the Cevennes

---

January 1, 2011
Today Elian and Francoise picked us up to share a meal with Elian’s 87 year old mother and his sister Giselle who live in a small village in the mountains of the Cevennes. Elian’s family have lived in this village for hundreds of years. Half the village it seems are uncles, cousins, brothers etc. This place is unbelievable – I fell totally in love with it! The village is on one steep side of a long narrow valley. The steepness means that any farming has to be done on terraces; you can see that the terraces used to go almost to the top of the mountains. However, most of them have now been abandoned as people have moved away to the cities, and those few who do come back are not farmers. The houses are all ancient stone buildings that are unique to this area because of the silkworm. Silkworms feed on a particular tree that grows in this region, making silk production a huge industry before the silkworm was domesticated. The silkworms were collected from the trees, and the homes had rooms on the top floor where the silkworms were kept and the silk harvested. This top level of the houses had tiny windows. The next level down was where the family lived and the bottom level was where the animals were brought in. Elian remembers sheep in the basement of his home when he was young!

We had a lovely (multi-course) meal with Elian’s family. Oh boy how the French love to eat – I’m just about exploding out of my jeans these days! Then we all went for a walk around the village – yes even Elian’s mother who despite her years and having a quite advanced case of alzheimers set a good pace. What can I say – it was gorgeous. The views down the valley with another small village far in the distance were breathtaking. I was intrigued and entranced by the terraced gardens and orchards. Elian’s family have a large terrace behind their house for ‘legumes pour la cuisine a la maison’. This area is famous for its onions; most of the terraces that are still in use are used for the farming of onions. Most terraces are abandoned though! I was going out of my mind imagining what I could do with all this vacant land. How I wish I could work out a way to live and work there!

---

Photos

Paul and Elian
at Elian's Mother's house

an traditional house
note the tiny windows on the top floor where the silkworm were kept

the village
note the terraced gardens

my future home?
not really, but wouldn't that be nice :o)