It looks a bit like a Punch and Judy show, doesn't it?
(see 3rd photo too) And so it is except
Guignol is the main character in this French puppet show which has come to bear his name.
I've cut and pasted the following long explanation for anyone interested in the fascinating history...
'Although often thought of as children's entertainment,
Guignol's sharp wit and linguistic verve have always been appreciated by adults as well, as shown by the motto of a prominent Lyon troupe: "
Guignol amuses children… and witty adults".
Laurent Mourguet, Guignol's creator, was born into a family of modest silk weavers on March 3, 1769. The certificate of his marriage to Jeanne Esterle in 1788 shows he was unable to read. When hard times fell on the silk trade during the French Revolution, he became a peddler, and in 1797 started to practice dentistry, which in those days was simply the pulling of teeth. The service was free; the money was made from the medicines sold afterward to ease the pain. To attract patients, he started setting up a puppet show in front of his dentist's chair.
His first shows featured
Polichinelle, a character borrowed from the Italian commedia dell'arte who in England would become Punch. By 1804 the success was such that he gave up dentistry altogether and became a professional puppeteer, creating his own scenarios drawing on the concerns of his working-class audience and improvising references to the news of the day. He developed characters closer to the daily lives of his
Lyon audience, first
Gnafron, a wine-loving cobbler, and in 1808
Guignol. Other characters, including
Guignol's wife
Madelon and the gendarme
Flagéolet soon followed, but these are never much more than foils for the two heroes.
Although nominally a silkweaver like much of his original audience,
Guignol's profession changes, as does his marital status; he can be in turn valet, peddler, carpenter, shoemaker, or unemployed; at times he is
Madelon's husband, at times her smitten beast according to requirements of the scenario. What remain constant are his poverty, but more importantly his good humor and his sense of justice. The use in French of "
guignol" as an insult meaning "buffoon" is a curious malapropism, as
Guignol is clever, courageous and generous; his inevitable victory is always the triumph of good over evil.
Sixteen of
Mourguet's children and grandchildren continued his tradition, and many of the companies performing today can trace their heritage back to him. According to the era, the region, or the performers,
Guignol's original caustic satire has often been watered down to simple children's fare, and has even been used to parody grand opera, but his original spirit still survives in his hometown of
Lyon, where both traditional and original contemporary performances are an integral part of local culture. In addition to his social satire,
Guignol has become an important protector of the local dialect, the
parler lyonnais.'
This is what happens when four young Scottish guys, passionate about the 1920s and 1930s lifestyle (the clothes, the music, etc) decide to drive from Glasgow to Monte Carlo in a very old Morris Minor. Their names: Rory, Eddy, Neilson and Andrew. They stopped off in Burgundy and, once they got to the south of France, stayed in the medieval village of Gorbio - (Neilson is the nephew of a friend of mine who lives in Gorbio village - the second photo shows them driving down her track).
