La Transhumance. Fête son Retour!


Sunday, November 27, 2005. Montauroux, like much of small town France, sometimes feels like it is firmly planted in the past. Beyond the black plague, which has settled in all our lungs, other remnants of their pre-modern times can be found everywhere. For example, the “transhumance” is celebrated twice a year in Montauroux. Ah yes, and what is the transhumance you ask? It is the 8-day migration of the local sheep/goat herds from the high summer pastures in the mountains, to the low winter pastures at the bottom of Montauroux hill.

Estelle, a little girl in Hannah’s class, lives on a sheep farm. It is her father’s herd which was used in the fête. The festivities involved penning 600 sheep, with a smattering of the craziest long-horned goats we’ve ever seen, in the centre of the town square for the day. Everyone celebrates around the perimeter of the pen by eating lamb sausages (no point in disguising what the sheep are really there for) and drinking vin chaud. Then, at the end of the day, the sheep are released from the pen and they bolt through town, herded by sheep dogs and Estelle’s dad, through the streets of Montauroux and to their final winter pasture.

The men drinking Ricard in the bar along the route rubbed their eyes when a donkey made it into the bar to warm up. Posted by Picasa

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