{"id":1044,"date":"2016-03-25T19:19:27","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T23:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/contactprod.com\/invitationauvoyage\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2024-10-29T19:43:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T23:43:01","slug":"francois-bernadi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contactprod.com\/invitationauvoyage\/francois-bernadi\/","title":{"rendered":"BLUE PORTRAIT IN OBLONG FRAME"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0by Fran\u00e7ois Charles Bernadi<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"French
Fran\u00e7ois Honor\u00e9 Bernadi<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a long time, it was the only tattoo I knew. I had never seen one before and I would not see another for the next ten years.<\/p>\n

I would see it once a year when, for a day or two, we visited my grandfather. I looked forward to it.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Grandpa can you show me the tattoo?<\/p>\n

Smiling, with neither humility nor pride, he would proceed to take off his shirt to reveal on his arm the blue portrait of a sailor in an oblong frame. The faded ink under his old skin had blurred the image. The face was unrecognizable but I was sure it was him.<\/p>\n

It was not a beautiful tattoo but it was a real one, drawn by a minor artist in Japan. Where else does a sailor get a tattoo?<\/p>\n

He was amused by my curiosity. After all, that was its purpose, this strange souvenir from the far east. He did not show it off with an excess of pride because he knew it was a modest tattoo compared to those of other sailors he knew – beginning\u00a0 with his own father. I never knew my great-grandfather but I heard that his whole torso was decorated. His back was covered by a giant sailing ship complete with all its sails. Now that\u00a0was a mean sailor!<\/p>\n

\"Tattoo
Mean sailor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tattoo
Mean sailor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My grandfather was not a mean sailor and yet he had his share of sea adventures.<\/p>\n

He belonged to a long line of fishermen. His father had his own boat, the \u201cJaur\u00e8s\u201d. It had taken him sixteen years to pay for it.\u00a0His son would succeed him in leading a seven man crew. Every summer, their main catch was sardines and anchovies.<\/p>\n

In the winter the fishing stopped and the men would leave town. They would take the train to Marseille where they boarded the big merchant ships. There they began the long trip to Yokohama via the Suez Canal, with a stop in Shanghai. As souvenirs, they would bring back all kinds of porcelain, color prints, fans and of course tattoos. You had to take the trip and make it back to get those drawings on your skin. They were a mark of distinction. The diploma of a true sailor.<\/p>\n

\"Collioure
Fran\u00e7ois Honor\u00e9 Bernadi and his crew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, during the wars,\u00a0all the boys were automatically drafted into the navy because of their skills. This is how grandpa ended up at the battle of the Dardanelles during the First World War, a historic French Navy disaster that left its sailors stranded in abominable conditions.<\/p>\n

\"French
Fran\u00e7ois Honor\u00e9 Bernadi and his navy mates (wearing a British Royal Navy hat H.S.M. SPEEDY)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gallipoli Part I: Naval Attack on the Dardanelles<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n