Vu de la Roque. View from The Rocks

Magnificent and sunny landscapes, a welcoming and friendly people, -maybe too much-.. but a poor country where sometimes are ruling the pervasive machism from patrilocal hierarchs who used to act for their good pleasure and sometimes their own profit, "after me, the deluge". It means nature plundered by unconscious natives or colonist out siders for business. A difficult live indeed, mostly for women. And an hard and thankless fight. But it's worth it ! This blog, wich unexpectedly went all over the world will improve many people here, it's worth it too!

 Cévennes, nostalgie. Pendant longtemps, les montagnes

bleues de mon enfance m'ont cruellement manqué.

Cevennes, nostalgia. During a long time, I hardly
missed these blue mountains from my childhood.

 

Peint sur un mur à Malakoff, ce qui a enchanté et fait rêver les voisins! 

Painted on the wall of my house to Malakoff. What enchanted the neighbors. 

In 10,000 years, if it resists, archaeologists will ask themselves what mean these strange animals. Just a joke. 

Dans 10000 ans, si cela résiste, les archéologues se demanderont ce que signifient ces étranges animaux.

Peintures préhistoriques... Dans 10 000 ans, ci cela résiste, les archéologues se demanderont ce que signifient ces étranges animaux... .

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Dans le village... In the village...

Réalisé sur un mur à St Ambroix.. [ce qui a déplu à un seul voisin, mais virulent.] 

Realized on the wall of my house here (in St Ambroix). What  hardly displeased a neighbor, 

an only one but virulent. There are times when I miss Paris now.

 Idem. Nostalgie.. mais de Paris cette fois. Être immigré partout est pénible mais porteur de valeurs. "Celui qui est capable de sentir, de penser, de vivre et d'aimer de deux manières opposées, celui-là est un fou en puissance".. -ou un philosophe-. (Laurence d'Arabie -lien, article bilingue-.)

Idem. Nostalgia.. but for Paris this time. Paris represents my father, Cévennes my mother -and Liban, my husband-, I am an immigrant foreigner everywhere and that is a cruel but a good thing at least. "One who is able to love, to feel, to live and think in two opposite ways is potentially a fool".. or a philosopher ! (Lawrence of Arabie- link, bilingual article-)

 

Des grottes, où nichent parfois des castors -pas très aimables si on s'approche de leur tanière-...

Grottos, where sometimes nest beavers -not very friendly if you approach their territory-.

 ... mais peut-on leur en demander plus qu'à certains humains? Eux aussi -comme les sangliers- n'ont parfois pas trop le sens du communal, des autres et de l'écologie. Mais on leur pardonne car ils n'ont pas la raison.

After all, can we require them more than some humans? As wild boars, they do not have sense of "communal", public welfare and ecology. But they are forgiven because they have not raison.

Nature...

Nature..

.... et "culture"! Moche, bruyant.. une soufflerie qui balance de l'air intérieur -pollué-, glacé l'hiver, brûlant l'été, tout un programme généreux pour l'environnement. [Par ailleurs ici débordant sur une voie publique.]

And "culture"! Hideous, noisy .. this wonderful machine blows outside air -pollute-,frozen in winter, burning in summer. A marvellous program. [Moreover, here, the install far exceeds on public path.]

Everywhere, earth is our mother. Exhaust her and we shall die all.

Partout, la terre est notre mère. Épuisez là et nous périrons tous.

Cliquer sur l'image du dessus  pour "un chemin dans la montagne". Note : la cabane construite pour s'abriter de la pluie, a été démolie hier le 3 décembre 2011 car, aléa imprévu, elle servait d'affut de chasseurs piégeant les oiseaux qui, aux approches de l'hiver viennent se nourrir des baies de lierre. Je n'ai laissé qu'une bâche et le prochain projet est de réaliser un épouvantail... et de transporter le bois mort en quantité avec un âne, ce qui pose un gros problème à l'endroit où le mur soutenant le chemin s'est effondré (image). Click on the first picture of the hut to go to the blog "a little way in the mountain". The hut, made to shelter us from the rain, alas was demolished because it was used as a lookout by birds'hunters ! There is lot of wood which we intend to carry up with a donkey but, because of the collapsed wall, (see the folowing picture) it is impossible in this part of way. We are in food penury and farmlands are made inaccessible by some ones sometimes in the guilty indifference from elected. 

 

A municipal path monopolized and illegally "forbidden" as lot of others [sometimes by greedy promoters residents, natives or foreigners, in the indifference of most of unconscious elected and even with their support. Because they believe the lies of thoses who claims that they are upgrading the country, the village, bringing up rich tourists, generating jobs and so on, while in fact they exploit and sack it for their own profit, for example cutting down centenary trees that hold the land on the riverside to make a green, a non sense in this climate. -Shortly, the river will overflow and water will destroy everything around it.- So, some elected are selling off (cheap!) our cultural heritage, the nature and the culture together, for example the stone walls that formarly, our ancestors (in my case) built to retain the land and cultivate some parcels, the main richess we still have]... This way was opened by us, hardly, with picks and shears! Now, it is almost done. Formerly, the land where it leads, on the riverside, very fertile, was the garden which fed the boarders of an old people's home.. and when the municipality will have rebuilt the collapsed wall as promised, we'l can pass on with a donkey and do it again. But, like everywhere, during their campaign, elected says and once elected, forgets. Even what they legally had to do [here, some properties -including mine- have no other access.]

Pour ce qui est des causes de ce désastre, deux hypothèses : 1 il aurait été abattu pour ses pierres car, laissé sans entretien en ce lieu discret à un moment barré (puis ouvert à la pioche), on les aurait prises petit à petit pour construire ou encore ; 2 ce serait le cours naturel des choses -étonnant car ce n'est que sur un tronçon au fond qu'il est tombé-. (Voir trois messages plus loin) Qu'importe les causes, il reste à le reconstruire sur 30 m si on veut pouvoir passer -et au moins cinq propriétés n'ont pas d'autre accès (lien)-.

About the causes of this disaster, some hypothesis : maybe in this discreet place [blocked by tree trunks, then, worse, by a threatening and illegal city's panel which was saying "forbidden", placarded here in order to protect, as some elected dares to say me, "valuables" belonging to an waterfront which risk to be stolen ! -ashamed : it is a comunal way, for everybody!-] .. it was demolished for its stones... or, another hypothesis, left  in escheat, it's the natural course of the things. Surprisingly because only a small section of the wall collapsed. But we don't matter this disaster's paternity: in anycase, it belongs to us to restore it.. at our own expenses! (Not very expensive ideed.)

Un chemin, une légende et des bizarreries, de l'esthétique aux pannes sexuelles et au cancer de la prostate ! A path, legends and oddities. Usefull plants , from aesthetic to sexual breakdowns.. and prostate cancer !

In the south of France, here in Cévennes, as in all poor countries, the earth, even agricultural, is not expensive; so, some people buy it.. in order to "revalue" it -as they say- but in some cases, at the opposite of what they assert, they privatize it for their own profit in a complete anti ecological way* and outright plunder it. A kind of neo-colonization. In this matter, we are no less than France's indians. So, our natural and cultural heritage is thrown to stinging nettles, without no one among the "natives" protests, sometimes with their complicity! [at least first, because when one begins to get up and to get up strongly, many others follow !] and worse, with thanks for the looters who "revalue our country" (!) Why ? because of their candor or self-interest short-sighted, they believe the profiteers' lies (they always told they are going to bring people, rich tourists, create jobs and so on...) Maybe, and it is not sure, but only for their own interest. They "revalue" our country as they said ? Really? Sometimes, it seems so, but it is exactly the opposite : for instance, they realize an elegant lawn… that in summer requires enormous amounts of water.. illegally pumped from the river, already almost dry in this season, in place of trees (cutted!).. trees which held the earth for centuries... earth (very fertile here) which soon will slide into the river’s bed, (in september, its raining stones here!) ransacking farmland everywhere. "It's beautiful". Beautiful, really ? yes, it is, as lot of assholes (whose I was) sometimes says, but this superficial look is misleading : in fact, this hides an complete ecological devastation. Our culture had always respected nature and saved our scarce water, and a lawn here is a non sense, an indecent squandering. Some days, we shall pay for that. "Us", yes! and not the plunderers who will be far from here when the announced disaster will happen, after having earned some money. Poverty makes rich. But not the poor !

* In this case, a communal path which unfortunately goes around a property, a path which leads to superb lanscapes whose photos are in the beginning of this blog, that some new owner tried to "forbid" (and block with tree trunks!) in order to "revalue".. but to "revalue" what?… not the country, it's sure, but his property. I cutted the undergrowth, cleaned it, removed the stones across and in the middle, a real crusade -link- of two months, successful… which costed me an olympic form and then a sciatic. No matter. Now, it remains the collapsed wall to rebuild in a short section that I can't do, it's the work of the town hall.. who, as usual, procrastinate. Maybe they want to be well seen by goat and cabbage together, as all politicians. 

Here are the photos of plants and animal in the country side where drives the partially restored path, some of them medicinal, feeding birds as "bittersweet", and humans as "stingings nettles" etc.. which is said aphrodisiac and preventive against the prostate cancer ! (The sarsaparilla's roots, and the stingings nettles' leaves.) Not sure but rich in nutriments, yes it is. I have eaten a lot during an hard period (link with a short video and superb music).. an hard period with however an happy end (cf the poem, link) and was better. I have lost some weight, but for once, just where I have to lost it ! and that is remarkable ! Note: I don't find the translation of "bittersweet" whose red berries look like those of the sarsaparilla but the photo below shows the two plants.

A Saint Ambroix, sur un chemin "perdu" parmi les broussailles et retrouvé (en partie), le chemin de Saint-Victor, de la douce-amère (image d'en haut), un poison mais que les oiseaux adorent et ses baies rouges vif se conservent tout l'hiver ; de la salse pareille, l'herbe à stroumpf dont les fruits (image ci contre) ressemblent à ceux de l'autre (mais les feuilles, piquantes et vernissées n'ont rien à voir avec) et un animal bizarre, une chenille ? (Lien) Notre patrimoine en déshérence à restaurer. Go! Note pour les mâles de plus de 40 ans : les racines et les feuilles d'orties amélioreraient les performances sexuelles et protègeraient du cancer de la prostate en stoppant la conversion de la testostérone en dihydrotestostérone, qui accumulée dans l'organe au fil des années, est soupçonnée de favoriser les tumeurs. Même chose pour les racines seulement de salsepareille en décoction, (attention ses baies et ses feuilles en revanche sont toxiques.) Rien de garanti mais enfin il y en a pléthore et ce n'est pas difficile d'en faire des décoctions (lien)..Quant aux orties (les feuilles), c'est la plante la plus riche qui soit en en vitamines B2, B5, B9, K (anti-hémorragiques) et elle contient 6 à 7 fois plus de vitamine C que l'orange, ainsi que des minéraux (silice, magnésium, fer) et oligo-éléments (cuivre, zinc); quant à son apport protéique (333mg/100g) il est supérieur au soja, une aubaine pour les vegans.. D'où ses vertus anti-fatigue, anti déprime etc..

Loir (lien) 
Dormhouse (link) adores nettles

Lérot

Le repas du soir à base d'orties comme d'hab. Parfois délicieux, parfois moins. Cette plante que l'on dit aussi aphrodisiaque (!) a en tout cas sauvé les paysans de famines depuis toujours (lien). Je ne garantis rien de sa première vertu, mais tout de la seconde. Un détail pourtant tendrait à le confirmer : derrière la maison, a élu domicile un animal étonnant, nocturne, de moins en moins farouche, sans doute un loir ou un lérot, (espèce protégée), un petit museau craquant, une queue assez longue, de la taille d'un gros rat, ventre blanc et dos bicolore rayé, grimpant aux arbres avec l’agilité d'un écureuil, qui les déterre systématiquement et les transporte sans doute dans son terrier.. pour se faire des réserves avant d'hiberner, une catastrophe pour les plantations. Ce petit vandale redoute-il une panne sexuelle ou est-il seulement attiré par ses nutriments ? Le fait est que ce sont surtout les racines qui l'intéressent ! D'instinct, les animaux savent ce qui est bon pour eux, une intuition que nous avons en partie -mais pas totalement- perdue (lien).

The evening meal whith nettles as usual. Sometimes delicious, sometimes less. This plant which is said as an aphrodisiac (!) has at least always saved the peasants from famine (link). I do not guarantee anything about its first virtue, but about the second, I can. It is the richest plant in vitamine B, C..  that is, excellent for vegans. One detail however would tend to confirm this : in front of the house, an animal is housed, nightlife, more and more daring now, perhaps a "log" or a "dormouse" (protected species!), a cute little nose, a tail long enough, the size of a big rat, with white belly and two-tone striped on its back, climbing trees with a squirrel's agility, who always digs and carries the nettles's roots ! maybe in its hole to make reservations before hibernation, a disaster for the plantations. Does this little vandal fear a sexual failure ? or is it only attracted to nutrients? Instinctively animals know what is good for them, an intuition partly but not entirely-lost (link) by humans.

Ce sont ces minimes bassesses [une terre agricole saccagée, un chemin communal barré, les arbres d'une rivière retenant la terre abattus, un bétonnage intensif etc pour le profit de quelques uns] "qui ne font pas un regret et même pas un souvenir" qui mises bout à bout, font que la terre toute entière s'épuise et périt, et des hommes avec. Parfois dans l'indifférence d'édiles inconscients qui croient naïvement à une revalorisation quand c'est un patrimoine agricole et esthétique qui disparaît. Ça s'appelle néo colonisation dont les régions pauvres sont particulièrement affectées. La pauvreté rapporte. Pas aux pauvres.

 

Au bout du chemin...

At the end of the path, lost in the bush,

A la lisière du chemin... perdu dans les broussailles, une découverte,

Un vieux mazet effondré, grossièrement remonté et bâché pour faire un abri.. Derrière, tout au loin, on entend les clochettes de moutons...

An old "mazet" collapsed and coarsely sheeted back to make a shelter .. Far behind, sheeps ...Maybe a grave ? of protestants (during the persecution, there were not allowed to be buried in cemeterues.)

  Un abri de jardin ? Ou une tombe de protestants datant de la période du "Désert" durant laquelle ils n'étaient pas autorisés à être enterrés dans les cimetières ?