THE GIANT GOULAFFRE
On the town's square.
Towards the evening, they arrived in a town whose name I did not remember. They soon found themselves in a square, surrounded by houses on all sides, and where there were many walkers. Allanic began to play his straw torch, Fistilou, to dance, to frolic, and to throw his hat in the air, shouting: Yeh! yow! hoo! hoo! And people were running from all sides, they were crushing each other, and they were rushing to see them. The inhabitants of this city had never heard such music, nor seen such dance. Coins of two sols and even two reales rained down around them, and they made a magnificent profit, five or six crowns at least. The next day, they started again, and the profit was again excellent. They could not be happier.
But Fistilou then had an unfortunate idea. He thought that since he made so much money with a simple straw torch, if they had a violin they would make ten times as much. So they bought a violin, and Allanic began to scrape it in such a way as to scratch the least delicate ears. Nevermind! They found it charming and were sure it would be wonderful. They then went to another city to experiment with their new method. As soon as they arrived, they began to play and dance in a public square. But they were astonished to see that the inhabitants of this city, far from running towards them, were running away and covering their ears; and instead of coins of two sols and two reales, this time they only received insults and stones; so much so that they had to leave the city as quickly as possible.
"These people definitely don’t like beautiful music!" they said to themselves when they were sheltered from the stones. "We will have to return to straw reed."
Allanic cut a reed in the first field of rye they encountered, and they continued on their way, but less joyful than the day before, because already they no longer had a penny.
They soon found themselves in front of a castle surrounded by high walls.
"We must try again here the effect of our music and our dance", they said to themselves.
But they were at a loss to know how to get in. They could clearly see a door with a hammer, but the hammer was so high up that they could not reach it.
Source: Le Géant Goulaffre from the French book Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne published in 1891.
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
Allanic and Fistilou showed their crafts, music and dance, in one town and they were very successful.
Then, they tried to improve it, for no real reason, and they no longer had any success.
They did not follow the proverb: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Note that we still have not seen the Giant Goulaffre. Is he in this castle?
Today, we left Harrison Hot Springs and went back home to Coquitlam.
Three kilometers from my house in Harrison Hot Springs, we saw this iced cliff near the road.
My car is on the left in the picture.
Water is always coming from the mountain on this small cliff. As it has been freezing for several days now, the water has become ice.
This is nice to see when it is frozen.
The problem is that, when the temperature goes up, some chunks of ice will fall on the side of the road and even go into the middle of the road. Car drivers will then need to be very careful.
-- Vincent Celier