaspora areas as northern Italy and northern Spain; hand-colored illustration of "Cinara hortensis non aculeata, Ital. Carciofolo Gall. L' Artichaud" by Cesare Ubertini, botanical artist active in Rome ca. 1772-1793, and engraved by Maddalena Bouchard, botanical and ornithological plate engraver active in Rome ca. 1772-1793, in Nicolao Martellio, Hortus Romanus juxta systema Tournefortianum, tom. VII (MDCCLXXXIV [1784]), Tab. 78: Public Domain, via The New York Public Library Digital Collections

Kate Mosse archives Cathar Country cuisine in The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel about Good Christians, also acknowledged as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “the pure ones”), in 14th-century southwestern France.

Cathar believers belonged among those who bounteously built the Albi area on the river Tarn (from Latin Tarnis, “rapid, walled in”) from the 11th century onward. Their agricultural and their architectural commitments caused them to be considered among the ancient Albigensians (from Latin Albigenses and Occitan albigés, albigesas, “Albi [male, female] inhabitants”). The Albi area domiciled its earliest denizens during the Bronze Age years from 3000 BCE to 600 BCE and its Roman settlers from 51 BCE onward.

Places such as Tarascon and Toulouse entered in The Winter Ghost endure as essential enshriners of Cathar culture and perhaps therefore of Cathar drinks and eats.

The main figure, Frederick Watson, finds himself at Sainte-Étienne (from French Étienne, “Stephen [from Greek στέφανος, “crown, wreath” via στέφω, “to surround” and Latin Stephanus]") festivities.

The year 1928 gathers Saint-Stephen Day groups in Tarascon, Toulouse and Vicdessos even as Freddie somehow gets into Nulle (from French nul, “nobody”) year-1328 village gatherings. A 14th-century house has such healthy, heated vegetables as broad beans in oil and mashed turnips, hot cabbage and bacon soup and steaming herbs and leeks. It includes such inviting ingestibles as main-course chicken, mutton, salted pork, trout; and dessert-course cardoon-flower buds blanched, cloth-buried, honeyed into smooth paste and honey-textured, ugly-fruited medlar.

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse jubilates how Cathar Country cuisine journeyed judiciously through seven centuries despite what jeopardized that journey before and culminating in 1328.

Toulouse (from perhaps Gaulist, pre-Celtic predecessor to Irish tulach, “hill” via Occitanian Tolosa) commune and prefecture perhaps still keepsakes in 90-year-old Café Bibent Cathar-kindled protein-keeping recipes.

Le Bibent (from Latin bibent, “they will drink”) lodges among lunch fare filet mignon (from Latin fīlum, “thread” via French filet, “thin strip”; French mignon, “tender[loin]”). It memorializes Cathar Country drinks in its Bordeaux (from Occitanian Bordèu; Latin Burdigala; Gaulish Biturīges Uiuisci; Gaulish bitu rīges, “world kings” and Latin vīvere, “to live”). Red wine nourishes Nulle villagers and, especially as Bordeaux, those among whom Frederick Watson nestles in Ariège, Tarascon and Vicdessos December 1928 and Toulouse April 1933.

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse offers such non-original Cathar Country drinks as brandy, coffee, gin and red, sweet, thick cassis (from Hebrew קציעה, “cassia-incense tree”).

Culinary panoramas present such original Cathar Country potables as barley- and malt-ground chicory and aniseed (Pimpinella anisum) flavored, “foul” (Mosse:203) pastis (from Occitanian pastis, “mashed”) liqueur.

Salted, sliced ham with fresh butter and plum jam for toasted brown-grain or white-flour bread or warm rolls queue among breakfast-, lunch-, supper-like Cathar Country quintessentials. Ham or soup with hot bread; salted, sliced ham with fresh-buttered, plum-jammed rolls; steaming meat; jellies; moitié-moitié (from French moitié, “half”) gritty-breadlike crumble-cake recall Cathar refreshments. Cathar Occitania (from French langue d’oc, “language of yes”; Occitan òc, “yes”) sheltered neither éclair nor jésuite (from French éclair, “lightning”; jésuite, “Jesuit [hat-shaped)”) cream-stuffed sweets.

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse transmits Cathar Country culinary traditions in the Occitanian territory whose tough terrain threatened all temptations, all tendencies to tame it.

Honey-textured, ugly-fruited medlar (Mespilus germanica, from Greek μέσπιλον, "[Iranian, southeast European, southwest Asian] medlar" via Latin mespilum and germānica, "Germanic, Teutonic") members of the rose Rosaceae (from Greek ῥόδον, “rose (Rosa gallica, “French rose, Gallic rose, rose of Provins”]” via Latin rosa and -āceae, “-like”) family appear alongside cardoon flower-bud desserts in Cathar-culture areas. Cathar-culture and Cathar-diaspora areas likewise approve their arrangements in traditional fares during Christmas celebrations; illustration of "Néflier d'Allemagne. Mespilus germanica L." in Amédée Masclef, Atlas des plantes de France utiles, nuisibles et ornementales, Tome deuxième Planches 1 à 200 (1891), Pl. 109: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus, from Greek κύναρα, “artichoke [Cynara scolymus]” and Latin cardus -unculus, “artichoke, wild thistle, -little”) members of the aster, composite, daisy, sunflower family Asteraceae (from Greek ἀστήρ, “star” via Latin astēr [Aster amellus, “European Michaelmas daisy”] and -āceae, “-like”), through their blanched, cloth-buried, honeyed flower-bud paste, act as dessert adored in Cathar-culture areas. The edible-flowered, the edible-stalked perennial addressed commonly as artichoke thistle and taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) agrees traditionally with Christmas fare, in such Cathar-diaspora areas as northern Italy and northern Spain; hand-colored illustration of "Cinara hortensis non aculeata, Ital. Carciofolo Gall. L' Artichaud" by Cesare Ubertini, botanical artist active in Rome ca. 1772-1793, and engraved by Maddalena Bouchard, botanical and ornithological plate engraver active in Rome ca. 1772-1793, in Nicolao Martellio, Hortus Romanus juxta systema Tournefortianum, tom. VII (MDCCLXXXIV [1784]), Tab. 78: Public Domain, via The New York Public Library Digital Collections @ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-d825-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99; Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48586801; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cinara,_hortensis_non_aculeata_-_Carciofolo_-_L' Artichaud._(Cynara,_Artichoke)_(NYPL_b14444147-1130844).tiff

Honey-textured, ugly-fruited medlar (Mespilus germanica, from Greek μέσπιλον, "[Iranian, southeast European, southwest Asian] medlar" via Latin mespilum and germānica, "Germanic, Teutonic") members of the rose Rosaceae (from Greek ῥόδον, “rose (Rosa gallica, “French rose, Gallic rose, rose of Provins”]” via Latin rosa and -āceae, “-like”) family appear alongside cardoon flower-bud desserts in Cathar-culture areas. Cathar-culture and Cathar-diaspora areas likewise approve their arrangements in traditional fares during Christmas celebrations; illustration of "Néflier d'Allemagne. Mespilus germanica L." in Amédée Masclef, Atlas des plantes de France utiles, nuisibles et ornementales, Tome deuxième Planches 1 à 200 (1891), Pl. 109: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:109_Mespilus_germanica_L.jpg; Public Domain, via picryl @ https://picryl.com/media/109-mespilus-germanica-l-2be8b7; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International, via Real Jardín Botánico Biblioteca Digital @ https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/14309-redirection; Copyright Status Not provided. Contact Holding Institution to verify copyright status, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/75661

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 February 2024. "Animals Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/animals-are-allowed-lives-apart-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 February 2024. "Plants Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/plants-are-allowed-lives-apart-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 February 2024. "Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/brian-gallagher-adds-graphic-art-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.

Animals Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Summary: Animals are allowed lives apart from The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorous, from Latin turdus, "[Eurasian] fieldfare [Turdus pilaris], thrush"; and from Latin viscum, “mistletoe” and vorō, “to devour” via Latin viscivorus.) abides in the Languedoc (from French langues de òc, “languages of [south France-mannered] yes”) cultural areas with which Frederick Watson acquaints himself in 1928 and in 1933. That passerine, perching-bird family member acts as the only animal sentient addressed by completest common name in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; illustration of (2--lower) mistle thrush (Latin: Turdus viscivorus; French: grive draine, "La Drenne") with (1--upper) redwing (Latin: Turdus iliacus; French: grive mauvis, "Le Mauvis) in François-Nicolas Martinet, Histoire des oiseaux peints dans tous leurs aspects apparents et sensibles, ornée de planches coloriées, tome V (1796), numéro XIX: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Animals are allowed lives apart from The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction by Kate Mosse about Good Christians, also acknowledged as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”) in 14th-century southwestern France.

Cathar castles brought together in walled settlements, built as bigger cities or small villages, on flat land-surrounded low hills and on rugged mountain tops, Cathar believers. Les châteaux cathares (from French les châteaux cathares, “the castles cathar”) conserved wild animals and plants in woodlands close by bird- and livestock-friendly cultivated crop lands. Cathar dwellers developed difficult domains, daunting to dwellers northward, in Aguilar, Arques, Carcassone, Foix, Lastours-Cabaret, Minerve, Montségur, Narbonne, Peyrepertuse, Puilaurens, Puivert, Quéribus, Rennes-le-château, Termes and Villerouge-Termenès.

Cathar exponents equally expertly, sustainably, uniquely evolved exacting environments, execrated by their enemies ensconced northward, in Durfort, Fanjeaux, Laurac, Mas-Saintes-Puelles, Padern, Pieusse, Roquefixade, Saissac and Usson.

Cathar faithful found bears, foxes, rabbits, wild boars and wolves featured among woodland wildlife and foxes, rabbits and scrub birds figured among farm and field foragers.

Cathar-guided grounds guard blackbird (Turdus merula) and thrush members of Turdidae passerine, perching-bird family and robin (Erithacus rubecula) members of the Muscicapidae Old World flycatchers family. Frederick Watson, as Freddie, heads the historical fiction novel where he hails farm and field foragers and woodland wildlife by their common, not their scientific, names. He identifies by completest common name only the open-country, scrub-bird indicated as mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus), integrated taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778).

Farmland, field and woodland animals, whose expected natural lifespans only necessary food-gathering and textile- and tool-sourcing jeopardize, journey judiciously through The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Freddie knows how to keep apart similar Turdidae (from Latin turdus, “fetty/fettyfare/fieldfare/[Eurasian] large thrush [Turdus pilaris]”; Latin -idæ from Greek -ειδής/εἶδος, “-resembling/resemblance”) calls, cries and songs.

His listening for animal-sentient life in 14th- and 20th-century Cathar-legacied lands leads him to barking dogs and bleating sheep living long in Languedoc, not Languedoïl, lands. He mentions Languedoc (from French langues de òc, “languages of [south France-mannered] yes”), not Languedoïl (from French langues de oïl, “languages of [north France-mannered] yes”), animals. He never directly names bees or cows or fish or goats or pigs even as he notes edible products from such insects, such livestock, such seafood.

Female poultry and male poultry offer edible chicken meat obtained by village occupants in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse even as Freddie only observes hens.

We presume the Languedoc presence of honey bees (Apis mellifera) even as female workers produce from plant nectar and pollen Languedoc honey perfect for Saint-Étienne preparations.

Livestock such as cows and goats, quested for butter, and pigs, quested for bacon, salted ham and pork, queue alongside the sheep quested for edible mutton. Freddie runs across no cows even as young bulls or one-plus-year-old uncalved females realize Bibent restaurant filet mignon (from French fil -et, “thread-let” and mignon, "tender[loin]"). Trout served with chicken, mutton and salted pork suggests carnivorous, freshwater, ray-finned Salmonidae (from Latin salmō -idæ [from Greek -ειδής/εἶδος] -appearing/appearance”) family lake-, river-, wetland-swimming membership.

Farm, field, woodland animals as edible bacon, beef tenderloin, butter, chicken, ham, honey, mutton, pork and trout turn The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse traditionally tasty.

Café Bibent (from Latin bibent, "they drink") in Toulouse (from Latin Tolōsa, perhaps from Irish Gaelic tulach, "hill") ambiances of Cathar (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”) cultural areas addresses no Cathar-affiliated appetites anciently archived in area farms and villages. Its audience, such as Frederick Watson in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, applauds its appetizing filet mignon (from French fil -et, “thread-let” and mignon, "tender[loin]"); postcard of Café Bibent, ca. 1907, 5 place du Capitole, Toulouse, published by Toulouse-based Éditions Labouche frères, founded in 1848: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorous, from Latin turdus, "[Eurasian] fieldfare [Turdus pilaris], thrush"; and from Latin viscum, “mistletoe” and vorō, “to devour” via Latin viscivorus.) abides in the Languedoc (from French langues de òc, “languages of [south France-mannered] yes”) cultural areas with which Frederick Watson acquaints himself in 1928 and in 1933. That passerine, perching-bird family member acts as the only animal sentient addressed by completest common name in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; illustration of (2--lower) mistle thrush (Latin: Turdus viscivorus; French: grive draine, "La Drenne") with (1--upper) redwing (Latin: Turdus iliacus; French: grive mauvis, "Le Mauvis) in François-Nicolas Martinet, Histoire des oiseaux peints dans tous leurs aspects apparents et sensibles, ornée de planches coloriées, tome V (1796), numéro XIX: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:François-Nicolas_Martinet_-_Histoire_des_oiseaux_-_V_-_grive_mauvis_et_grive_draine.jpg; Public Domain, via BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) Gallica @ https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8454704r.texteImage

Café Bibent (from Latin bibent, "they drink") in Toulouse (from Latin Tolōsa, perhaps from Irish Gaelic tulach, "hill") ambiances of Cathar (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”) cultural areas addresses no Cathar-affiliated appetites anciently archived in area farms and villages. Its audience, such as Frederick Watson in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, applauds its appetizing filet mignon (from French fil -et, “thread-let” and mignon, "tender[loin]"); postcard of Café Bibent, ca. 1907, 5 place du Capitole, Toulouse, published by Toulouse-based Éditions Labouche frères, founded in 1848: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P548-394.jpg

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 February 2024. "Plants Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/plants-are-allowed-lives-apart-from.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 February 2024. "Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/brian-gallagher-adds-graphic-art-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.

Plants Are Allowed Lives Apart From The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Summary: Plants are allowed lives apart from The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Blue-flowering flax (Linum narbonense) always adds beautiful blue to Ax, Foix, Tarason and Toulouse areas of southwest France; illustration in blue-flowering flax, also known as French flax (Linum narbonense), drawn and engraved from living specimen by English engraver and botanical illustrator William Clark in Richard Morris, Flora Conspicua (1826), Plate 14: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Plants are allowed lives apart from The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians, acknowledged as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”), in 14th-century southwest France.

Les châteaux cathares (from French les châteaux cathares, “the castles cathar”) bore wild plants in hilly, mountaintop woodlands bordered by bird- and livestock-bearing cultivated crop lands. Ax-, Foix-, Tarascon-, Toulouse-area farms contain as comestible-product woody plants olive trees (Olea europaea) even as cuisine-caused cultivation and cultivation-caused cuisine perhaps configure other comestible-product trees. They perhaps domicile respectively cassis drink-, coffee drink-, dessert-, jam-delivering blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum), coffee (Coffea arabica), medlar (Mespilus germanica) and plum (Prunus brigantina, Prunus domestica) trees.

Farm, field, woodland expanses entertain black- and silver-marked silver birch (Betula pendula), box (Buxus sempervirens), fir (Abies spp), laurel (Prunus nobilis?) and oak (Quercus spp) trees.

Ax-, Foix-, Tarascon-, Toulouse-area farms, fields, woodlands feature native purple-leaved copper beech (Fagus sylvatica purpurea), native silver-barked plane (Platanus orientalis), non-native black pine (Pinus thunbergii) trees.

T

Cathar-guided grounds perhaps guard non-native rattan palm (Calamus rotang) for cane seats that native reed (Poales order) and willow (Salix spp) generate as cane-like wickered weaving. They have white wine-honing green, red wine-honing red grapevines (Vitis sylvestris, V. vinifera) even as they perhaps house champagne-honing Chardonnay, Meunier, Pinot noir varieties (V. vinifera). They include aniseed (Pimpinella anisum) for pastis (from Occitan pastis, “mashed”) liqueur-making and barley (Hordeum vulgare) for bread- and cake-making and for malt-grinding chicory (Cichorium intybus).

Barley and wheat (Triticum spp) plants journey as respective brown-grained and white-floured ingredients in breakfast breads and crumbled cakes in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Broom (Genisteae tribe) non-woody and woody plants perhaps kindle pickled or raw flower-bud and flower salads even as cigarettes perhaps kindle keeping tobacco (Nicotiana spp) plants.

Dyed cotton, albeit blue not broom plant-died yellow, perhaps links to non-native cotton (Gossypium arboretum?) plants lodged in Ax-, Foix-, Tarascon-, Toulouse-area farm and field lands. Broom plants perhaps manage ornamentally as landscape architecture alongside ground-maintaining mosses (Bryophyta division) and tree trunk-maintaining lichens (crustose, foliose, fruticose partners of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota fungi). They number among the yellow niches that nudge other meadow- and woodland-flowering non-woody plants that nestle among the deep green notes of farm-, field-, mountain-healthy grasses.

Cathar culture-organized Ax-, Foix-, Tarascon-, Toulouse-area farms, fields, woodlands offer flowering plants and green grasses soil food web-optimized occupancies in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Farmed places possess as green, green-white plants beans, cabbages and leeks even as permanent fields present as brown plants rushes and green plants grasses and reeds.

Some poppies (Papaver spp) qualify as auburn red-flowering plants even as all sunflowers (Helianthus spp) quarter brown like rushes, green like grasses and yellow like broom. Regional plants regale their rural residences with rosy realizations as pink roses even as they reward them with pink and white results with their flowering geraniums. Blue and pink shades settle in as soon as meadow plants send forth their flowers even as mountain plants show off blue, pink and yellow flowers.

Blue-flowering flax plants in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse, copper beeches-, jack pines-, planetrees-, silver birches-like through thoroughest common name, transmit their taxonomy, Linum narbonense.

Blue-flowering flax (Linum narbonense) aestheticizes as a blue beauty Cathar culture-archived areas of southwest France; illustration of blue-flowering flax, also known as Narbonne flax (Linum narbonense), drawn by Margaret Lace Roscoe and engraved by Robert Havell Jr., in Mrs. Edward Roscoe, Floral Illustrations of the Seasons (1831); Plate 32: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

Blue-flowering flax (Linum narbonense) always adds beautiful blue to Ax, Foix, Tarason and Toulouse areas of southwest France; illustration in blue-flowering flax, also known as French flax (Linum narbonense), drawn and engraved from living specimen by English engraver and botanical illustrator William Clark in Richard Morris, Flora Conspicua (1826), Plate 14: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/6046338205; Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7372062; CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flora_conspicua_(Pl._14)_(6046338205).jpg

Blue-flowering flax (Linum narbonense) aestheticizes as a blue beauty Cathar culture-archived areas of southwest France; illustration of blue-flowering flax, also known as Narbonne flax (Linum narbonense), drawn by Margaret Lace Roscoe and engraved by Robert Havell Jr., in Mrs. Edward Roscoe, Floral Illustrations of the Seasons (1831); Plate 32: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/6049530564/; Not in cop,right, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7436338; CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Floral_illustrations_of_the_seasons_(Plate_32)_(6049530564).jpg

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 February 2024. "Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/02/brian-gallagher-adds-graphic-art-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.

Brian Gallagher Adds Graphic Art to The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Summary: Brian Gallagher adds graphic art to The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss acknowledges how war-time actions by the Royal Sussex Regiment, with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ("Ashamed be who evil there thinks"), affect central character Frederick Watson emotionally and psychologically in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, 14:12, image of "Colour-faded emblem on the Drill Hall built 1914," Down Road, Bexhill-On-Sea, Rother District, East Sussex, South East England: Alexis Markwick (Dr-Mx), Public Domain CC0 1.0 Universal, via Wikimedia Commons

Brian Gallagher adds graphic art to The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel by Kate Mosse about Good Christians, acknowledged as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”), in 14th-century southwest France.

The novel based in and near the French Pyrenees (from Greek Πῡρήνη, “fruit-stone” to Latin Pȳrēnaeī to French Pyrénées) begins with a map bearing Cathar-befriending birthplaces. The chapter La Rue des Pénitents Gris (“The street of the gray repentants”) configures the Saurat bookstore where central character Frederick Watson comprehends a cryptic communication. The chapter Tarascon-sur-Ariège depicts the Austin driven by Frederick Watson to an on-street parking space just before where one village road divides into a Y-delineated intersection.

The chapter The Storm Hits exposes that Austin endangered by a mountain-road blizzard and entombing Frederick Watson until the latter exits for Nulle village December 26.

The chapter The Path Through the Woods furnishes frighteningly dark trees, many with roots heaving maple- (Acer spp-) like, over which Frederick Watson somehow never falls.

The chapter The Village of Nulle guards Place de l’Église (“Square of the church”), with its tabac (tobacconist) with a steepled building and two winter-bare trees. The chapter Chez les Galy (“At the Galy[‘s, from Occitan gal, "rooster"]") has a bedroom whose blanketed bed heats Frederick Watson from his horrible-weather, mountain hike. The chapter The Man in the Mirror invokes the inn clock, whose indication of 10:00 p.m. informs Frederick Watson of his Saint-Étienne (“Saint Stephen [Day]”) invitation.

The chapter La Fête de Saint-Étienne (“The feast of St. Stephen”) joins imaged chapters jubilating graphic art with words in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

The chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss keepsakes the Royal Sussex Regiment emblem with Honi soit qui mal y pense (“Ashamed be who thinks evil there”).

The chapter Under Attack leads Frederick Watson, with Fabrissa, to the town-hall door to the tunnel lying under Ostal (from Latin hospitāle, “inn” to Occitan ostal). The chapter The Yellow Cross manifests the tunnel that mounts ever steadily to its meeting with the outside world whose monitors murder those with second yellow crosses. The chapter Exodus niches a bridge near a mountain village in which nestles a lone church steeple even as Cathar-nurtured villagers need non-partisanly spirit-nourishing nooks elsewhere.

The chapter At the Break of Day offers gray-green forests snow-peaked Roc de Sédour under a big, risen sun in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

The chapter The Breillac Brothers presents a blackbird (Turdus merula) poised on a flower-, foliage-, fruit-less branch even as Frederick Watson possibilitizes a robin (Erithacus rubecula).

The chapter An Idea Takes Hold queues the Baedeker (“travel-guide maker”) tourist book with its map quartering Miglos (from Occitan Miglòs, “[temple-god] Mercury”) and Nulle (“nobody”). The chapter The Cave Discovered reveals the mountain plateau and ridge, near gray-green trees and with the entrance still retained despite six centuries of rough weather. The chapter Bones and Shadows and Dust shelters the coarse-woven, rough-textured parchment that Frederick Watson shows to Librairie Saurat (“bookstore smoke”) staff specialized in Occitan script.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Return to La Rue des Pénitents Gris transmits Saurat bookstore interiors in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher affirms, for the chapters Tarascon-sur-Ariège and The Storm Hits, how automobiling in a yellow Austin Seven November and December 1928 agrees with the mountain-air agenda to which his doctor alerts central character Frederick Watson to alleviate personal and professional anxieties. The years 1920 to 1939 announce automobile production of the Austin Seven; Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009, 12:00, image of yellow 1928 Austin 7 at Classic Car Show, Trentham Gardens, Trentham Estate, village of Trentham, southern Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, West Midlands, west central England: 111 Emergency from New Zealand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher for the chapter Stories of Remembrance and Loss acknowledges how war-time actions by the Royal Sussex Regiment, with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ("Ashamed be who evil there thinks"), affect central character Frederick Watson emotionally and psychologically in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse; Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, 14:12, image of "Colour-faded emblem on the Drill Hall built 1914," Down Road, Bexhill-On-Sea, Rother District, East Sussex, South East England: Alexis Markwick (Dr-Mx), Public Domain CC0 1.0 Universal, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Sussex_Regiment_emblem,_Drill_Hall,_Down_Road,_Bexhill.jpg

Graphic art by Brian Gallagher affirms, for the chapters Tarascon-sur-Ariège and The Storm Hits, how automobiling in a yellow Austin Seven November and December 1928 agrees with the mountain-air agenda to which his doctor alerts central character Frederick Watson to alleviate personal and professional anxieties. The years 1920 to 1939 announce automobile production of the Austin Seven; Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009, 12:00, image of yellow 1928 Austin 7 at Classic Car Show, Trentham Gardens, Trentham Estate, village of Trentham, southern Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, West Midlands, west central England: 111 Emergency from New Zealand, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Classic_Car_Day_-_Trentham_-_15_Feb_2009_-_Flickr_-_111_Emergency_(53).jpg

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-adds-fictitious-place-to.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.

Kate Mosse Adds A Fictitious Place to Real Places in The Winter Ghosts

Summary: Kate Mosse adds a fictitious place to real places in The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel about Good Christians in 14th-century southwestern France.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Languedoc ("language of [Occitan oc for] yes") accommodates one fictitious place, Nulle village, and quite a few real places in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. Graphic art by Brian Gallagher accommodates the fictitious Nulle and real places, such as la Tour du Castella in the chapter Tarascon-sur-Ariège. That chapter acknowledges other real places addressed by central character Frederick Watson with its Montebello 1915 champagne bottle and glass.; 1747 map of Languedoc: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kate Mosse adds a fictitious place to real places in The Winter Ghosts, historical fiction novel about Good Christians, as Albigensians and Cathars (from Greek καθαροί, “pure ones”), in 14th-century southwestern France.

Front pages bear south, east, west of Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, as first-broached places Ax, Foix, Tarascon eastward from Ariège river and fictitious Nulle, real Toulouse westward. Toulouse configures Place du Capitole (“Square of the Capitol”), rue des Pénitents Gris (“Street of the Repentant Grays”) and rue du Taur (“Street of the Bull”). Pink-bricked Toulouse domiciles cathedral of Saint-Sernin (“Saint Saturnin [died 257]”), fictitious Librairie Saurat (“bookstore smoke”) and ruelles (“streetlets”) northwest of Tarascon (“dragon”) in Pyrenees (“fruit-stone”) foothills.

Tarascon entertains Avenue de Foix (“Avenue of Fox”); boulangerie (“bakery”), café, Grand Hôtel de la Poste, mercerie (“haberdashery”), pâtisserie (“pastry-shop”) businesses; and Pont Vieux (“bridge old”).

Quai de l’Ariège (“wharf of the gold-bearing [river]”) figures before quartier Mazel-Viel (“neighborhood slaughterhouse old”), cloche-mur (“bell tower-wall”) and place des Consuls (“Square of the Consuls”).

La Tour du Castella (“the Tower of the Fortress”) guides Frederick Watson to quartier Saint-Roch (“neighborhood of Saint-Rock” [1295?/1348?-Aug. 15/16, 1327?/1376?/1379?) and Château Piquemal (“castle proud-one?”). Saint-Rock neighborhood houses quartier de la Gare (“neighborhood of the train-station”) even as Faubourg Sainte-Quitterie (“outside-town Saint-Red-One”) has bar crowds whose future focus heads Freddie Vicdessos-ward. Saint-Rock neighborhood houses quartier de la Gare (“neighborhood of the train-station”) even as Faubourg Sainte-Quitterie (“outside-town Saint-Red-One”) has bar crowds whose future focus heads Freddie Vicdessos-ward.

Kate Mosse in The Winter Ghosts joins fictitious place Nulle (“nobody”), with place de l’Église, bistro-café, pharmacie, tabac, and such real places as Vicdessos (“village above”).

Telegraphlessness kindles message-carrying keeping hotel M & Mme Galy (“Mr. and Mrs. Rooster”) boarders in Vicdessos knowing about Ax-les Thermes (“water-the hot springs”) and vice versa.

The place de l’Église leads, for la fête de Saint-Étienne (“the feast of Saint-Stephen” [AD 5-34]), to Nulle Ostal (“townhall”), whose below-ground tunnel leads westward outside. Real Montaillou (“mount of the springs”?), southward of Loire Valley (“sediment, silt”), mandates one-day move from fictitious Nulle and to real Pamiers (“latest, nestling, youngest”?). Eastward from Nulle village the Pyrenean foothills niche the Lombrives (“shadowy”) and the Niaux (“snow”?) caves, from which Fabrissa and Frederick Watson note Roc de Sédour.

Two paths overlap on Nulle-area westward ledging, observable from an eastward dewpond and orientable to caves offering Cathars sanctuary, in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse.

Miglòs (“country of fox[es]”?), as a place that perseveres amid mining-punished mountainsides, preserves no path to the cave that provides Frederick Watson an ancient OccItan parchment.

Vicdessos valley quarters such villages as the real Allat, Capoulet-et-Junac and Lapège even as it queues between the fictitious Nulle village and the real Foix hospital. No caves relieved Flanders’ Passchendaele, Ypres; France’s Arras, Loos, Somme; France’s Boar’s Head Hill, Ferme du Bois, Richebourg-l’Avoué; France’s Le Vernet; France’s Pas-de-Calais, upper-Loire Valley, Verdun. Subverted sanctuary saddens Freddie sheltering Chichester Cathedral, East Dean, Eastgate Square, Fortnum & Mason’s, Lavant, London East End, Lyric Theatre, Midhurst, Piccadilly, Savile Row, Sussex souvenirs.

The fictitious place Nulle tells for 14th-century real places, still 20th-century real 600 years later, the true tragedy that Kate Mosse transmits in The Winter Ghosts.

Lombrives, Niaux and Sabart caves affirm themselves as allied within an ancient cave system even as only Lombrives and Niaux caves allow back-and-forth access to one another since ancient times. Ancient human access never allowed anything antagonistic to that access even as The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse memorializes what amounted to fatal antagonism to Cathar access in the 14th century; Brno Museum's replica of bisons from the Black Hall (Salon noir) of the Niaux cave: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Languedoc ("language of [Occitan oc for] yes") accommodates one fictitious place, Nulle village, and quite a few real places in The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse. Graphic art by Brian Gallagher accommodates the fictitious Nulle and real places, such as la Tour du Castella in the chapter Tarascon-sur-Ariège. That chapter acknowledges other real places addressed by central character Frederick Watson with its Montebello 1915 champagne bottle and glass.; 1747 map of Languedoc: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1747_La_Feuille_Map_of_Languedoc,_France_-_Geographicus_-_Languedoc-lafeuille-1747.jpg

Lombrives, Niaux and Sabart caves affirm themselves as allied within an ancient cave system even as only Lombrives and Niaux caves allow back-and-forth access to one another since ancient times. Ancient human access never allowed anything antagonistic to that access even as The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse memorializes what amounted to fatal antagonism to Cathar access in the 14th century; Brno Museum's replica of bisons from the Black Hall (Salon noir) of the Niaux cave: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niaux,_bisons.JPG

For further information:

Dictionnaire de l’Occitan Médiéval. DOM en ligne. Munich, Germany: Bavarian Academy of Sciences..
Available @ https://dom-en-ligne.de/dom.php?lhid=4dqN83calp4xbiz5Nsx8Wu

Lepage, Denis. 2024. Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World France.” Avibase – The World Bird Database > Checklists > Avibase – Bird Checklists of the World > Europe > France.
Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=FR

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 January 2024. "Kate Mosse Assembles Fictitious and Real People in The Winter Ghosts." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/kate-mosse-assembles-fictitious-and.html

Mosse, Kate. October 2009. The Winter Ghosts. London UK: Orion Publishing Group.