SAINT JEAN DU GARD
 |
| summer is here |
We were approaching Saint Jean du Gard walking along the Gardon. I was imagining coming into a small town, rather than a village. However the shores of the Gardon kept stubbornly green. We saw, of course, a few houses with their garden, but nothing that looked like an urban center. Then we saw an old stone bridge crossing the river and the tower of a church or a temple. That was it! The rest was hidden by the foliage of trees planted or grown by themselves on the river front. Once at the first bridge, we saw another one more recent, which was actually near the train station. The reason why the city has kept its distance with the river is that the river's flow can fluctuate rapidly with storms and melting snow, as it collects waters from the surrounding hills.
Silk is what made Saint Jean du Gard a larger town in the 19th century. Actually the South of the Cévennes developed silk production after the importation from Asia, in the sixteenth century, of eggs from silkworms. Back then agriculture was the main leg of the economy. But silk is what brought prosperity to Saint Jean du Gard, that is to say until the second half of the nineteenth century when a disease, called epizootic disease, killed most of the voracious worms that wave a silk thread of nearly a kilometre long into a cocoon to protect their metamorphosis into a moth which will pierce the cocoon to fulfill its short reproductive life. Males have no time to waist, they need to find a female (possibly more than one) to fertilize so that she can lay eggs on tree leaves to perpetuate the cycle of life and fulfill her mission in life. Worms will come to this world with a solid appetite to continue the story.
A large number of people, as many as three hundred thousand in the whole region, used to buy silkworm eggs, whether they lived in a farm or in the city (provided they had a spare room for fattening the warms by feeding them with mulberry leaves). The eggs develop at a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. It takes about a month for the eggs to be hatched, then the newborn worms are fed with mulberry leaves until they start weaving their cocoon at the end of the second month.
Cocoons were bought wholesale by industrial players with a factory to transform the cocoons into silk threads that could be used for garments. One such silk threading factory has been converted into the Maison Rouge museum which focuses on the history and economics of the Cévennes. There is a complete room with machines that were used to process silk cocoons into silk threads. Women worked at the factory, they had full-board there. An extract of the working rules was exhibited and specified that workers were to get up quite early, open their beds and windows for aeration. Wash briefly with cold water. Work for a couple of hours. During the break, they should go and tidy-up their beds. The other part I recall was the things that were prohibited such as spending the night in town. Visits to town should be strictly limited to the absolute minimum.
Another section of the museum was covering the history of the Protestants and how the repression of their cult restarted under Louis the XIVth who repealed the Edit de Nantes in 1685. This meant that the Protestant cult was outlawed and its followers liable of prison and forced labour. It also triggered the destruction of many Temples in the region. Soldiers from the King were sent to families with the duty to convert those who agreed to or deport the others. It led to a large stream of emigration of Protestants abroad, to friendlier places. It also led to the radicalisation of several underground priests who preached violence to fight against the outlawed status of the Protestants. These Priests were known as "Prophets" in relation to the Hebrews looking for the Promised Land during 40 years in the Sinaï desert. From there derives also the term Desert which is used to refer to the Protestantism in the Cévennes because people associated themselves with the suffering tribes in the Bible.
A rebel movement, known as Camisards started a guerrilla against the State and its armed forces.
In 1787 Louis the XVIth did promulgate the law of tolerance towards the Protestants in the Cévennes, which granted them the right of Indigen-ness, meaning that wedding and children birth among Protestants could be acknowledged by the French State.
In 1789, many Protestants supported the French Revolution because it was a way to get rid of the system that was oppressing them. This translates, in the Human Rights Declaration of 26th August 1789, into a mention that the State cannot go after a citizen because of his religious beliefs, in other words granting religious freedom.
In 1802, Napoleon the 1st incorporated the Protestant cult under the supervision of the State, similarly to the Catholic one. At this time where it was now allowed to be a Protestant in the Cévennes, the Protestants decided to split into two schools of thoughts : evangelical (very active practice of a cult sticking to the original version) and liberal (on-boarding rationalist value from the Lumières).
Nowadays most villages in the Cévennes have a Church and a Temple.
A large number of people, as many as three hundred thousand in the whole region, used to buy silkworm eggs, whether they lived in a farm or in the city (provided they had a spare room for fattening the warms by feeding them with mulberry leaves). The eggs develop at a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. It takes about a month for the eggs to be hatched, then the newborn worms are fed with mulberry leaves until they start weaving their cocoon at the end of the second month.
Cocoons were bought wholesale by industrial players with a factory to transform the cocoons into silk threads that could be used for garments. One such silk threading factory has been converted into the Maison Rouge museum which focuses on the history and economics of the Cévennes. There is a complete room with machines that were used to process silk cocoons into silk threads. Women worked at the factory, they had full-board there. An extract of the working rules was exhibited and specified that workers were to get up quite early, open their beds and windows for aeration. Wash briefly with cold water. Work for a couple of hours. During the break, they should go and tidy-up their beds. The other part I recall was the things that were prohibited such as spending the night in town. Visits to town should be strictly limited to the absolute minimum.
Another section of the museum was covering the history of the Protestants and how the repression of their cult restarted under Louis the XIVth who repealed the Edit de Nantes in 1685. This meant that the Protestant cult was outlawed and its followers liable of prison and forced labour. It also triggered the destruction of many Temples in the region. Soldiers from the King were sent to families with the duty to convert those who agreed to or deport the others. It led to a large stream of emigration of Protestants abroad, to friendlier places. It also led to the radicalisation of several underground priests who preached violence to fight against the outlawed status of the Protestants. These Priests were known as "Prophets" in relation to the Hebrews looking for the Promised Land during 40 years in the Sinaï desert. From there derives also the term Desert which is used to refer to the Protestantism in the Cévennes because people associated themselves with the suffering tribes in the Bible.
A rebel movement, known as Camisards started a guerrilla against the State and its armed forces.
In 1787 Louis the XVIth did promulgate the law of tolerance towards the Protestants in the Cévennes, which granted them the right of Indigen-ness, meaning that wedding and children birth among Protestants could be acknowledged by the French State.
In 1789, many Protestants supported the French Revolution because it was a way to get rid of the system that was oppressing them. This translates, in the Human Rights Declaration of 26th August 1789, into a mention that the State cannot go after a citizen because of his religious beliefs, in other words granting religious freedom.
In 1802, Napoleon the 1st incorporated the Protestant cult under the supervision of the State, similarly to the Catholic one. At this time where it was now allowed to be a Protestant in the Cévennes, the Protestants decided to split into two schools of thoughts : evangelical (very active practice of a cult sticking to the original version) and liberal (on-boarding rationalist value from the Lumières).
Nowadays most villages in the Cévennes have a Church and a Temple.
Saint Jean du Gard is benefiting a lot from tourism judging by the number of restaurants present in town. The friendly climate is like a magnet for holiday makers in South of France. A lot of sun, a lot of heat, the beautiful setting of the Gardon river and its valley surrounded by fragrant hills. The perfect place for campers and bungalow-lovers, but also for those who can afford to rent or own a house in the region. Twice a week there is a market that spreads throughout the town. There is a food section which is fairly modest (fruits and vegetables, cheese, meat and cold cuts, olives and derivatives, that's pretty much it, in any case there is everything one needs for a picnic) compared with the sellers of summer clothes, cheap jewellery, souvenirs etc... This is essentially a tourist attraction which brings a large crowd to the city for a few hours.
It seems that people like to come back in the region. We were having coffee, in the shade, at the terrace of one of the bars. Our neighbours, obviously Belgian, had bought LPs from a nearby stand. They were commenting on the evolution of the market and remembering how it was twenty years ago with their friend, the music record seller who had abandoned his stand to come and chat for a while.
We stayed two days in Saint Jean to break our journey and adjust to the summer heat before proceeding to Avignon following a stretch of a track called "Urbain V" after the name of a Pope.
It seems that people like to come back in the region. We were having coffee, in the shade, at the terrace of one of the bars. Our neighbours, obviously Belgian, had bought LPs from a nearby stand. They were commenting on the evolution of the market and remembering how it was twenty years ago with their friend, the music record seller who had abandoned his stand to come and chat for a while.
We stayed two days in Saint Jean to break our journey and adjust to the summer heat before proceeding to Avignon following a stretch of a track called "Urbain V" after the name of a Pope.
images:
1/ Summer is Here
2/ The Maison Rouge museum
3/ Silk theading factory
4/ The old stone bridge
5/ Welcome in Saint Jean du Gard
 |
| the Maison Rouge museum |
 |
| silk threading factory at the Maison Rouge museum |
 |
| the old stone bridge |
 |
| welcome to Saint Jean du Gard |
Comments
Post a Comment