Goat's cheese, chestnuts and no Sarko

The air is so thick with foreigners' odes to the French rural idyll that I hesitate to commit another of my own. Yet, c'est plus fort que moi, on this  All Saints day with the morning sun on the chestnut forest in our valley in the Cévennes. The autumn leaves (not yet feuilles mortes) are the most radiant gold that I have seen in the 14 Toussaint holidays that I have spent in the old farm-house.  Perhaps it's the result of the declining rainfall that is also drying up the spring upon which we depend.

Yet nothing has really changed on the November 1 holiday. My neighbours -- mostly hill farmers, artisans and unemployed locals -- are out with their guns and hounds in pursuit of wild boar. The only innovation on that front is that they now wear fluorescent vests over their camouflage. The measure, imposed nationally, is supposed to help les chasseurs avoid shooting one-another, but those flashes of yellow in the forest must certainly tip off their prey.

Across the valley in the village of Saint-Germain-de-Calberte, everything but the church is closed except for the stand selling chrysanthemums, the seasonal flower for commemorating the dead. 

Our spot in the Cévennes, a sort of Scottish highlands with sunshine, is only 100 kilometres north of the saturated Mediterranean coastal strip. Drive only 15 kms down the valley into the département of le Gard and the architecture starts turning from austere stone and slate roofs to the white arches and red tiles of the Med. We are  far enough up into hill-billy country to keep the feeling of sanctuary that shaped the history of this southernmost fringe of the Massif Central. In the religious wars of the 17th century, the persecuted protestants found refuge, as did the resistants of world war two. In the 1970s, the first generation of drop-out ecologistes came down from the north with their guitars and 2CV Citroens to take over abandoned farm-houses to try their hand -- usually without much success --  at goat raising and living off the land.

The lightly-populated Cévennes are again becoming hip with the fashion for green existence and with upper Provence, on the other side of the Rhone, now converted into an extension of the Paris Left Bank and the English Home Counties. Further south, between Montpellier and Alès, they stick the magic word Cévennes on everything, from wine and honey to barbecue fuel. But the real Cévennes will hold out for some time yet. The valleys are too steep, the roads too tortuous, to allow the commercial development that has hit the southern littoral and western France over the past two decades.

But the local economy, one of the poorest of any region, is being helped by the fashion for bio-foods and back-to-nature vacations. Farms are offering hospitality with produits de la région -- hams, sanglier stew, goats' cheese, chestnuts with everything, The village café has reopened, revived by a young couple "from the exterior". 

You have to take life slowly here and not just because of the hairpin bends with no railings. Outsiders are spotted a mile away. It takes years to overcome the suspicion of the real natives. André, a farm worker who takes care of my house, moved here from nearby 25 years ago, yet he still feels "like a person from the exterior" as he puts it. He was chatting last night about the tradition in which the young went to "l'extérieur" to seek their brides because so many families in the valley were related. "The next valley is too close. Two valleys away is ok. That's considered extérieur," said André. People with Marseille licences plates are real outsiders, let alone Parisians or, the dreaded anglais and Dutch who are venturing into the hills.

The small community helps when it comes to the attentions of unfriendly outsiders. Someone has a cousin in the Customs service so he has tipped off everyone that officers are planning a raid at the weekend. La Douane could be on the look-out for certain exotic plants, but more likely those doing illicit trade in the game meat that fills up refrigerators this season. They will not find much.

So, a whole post without mentioning the S name.... But still, I would be grateful if Sarko's  green development plan could include the provision of broadband internet to my neck of the woods. This is coming to you by way of steam telephone modem.

And thank you, everyone, for keeping things going on this blog for the past few days. Normal service will resume at the weekend. 

[our house hidden in trees]

Comments

[rocket]

Ah Charles!

With a photo like the one you put up I would wonder why you would ever want to come back to Paris. Is there no way you could work directly from there?

Anyway, it seems as if you are on your way back to Paris. I'm sorry for you that it was over so quickly.

[Ros]

What a lovely photo, Charles, it's already on my desktop! Wonderful of you not to mention the S name and don't let him bring broadband to your neck of the woods - that would be the beginning of the end.!

[Dominique]

Charles,

The inhabitants of the Cévennes may call others "persons from the exterior".

People from Alsace call the non Alsacian french "les gens de l'interieur" (persons from the interior). N'est-ce pas Daniel Strohl?

People from Paris call people from the province either "ploucs" or "bourgeoisie de province" (witch is even worse!)

People from Ile de France call the world ouside the freeway A86 "the country" (la campagne).

I call people outside my appartement euh...i don't call them actually! People outside my home call me...euh...i don't know, i never talk to them, i'm too busy blogging.

People across the atlantic call me "socialist whiner surrender monkey" while i call them "wild barbaric darwinist capitalists"

People from the cevennes call Charles the "dreaded anglais" while Charles call them "the locals".

It's all a question of perspective.

But this french rural idyll of yours, dear "dreaded anglais", is possible thanks to the european PAC you hate so much. But it is the germans who pay for it!

The world is so unfair to the germans since WW2 : they pay, the english enjoy...and the french talk about it.

[On the PAC you're not right Dominique. The farmers here do not benefit much from it because they have pigs and goats and very little cereal. The CAP/PAC benefits beef, dairy and cereal growers. That's part of its injustice. CB]

[john]

And to think that there are 36,568 communes in metropolitan France. That leaves you 36,567 other communes to discover beside Saint-Germain-de-Calberte, all with their charm and hidden treasures. France is really a coutry like no other...

By the way, don't forget to try the cassolette d'écrevisses at the hotel on the central square of Meyrueis. Seating there on the terrasse "à la fraîche" at the end of a warm sunny day and savoring these exquisite and rare crustaceans is just so... out of this globalized world.

[Blendi Progri]

Thats the Good Life CB, enjoy it.

[Terry]

If we are going to truly americanize France, why dont we start right here in Cevannes. We could start with a 4 lane road. Put a nice strip mall in over there. Perhaps a couple of Red Roof Inns. A McDonald's and a competing Burger King across the street. How about a nice little trailer park where all the banlieu residents can camp out cheaply and show their children the lovely campside. Maybe we can cut down some trees on a slope and have some winter skiing. Of course, we're going to need to purchase a couple farms to do all this.

Would Dominique come?

[Sarah Hague]

I was admiring the glowing countryside as I made my way down to the beach this afternoon. Along with half of Montpellier, I think. Still it was very invigorating getting a dose of ozone-laced air and I have lovely flush to my cheeks thanks to our glorious southern France sunshine and reflective Med. What a life!

[Daniel Strohl]

Dominique,

"les gens de l'interieur" (persons from the interior). N'est-ce pas Daniel Strohl?"

True, Dominique. Sometimes also "Français de l'intérieur".

[Dominique]

Charles,

I am sorry, i did not mean anything particular about the Cévennes regarding the CAP, as i don't know the details. But the truth is that one official goal of the CAP is to keep the rural France alive. That is called the "Volet 2" Rural development plans (RDP):

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/countries/index_en.htm

Detail about France :

"The national rural development programme for France seeks to promote the more harmonious development
of rural areas through sustainable management and a more balanced division of activities and to strengthen
the multiple functions of agriculture and forestry: production, job creation, maintenance of the countryside and
environmental protection"

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/countries/fr/hori/fiche_en.pdf

So, long live to the CAP ;=))

[Dominique]

Terry,

I eat probably more often in a McDo than any of those American bloggers around here.... social class probably ;=))

[azloon]

[By the way, don't forget to try the cassolette d'écrevisses at the hotel on the central square of Meyrueis. Seating there on the terrasse "à la fraîche" at the end of a warm sunny day and savoring these exquisite and rare crustaceans is just so... out of this globalized world] from John

i am writing all this down, going to my times atlas of the world to find out where Meyrueis is, then calling my travel agent.

CB-- if parisians are suspect, and english are nearly persona non grata, i hate to think about those from u.s. -- immediately jailed for "driving while american?"

i actually had a good experience driving thru southwest france in the late 60s. my vw bug broke down, and a local farmer, in a 2CV picked me up and took me to the closest garage. we barely could communicate but he was able to indicate he knew about the apollo astronauts approaching the moon, and we gesticulated madly at each other to indicate our amazement at the idea of men circling the moon. a fond memory (also eating at a roadside restaurant, catering to truck drivers, with common tables (family style). great food for a pittance when the dollar was worth something.

[Ros]

"People with Marseilles licence plates are real outsiders," - I lived 23 years in the Provençal hills near Salon-de-Provence - even when we crossed the border into the Var after La Ciotat we were hooted at because we had 13 (Marseille) plates instead of 83! That seems to have died down now.

[Seb]

I definitely agree with you about the S-name. Not to here it is one the best things about being abroad (with hiking in the Welsh valleys, who look like your Cevennes picture).

I just don't completely forget my super-president thanks to The Times world pages. Thx, and enjoy the real France.

[Little Big Horn]

"So, a whole post without mentioning the S name. But still, I would be grateful if Sarko.."

There's a name to "c'est plus fort que moi" Charles. It is called an addiction. Your conscience wants to push it back but as you can see, he has the upper hand, then always comes back.

You shouldn't take this S addiction lightly Charles. It’s not good. It is more vicious and more spread, especially in the press industry, than a journalist could have imagine.

Symptoms are now quite well identified. It first attacks your immune system, the lucidity, that kept you awaken and reasonable, with a smoke screen called “poudre aux yeux”. Then it disturbs an inner organ, the objectivity, that enable your mind to make the difference between er.. a king and a clown for instance, in such a way you switch them (you see the perversion!). Finally, it excites the monarchistic gland, already much more developed among the Anglo-Saxons, which turns you into an adoring subject, to idolatrous delirium.

If you were at work in Paris, I would have prescribe you to stop right away everything, even your blog, at least until it’d be disinfected by the contagion (according to the many insane comments one can read) for a rest cure, far from “civilization”, a pastoral break into the verdant countryside, with natural food, fresh invigorating air, and scattered cowpats.

But you are ALREADY in the countryside Charles. So this time this is serious, no time to lose anymore. You need to submit to a horse therapy now before it turns at your comeback into the “Sarkozyte Aiguë”, that doesn't leave any chances to its victims. Look at PPDA: he's suntanned, but dead meat. Or did you notice for example that Claire Chazal begins to dribble, and squint? The beginning of the end for a journalist (especially on TV).

In your very alarming but still NOT HOPELESS case, I think that you have no other treatment now, before the complete lost of your mind, than a total immersion into the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, first by little periods, then longer, until the end of the quinquennat I’m afraid to avoid relapse (but no more, the LCR also generates weird syndromes). The antidote will just be a weakened... dote.

This is your last chance of recover Charles, a matter of life and death, of truth and propaganda. Don't miss it, for your blog’ sake.

[Julie D]

You didn't mention your compatriot RL Stevenson and his donkey, Charles. He's a Cevennes hero, as you know, and he spent his last night on his travels with Modestine in your very village, Saint Germain.

[Xavier]

Dear Charles, thank you for the photo and your so beautifully written article about these Cevennes mountains we love so much. Every time I am there, I can feel the benefit of the good vibrations. All is magic there : the chesnut trees which save so many peasants from starvation in the 19th century, the old farm houses devoted to sylk worm breeding, the beauty of the landscapes,not really mountainous ones and not yet really mediterranean ones,(the French will call it "demi-montagne"), all these rivers where you dip, the 'mont Aigoual'...If you love the Cevennes, you will love books from André Chamson and Jean-Pierre Chabrol.

[rex carpenter]

A wonderfully drawn character in Tobias Smollett's Humprey Clinker observes that people are inclined to regard their personal digestive emissions with a "peculiar complacency." So it is as well with rural idylls.

[rockinred]

Nice rural musings, Charles (ignore the somewhat cynical Rex Carpenter with his stunningly obscure literary reference).

Re the lack of broadband, I can recommend a France Telecom ligne 'Numeris' - it's a digital connection with two lines, which you can double up to give you not quite broadband speed but a great deal faster than 56K dial-up. I used it for years until we got broadband in this tucked-away corner of the Lot.

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

"also eating at a roadside restaurant",

This road side restaurants for truck drivers were called "les routiers" (teamsters in American). At that time, their cuisine was mostly simple, but good and not expensive. Many if not all of them have disappeared because of the high ways.

PS : sympathetic Americans are always persona grata in France. Should you nevertheless be jailed in our country by accident, I will bring you some oranges. This is the traditional gift for prisoners here ...

[Mads]

Thank you Charles for the beautiful photos. They could have been taken from the top of my valley, except that I have the added (to me) bonus of the Puy de Dome and adjacent puys in the background. It really is a wonderful time of the year to be in the wild French countryside.

Our hunters have now taken to hanging their jackets on a tree during lunchtime and forgetting to put them back on again afterwards! So the accident rate is as high as ever after the 'townies' have had their liquid lunches. The locals have gone home with the morning's kill or will wait until mid-week when they have the woods to themselves.

Be careful about wanting an ADSL link. Our local commune was told by France Telecom that if we had 1000 signatures on a petition, they would bring us broadband. We got the petition OK, but what we had not bargained for were the metal poles that would carry the wires across the fields and along the side of the road. The poles had to be metal as the deer would try and eat the wooden ones!! Have any of us seen deer tucking into a feast of wooden poles? I don't think so. Anyway, the result of fast and easy internet access is that the top of the valley that leads down to us is beginning to look like an industrial estate. What with electricity (which arrived in 1976) telephone and ADSL all carried on separate poles which require the lopping or removal of trees and bushes for their installation, we are in danger of losing our 'rustic charm'. So Charles, take the advice and request 'numeris'. We had it for four years and frankly I thought it was very convenient and relatively fast and didn't require any extra poles and wires. Just a man from France Telecom (who took an hour to find us and arrived exhausted on the doorstep)to fiddle about with an existing installation.

By the way, is it true that Picasso got so fed up with the concrete masts that France Telecom installed on his property that he painted them green with flowers? Apparently he was taken to court and fined for defacing Telecom property. I am just growing bindweed and clematis up mine in an attempt to make it look as though nature is taking over.

Charles, I shall think of you toiling away at your desk as I go for a walk in the golden countryside. There are many benefits to being retired!

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Re: Routiers' restos. Two Australian girls stopped at one, on advice from others, but when the bill came they queried "Couvert". It was explained to them that it was a cover charge. "What does it cover?" they asked. "It's the table cloth, the cover charge is for laundering the table cloth."
The girls paid, then they cleared the table, took the cloth out into the forecourt, put it in the mud and jumped on it, saying: "OK, launder that!"

[Daniel Loftin]

The hilly plateau region of southern France is truly one of the most beautiful areas on earth. The crescent which is comprised of Italy, France and Spain, is for me a region which has created an enviable civilization in a region blessed by nature.

[Leslie in California]

I randomly stumbled upon this page and drew in on the beautiful photograph. I live in the San Francisco Peninsula Coastal range, and our chestnuts and lifestyle seemed parallell to your description of your place. Cheers to all of us for walking in the beauty of life. Peace

[Valentin]

Hah ! Apparently this is the only page Leslie saw while visiting this blog ! Peace 'ey :)

[azloon]

[Hah ! Apparently this is the only page Leslie saw while visiting this blog ! Peace 'ey :) ] Vee

you don't miss a thing do you? btw, her post IS amusing.

you've got too much time on your hands, boy. don't you have a job?

at least i have an excuse. i'm retired, tho i've considered coming to france and claiming to be unemployed.

so, Valentin, please enjoy walking 'in the beauty of' your strife-ridden country.

vive les droits de les travailleurs. vive le 'strike.'