Puzoque Street

Marguerite Sagrini (1876-1969), born Faragou
Even today, whoever ventures along Puzoque Street by car is obliged to turn back: indeed, shortly after the dead end of the bell tower, the street “that goes down to the well” (this is its etymology) bends and suddenly becomes very narrow before reaching the square of La Roque. On the right a small vacant lot dominates the bank, even though the trees are now too big to see Longueville.

puzoque-Sagrini.jpg
Watercolour on paper.
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Until it was demolished or collapsed in the middle of the 20th century, a very old house stood on the left side of the land. In the previous century, it had been the property of the Lartigue family, then of the Brienne family. With its low section and stone side wall, two storeys of corbelled timber-framed walls, and an advanced roof to protect the façade from rainwater run-off, it was typical of Clairacan houses.

The Faragou family had hatters in their family, a profession that was widespread in Clairac. At the age of 45, Marguerite Faragou married Gabriel Sagrini (mayor of Bourran from 1929 to 1933), son of Charles Sagrini, piano teacher, and Marthe Larrat. This late marriage allows us to date her works, sometimes signed Marguerite Faragou, or MF, or Marguerite Sagrini after her marriage in Bordeaux in 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Sagrini lived in the former Poulard estate in Saint-Brice. Some former Clairacais still remember Mrs Sagrini coming to Clairac in her horse-drawn cart. In the 1960s, on the advice of Claude Martin, she gave the Departmental Archives of Agen many of the archives kept at Poulard, collected by Dr Larrat, the former mayor of Clairac. This “fonds Sagrini” is well known to all those who work on the history of our city.

Marguerite Sagrini possessed a real artistic talent and represented many of Clairac's picturesque viewpoints, often in watercolours, preserved in the Clairacais families.

We know of other depictions of this district of old Clairac:

puzoque-Les_Denis.jpg
a drawing by Henriette de Bellecombe,
a drawing by Henriette de Bellecombe,
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puzoque-Roller.jpg
a painting by one L. Roller,
a painting by one L. Roller,
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puzoque-Delpech.jpg
as well as a photograph of Jacques Delpech.
img_mag_puzoque-Delpech.jpg

The latter shows that the road, as is often the case in Clairac, was paved with pebbles from the Lot, forming an assembly that was probably very slippery on rainy days!