Village Life

The villages were full of life where a mixture of men and animals lived under the same roof. Hay and cereals were stored on the ground floor, food stores in the cellar and logs were stacked outside for the vast fireplace. Long drinking troughs for the animals, a spring or well for the men and wash houses were also outside.

There were many occasions for meeting or to return a service at the ‘four au pain’, the communal bread oven. One person fired the oven to cook the enormous rounds of rye for the community.

Dry stone walls replaced the hedges that had been cut.Ash trees were trimmed close, ditches were dug for drainage and irrigation. There were reservoirs to treat the hemp and soak the wood for working.

The Auvergnat names of the plot of land and their arrangement around the village reveal their use.The soup garden, the cabbage, the rape, the hemp, the bees, the fields of rye, the buckwheat, the wheat, oats, pastures, the grazing, the hay meadows, explains their use. The mill relics reveal the occupation of the land. The tributaries of the main rivers were used. The mountain ruins are proof of the permanent dwellings and the cultivation.

Nearby there were flour mills, saw mills and mills for dealing with hemp, oil extraction and wool.

Numerous ancient quarries, of differing ages, cut into the ground. The diversity in the features of the villages, ovens, mills, houses/cowsheds with barns above, pig sties, is all there integrated in the landscape.

• Walking in the Cantal for information on walking and walks in France and the Cantal, accommodation, food and wine.
• Walking in France for information on France and GR footpaths.
• Auvergne active Self guided walking holidays in the Cantal
• Hôtel des Chazes - 2Star and Les Sources - Table & Chambre d'Hôte, St Jacques des Blats. Both excellent bases from which to explore the Cantal.
• Monts d'Auvergne-Auvergne Hills for a description and pictures of the area, with suggested walks.
• Éditions Chamina for walking guides in the Massif Central.

Classic Geology in Auvergne by Peter Cattermole ISBN 1-903544-05-x available from Blackwells