Le Vernet: an old machine, a local figure and a hamlet that has become famous in the Alpes de Haute Provence
Last update : 20/08/2022
Go to the Vernet. It is a village in the Alpes de Haute Provence, in the region of Digne (see map below). André Abbe shows us an old agricultural machine for cereals. Then André presents a figure of the Vernet: Jean-Marie Michel. Finally André takes us very close to the chapel of Pié Fourcha. This hamlet became infamous with the crash of the Germanwings aircraft on 24 March 2015.
About oats: some slang
About Oats: in French "Have wheat"is to be rich. In Provencal, being rich is "aguer de civada", have oats. Civadier or Sivadier (the oat producer or seller) is a family name.
Jean-François Sivadier is a theatre director that I don't particularly appreciate. I suffered, spectator, at one of his stagings, "Life of Galilee" of Brecht (I came out of the subject once again).
Jean-Marie Michel welcomed cattle to the Vernet mountains
Berger communal, Jean-Marie spent his summers to keep herds of cows of the Vernet (Alpes de Haute Provence) and neighbouring communes. In June, each owner took his cattle to the clearing and all arrived in the morning of walking to the Gorgeas cabin.
The Vernet high mountain pastures welcome cattle from the canton during the summer. I had the chance to follow the ascent of the herd to the pastures, then later in 2008 when it descended, in the company of our late friend Jean Marie Michel, the cantonal shepherd who had the responsibility for this summer.
A passionate breeder, Jean-Marie owned a beautiful herd of Salers cows. The recently restored shepherd's cabin is now named after him.
Up there with Jean-Marie on the mountain of the Heads
Jean-Marie Michel left us in 2021. I wanted to pay tribute to him. He spent his entire life at the Vernet, a village between Javie and Seyne les Alpes (Alpes de Haute Provence). A passionate breeder, he had created a small, very homogeneous herd of proud Salers cows.
The Salers come from Cantal, they are few in the Southern Alps. Between June and October, he spent most of his time on the mountain of the Heads at the cabin of the Gorgeas to keep the communal herd but for the rest of the year he devoted his energy to his farming work and to his mandate as first deputy of the commune.
In the company of Mayor François Balique he formed an effective duo who lasted 45 years.
Up there with Jean-Marie on the mountain of the Heads
Every time I went to see my friends at the Vernet, I was impressed by Jean-Marie's ability to work in the oven and mill, both clean and figurative... In fact, Jean-Marie and his friends made bread in quantities in the communal oven on the occasion of the village festival.
Jean-Marie's only leisure was hunting... and it was fine hunter to what was said.
At no time in the 75 years of his life did he want to go live elsewhere. Thanks Jean-Marie for allowing by your action to keep your mountain corner alive, maintained and beautiful.
Do you know the origin of the Salers cows?
About the Salers, these cows in the beautiful red dress have a great success each year at the Agricultural Fair. They have the peculiarity as their neighbours Aubrac, being both meat and milk breed.
Salers cheese benefits from an AOP, as gourmets who do not know it yet taste it.
The Vernet was unfortunately under the fire of news when a mad pilot threw his plane on the mountain not far from the village. This event made famous a hamlet of the Vernet.
Salers, star of the Agricultural Fair in Paris in 2020
I photographed these bulls Salers, pride of the Haute Auvergne, at the Agricultural Fair on February 29... and yet it seems so far away. It was the last day of carelessness. The aisles were overflowing with people rushing into solid and liquid gastronomic specialties. The next day, the salon was closed by the authorities and began the nightmare of the Coronavirus taken more and more seriously.
Locked in my kitchen, I look at those quiet colossus with nostalgia. Once upon a time this 29th February I will remember, I was quiet too.
A hamlet made famous by the crash of Germanwings aircraft
We leave the pastures for the hamlet of Pié Fourcha.
This hamlet, between the villages of Prads and Vernet (Alpes de Haute Provence), is a few hundred metres from the impact point of the German plane which a crazy co-pilot had precipitated there.
Abandoned for a hundred years, this hamlet was in ruins. The chapel that is seen beyond the fallen walls has been rebuilt so that Pié Fourcha becomes a place of recollection and memory.
Thank you Claude Boyer, Jeanne Monin, Giselle Penat-Lorde and François Abbe for their contributions
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