Tales of oxen in Provence

Provence is all about donkeys, mules and horses... but it's also about oxen. Discover the essential role of oxen in the rural lifestyle of Var, a region of Provence where ancestral traditions and legends combine to celebrate the importance of these draught animals. From the authenticity of field work to the celebration of 'tripettes' in honor of Saint Marcel, Claude Boyer and André Abbe plunge us into a universe rich in stories and emotions, where the past is always present. Welcome to the fascinating world of Provence's oxen.

Oxen at work

In the book "Femmes de Provence", we discover Madame Laugier in front of her farm. Rendezvous in Fayence (Var). The Laugier farm was still using oxen in 1991. André Abbe met them.

We Varois don't have the "fe di biou" (the faith of bulls, which in French doesn't mean much)... and yet oxen have played a major role in the life of our rural world. The ox was a draught animal in the same way as the horse and the mule. The center of ox breeding was the village of Cuebris (O6) near Roquestéron. In humid areas, horses became dusty (lung disease) and oxen were called in, as in Cogolin, near Saint-Tropez ... when Brigitte Bardot arrived, the last oxen were plowing the vineyards of Cogolin. I was lucky enough to film the last day's work of Provence's last pair of plough oxen for the "Vaqui" program, at Monsieur Laugier's home in Fayence. An emotional moment. The herdsman owned three oxen, the left-handed, the right-handed and the substitute. The left-handed could not work on the right and vice versa. The substitute was bred to work on both sides.

A comparison can be made with rugby front rows. Left-backs can rarely play on the right... Rugby fans should not be offended by this comparison. Mind you, I'm not saying there are no more pairs of oxen in Provence. We bring them out for the holidays. I saw one at the Petit Saint Jean parade in Valréas (84). But don't count on them to plough your vines. I'm in favor of their existence. They enable younger generations to learn more about our past...

André Abbe

Traditional beef

For almost 700 years, the Var village of Barjols has celebrated "tripettes" on Saint-Marcel's Day... Claude Boyer tells us all about it.

Where does the tradition of Les Tripettes de Barjols come from?

Legend has it that in the^5th century, Saint Marcel, bishop of Die in the Drôme region, was returning home after being received by the pope in Rome. On the way, he was caught dead between Aups and Barjols at the Saint-Maurice monastery, where he was naturally buried. Time passed, the monastery was abandoned and, emptied of its occupants, it eventually fell into ruin. Only one faithful man remained to watch over the bishop's tomb, and one night Saint Marcel appeared to him and asked that his remains be transferred to a place worthy of his status, rather than rest in the midst of these wretched crumbling walls. Now, as we saw above, Saint Marcel had died halfway between Aups and Barjols, so the two villages fought over his remains.

The dispute was born: who would "recover" the Saint?

The Count of Provence, passing through Brignoles, heard of the dispute; he received both parties and ruled with a judgment worthy of Solomon:

"Measure the distance between your respective villages and the remains of Saint Marcel, the nearest will house the saint."

And so it was done. The legend doesn't say how much the difference was, but it was the Barjolais who won and took possession of the relics, much to the dismay of the Aupsois. The date was January 16, 1350, and it turns out that every January 16, the Barjolais celebrated by sacrificing an ox whose tripe, placed in large baskets, was paraded through the village streets in a farandole. This custom was a reminder that a few years earlier, the Barjolais had been saved from famine by the providential arrival of an ox!

The relic bearers arrive in the middle of the festivities while the animal is being skinned. Kisses and congratulations are exchanged, and religious and pagan alike run to the collegiate church, mixing the profane and the sacred, entering the church drunk with joy (and perhaps not only that...) and jumping up and down singing:

- Sant Macèu, Sant Macèu, li tripeto, li tripeto...(- Saint Marcel, saint Marcel, les tripettes, les tripettes...)

This is how the famous tripette dance was born and the famous festival instituted.

This is why, on January 16, 1350, Saint Marcel became the town's patron saint, and the immolation of the ox became identified with his cult.

Over time, a bishop of Fréjus, horrified by this pagan rite of sacrifice associated with a Christian saint, tried to suppress the procession. The Revolution, which did not look kindly on this kind of demonstration, also tried, but to no avail, for tradition prevailed, and is still very much alive... Every morning on January 16, tambourines and fifes make their music heard through the streets... In the afternoon, the ox, all wrapped up, is led through the village, escorted by the butchers... The clergy is there, blessing the arms, the flag... and the ox.

At the hour of compline, the crowd enters the collegiate church and the Tripettes dance begins... Even the parish priest hops along!

On January 17, a solemn mass is held, and once again there's dancing and the bust of the saint is carried around the village. The poor ox is dead! It was sacrificed the day before, and will now be skewered, immolated. But it's only sacrificed every four years, and it's not the one that's taken around town, of course. The meat consumed comes from a slaughterhouse where the animal has been duly killed in accordance with current hygiene regulations.

Some is eaten roasted, others stewed...