Laguiole Knives
Cyrano de BergeracIn 2014 I spent some time in the Dordogne region of France and there – I presume it was in Bergerac, the city of Cyrano the Bergerac – I found this shop window full of Laguiole knives
The Laguiole Knife (French pronunciation: [laɡjɔl], locally [lajɔl]) is a high-quality traditional Occitan pocket-knife, originally produced in the “knife-city” of Thiers where 70% of the French cutting tool production comes from, and in the small village of Laguiole, both located in the Massif central region of France. “Laguiole” is neither a trademark nor a company name. Rather, the name “laguiole” became associated with a specific shape of a traditional knife common to this area.
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian and duelist.
A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the seventeenth century. Today he is best known as the inspiration for Edmond Rostand’s most noted drama Cyrano de Bergerac which, although it includes elements of his life, also contains invention and myth.
Since the 1970s, there has been a resurgence in the study of Cyrano, demonstrated in the abundance of theses, essays, articles and biographies published in France and elsewhere in recent decades.