MARGERIDE, OF BROOM AND FIR
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| countryside of Margeride |
Yellow everywhere. The Margeride in the Spring is covered with blooming broom. Another feature is the large expanse of fir trees whose pointed silhouettes contrast starkly with the yellow and the green of the meadows. The altitude is around 1000 meters above sea levels, meaning snow and cold in winter. Summers are short-lived, not much grows in the garden, says the owner of the chambre d'hôte Les Genêts (the broom) in Saint Alban de Limagnole. He and his wife have decided to receive pilgrims in their home after having done bits of the Compostella pilgrimage over several years. They are now retired, their children are living somewhere else, so they have converted part of their house in rooms to let. They particularly like meeting pilgrims from different nationalities. Yesterday we had Korean ladies, he said, they were very polite (always thanking). As we arrived there, two German ladies made their entrance simultaneously. They had started walking in Munich and year after year progressed through Switzerland and France.
Saint Alban de Limagnole is not exactly what one would call picturesque, nothing like the many medieval villages we have traversed so far. However it is spread on a slope, giving it an ideal exposition to the sun and a view on the valley at its feet. It is known for the stay of Paul Eluard, during the second world war in 1943-1944, who was fleeing the German invasion of France. But more importantly, it has developed a long tradition in psychiatry. In 1821 Hilarion Tissot bought the castle of Saint Alban to treat mentally ill people. He ran out of cash and had to sell it three years later to the department of Lozère who funded further the operations of this psychiatric hospital. During the World War II, a doctor, called Henri Tosquelles, developed a new methodology called "institutional psychotherapy". He encouraged his patients to express themselves with art. Paul Eluard discussed that with Dubuffet who organized the transfer of the artworks, for preservation, to the museum of Art Brut in Lausanne where they are kept until today. Now the psychiatric center has expanded on top of the hill. The village is well alive with a few shops and restaurants, though some progressively close either because there is no one to take over from retiring shop owners or simply because competition from nearby supermarkets is unsustainable. The church of Saint Alban is of roman style. It is elegant and it feels good to sit inside.
We wanted to experience a grilled Aubrac beef rib so we booked ahead at a restaurant so we could make sure to have one the next day. It was memorable, though we were the only guests that night.
The weather was unstable, a passage of bright sun was followed by a stormy downpour and so on. But the sky was magnificent, filled with enormous clouds and at night the valley would fill up with fog. The morning we departed, the mist surrounded the whole town. It was fun to walk through a diffuse haze, feeling the sun rays light up the mist. We were ascending in a forest when suddenly the mist started thining. Actually some cows witnessed the same transition from a grey light to a bright colourful morning. They didn't move though, still busy at ruminating. They must simply have welcome the warmth of sun rays soaking in the vanishing fog. The path reached a colourful plateau full of freshly-cleaned blue sky, bright yellow flowers, green meadows and woods. The white and grey clouds contrasted with the rest. Birds sang and the water streams rustle added to the sensory landscape. This was another glorious morning!
We transitioned from Lozère to Haute-Loire, as advised by letters painted in the middle of the road to welcome the previous and upcoming Tour de France.
This led us to a special place called "Le Sauvage" more or less "The Wild Place" which stems from a forestry domain eight centuries old. At the time, there was only a small building, probably a stable in the middle of the forest. Le Sauvage was under the perview of monks belonging to the Templar order initially. It has always been a place where pilgrims would do a halt on their way to Compostella, sometimes stopping for longer periods to recover or work and earn money to fund their journey further. More recently, and a long story short, the department of Haute Loire bought the domain and opened a tender for ideas on how to best use it. A collective of local farmers came up with the current concept of a hostel for pilgrims to Compostella serving locally produced food by themselves. Over the centuries the simple house has expanded into a mighty farm. Coming to Le Sauvage is a pilgrimage in itself. Civilization stops at the gate of the forest which is a few kilometres away from the farm buildings. Wild horses have been introduced, one could see them grazing, in the vast meadow, by the water stream next to the farm. Aubrac cows are there too, curious as usual, but from a distance. They graze on the opposite side of the road that traverses the plain in the center of the domain and leads to the farm building. Two buildings have been repurposed into a hostel with dormitories and a larger one, formerly a stable, is now the restaurant where people have their meals on long wooden tables. Granite pillars are supporting the ceiling and everything else is padded with wood, which conveys a warm feeling to it, certainly welcome when one comes from the cold and the rain. Local food products served there are excellent. They are an invitation to let go and enjoy while it lasts. We arrived under the sun, a storm passed in the afternoon before letting a brilliant sunset close the day.
The next morning, the whole area was in the mist which dissipated in a hide and show manner, letting the mind explore all those ephemeral representations like a detective having hallucinations before stumbling on the unveiled truth when the mist was no longer there.
Another glorious morning was born. We traversed the forest of spruce and then made our way towards Saugues, known for its huge medieval tower called "Tour des Anglais". It was erected in the 13th century. It dominates the old city and stands next to the museum dedicated to the beast of Gévaudan. The story of the beast stems from the multiple killings of human, usually shepherds, by an animal reported to look like a giant wolf. There were over 200 attacks and slaughters of individual human being between 1764 and 1767. King Louis XV took the matter up and sent one of his best emissaries, called François Antoine, who killed a supersized wolf and brought it stuffed to Versailles. The mystery remains around the beast, how it could have been that big (60kg and 1.7m long apparently). It could have been the product of the mating of a wolf and another animal. The story is famous up to today because the beast roamed over the whole plateau of Margeride and killed so many isolated people.
After Saugues we crossed the river Allier in the village of Monistrol d'Allier where, in 1888, Gustav Eiffel engineered a metallic bridge to cross the steep river valley. A few years later, in 1909, the owner of a water mill implemented a power plant using the water of the nearby Ance river which powered his mill. Monistrol then became one of the first small villages to have access to electricity in France (electrification of rural areas happened progressively between the 1930s and 1950s). In 1946 the distribution of electricity was nationalised under EDF.
The last stop we did before le Puy en Velay was in a village called Saint Privat d'Allier, which is nested on a rocky promontory overlooking the valley of Allier. This village is now living nearly exclusively from the pilgrims staying there overnight which allows a grocery, a baker, a butcher and a few hostels to operate. Beyond that, farming is the other economic activity available. Saint Privat feels like a place where time has stopped 70 years ago.
The notion of rural desertification is very well illustrated here, old shops are for sale, so are village houses, very cheap, but buyers are rare. Supermarkets on the outskirts of midsize villages have also actively sucked up all prospects of running a small food shop sustainably in the center of a small village. One needs a car to survive out there. At the same time we could sense that some change was happening, young farmers or wine producers are adapting to new trends of bio production, with a focus on quality first and are also exploring new distribution channels.
The weather was unstable, a passage of bright sun was followed by a stormy downpour and so on. But the sky was magnificent, filled with enormous clouds and at night the valley would fill up with fog. The morning we departed, the mist surrounded the whole town. It was fun to walk through a diffuse haze, feeling the sun rays light up the mist. We were ascending in a forest when suddenly the mist started thining. Actually some cows witnessed the same transition from a grey light to a bright colourful morning. They didn't move though, still busy at ruminating. They must simply have welcome the warmth of sun rays soaking in the vanishing fog. The path reached a colourful plateau full of freshly-cleaned blue sky, bright yellow flowers, green meadows and woods. The white and grey clouds contrasted with the rest. Birds sang and the water streams rustle added to the sensory landscape. This was another glorious morning!
We transitioned from Lozère to Haute-Loire, as advised by letters painted in the middle of the road to welcome the previous and upcoming Tour de France.
This led us to a special place called "Le Sauvage" more or less "The Wild Place" which stems from a forestry domain eight centuries old. At the time, there was only a small building, probably a stable in the middle of the forest. Le Sauvage was under the perview of monks belonging to the Templar order initially. It has always been a place where pilgrims would do a halt on their way to Compostella, sometimes stopping for longer periods to recover or work and earn money to fund their journey further. More recently, and a long story short, the department of Haute Loire bought the domain and opened a tender for ideas on how to best use it. A collective of local farmers came up with the current concept of a hostel for pilgrims to Compostella serving locally produced food by themselves. Over the centuries the simple house has expanded into a mighty farm. Coming to Le Sauvage is a pilgrimage in itself. Civilization stops at the gate of the forest which is a few kilometres away from the farm buildings. Wild horses have been introduced, one could see them grazing, in the vast meadow, by the water stream next to the farm. Aubrac cows are there too, curious as usual, but from a distance. They graze on the opposite side of the road that traverses the plain in the center of the domain and leads to the farm building. Two buildings have been repurposed into a hostel with dormitories and a larger one, formerly a stable, is now the restaurant where people have their meals on long wooden tables. Granite pillars are supporting the ceiling and everything else is padded with wood, which conveys a warm feeling to it, certainly welcome when one comes from the cold and the rain. Local food products served there are excellent. They are an invitation to let go and enjoy while it lasts. We arrived under the sun, a storm passed in the afternoon before letting a brilliant sunset close the day.
The next morning, the whole area was in the mist which dissipated in a hide and show manner, letting the mind explore all those ephemeral representations like a detective having hallucinations before stumbling on the unveiled truth when the mist was no longer there.
Another glorious morning was born. We traversed the forest of spruce and then made our way towards Saugues, known for its huge medieval tower called "Tour des Anglais". It was erected in the 13th century. It dominates the old city and stands next to the museum dedicated to the beast of Gévaudan. The story of the beast stems from the multiple killings of human, usually shepherds, by an animal reported to look like a giant wolf. There were over 200 attacks and slaughters of individual human being between 1764 and 1767. King Louis XV took the matter up and sent one of his best emissaries, called François Antoine, who killed a supersized wolf and brought it stuffed to Versailles. The mystery remains around the beast, how it could have been that big (60kg and 1.7m long apparently). It could have been the product of the mating of a wolf and another animal. The story is famous up to today because the beast roamed over the whole plateau of Margeride and killed so many isolated people.
After Saugues we crossed the river Allier in the village of Monistrol d'Allier where, in 1888, Gustav Eiffel engineered a metallic bridge to cross the steep river valley. A few years later, in 1909, the owner of a water mill implemented a power plant using the water of the nearby Ance river which powered his mill. Monistrol then became one of the first small villages to have access to electricity in France (electrification of rural areas happened progressively between the 1930s and 1950s). In 1946 the distribution of electricity was nationalised under EDF.
The last stop we did before le Puy en Velay was in a village called Saint Privat d'Allier, which is nested on a rocky promontory overlooking the valley of Allier. This village is now living nearly exclusively from the pilgrims staying there overnight which allows a grocery, a baker, a butcher and a few hostels to operate. Beyond that, farming is the other economic activity available. Saint Privat feels like a place where time has stopped 70 years ago.
The notion of rural desertification is very well illustrated here, old shops are for sale, so are village houses, very cheap, but buyers are rare. Supermarkets on the outskirts of midsize villages have also actively sucked up all prospects of running a small food shop sustainably in the center of a small village. One needs a car to survive out there. At the same time we could sense that some change was happening, young farmers or wine producers are adapting to new trends of bio production, with a focus on quality first and are also exploring new distribution channels.
Our walk has taken us so far through less travelled paths and roads, away from human settlements during the day walking, with a few exceptions obviously, only to find signs of civilization in the evening. It was a discovery to find this amount of nature, of rurality, enabling the mind to expand outside of the quotidian world it has always contemplated.
Images:
1/ Margeride countryside
2/ Le Sauvage
3/ Saugues
4/ Saint Alban de Limagnole
5/ Saint Privat d'Allier
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| le Sauvage |
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| Saugues |
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| Saint Alban de Limagnole |
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| Saint Privat d'Allier |
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