The transhumance

Since at least the Middle Ages, farmers have been taking their livestock to summer pasture high in the Pyrenees. Summer in Spain and southern France is hot and dry. Livestock would go thirsty without water being piped or brought to them. Once eaten, pasture won’t regenerate until the autumn rains. Animals suffer in the heat and are plagued by insects which flourish in the warm climate.

Photo: Tarasconnais ewes at the Port de Salau, Ariège

Many small lowland farms can’t support enough stock all year round to remain economic. For centuries the solution has been to head for the mountains. Topping out at over 3,000 meters, the Pyrenees provide a cooler climate, a tasty mix of grasses and other plants, streams which flow all summer and . . . freedom! Getting to these high pastures, called estives, means several days’ walk for animals and farmers alike. That’s the transhumance.

Until around 100 years ago, the transhumance revolved around dairy cattle. Sheep would be taken to higher pastures which cows couldn’t reach. Farming families decamped to the estives, where up to 14 people would spend the summer communally in each one-room stone hut. They made cheese on-site. Nothing was wasted; byproducts would be used to feed pigs which had also made the ascent with the sheep and cattle.

This way of life gradually declined during the twentieth century. Any village war memorial will testify that the First World War decimated a generation of young Frenchmen. The industrialisation of agriculture, rural depopulation and modern food regulations did the rest. These days, even farm-produced cheese comes from a sterile clean room.

Photo: Leaving Massat in the Couserans

Over the last decade transhumance has made a comeback. The mountains are seen as being increasingly important in the life of the countryside. They attract skiers and green tourism, providing opportunities for economic regeneration of rural areas while primary industries like textiles decline. You can’t outsource hill walking to China.

Transhumance is an important part of rural life both economically and socially. From a green point of view it is brilliantly efficient, reducing both agriculture’s carbon footprint and its energy consumption. The only fuel used is red and comes in bottles. These days the transhumance is organised communally by associations of local countryside users.
Photo: Crossing the river before finally reaching open mountain




The numbers are impressive - in the department of Ariège alone, over 12,000 cattle, 40,000 sheep and over 1,000 horses make this annual pilgrimage. The stock is cared for by professional shepherds and cowherds, employed for the season by the associations. But everyone joins in for the transhumance itself.

It’s even becoming a tourist attraction as anyone can join in, coming just for the day or combining it with a farm holiday.

And at the end of the journey there’s one hell of a party with local produce, wine from the region all serenaded by traditional musicians. . .

Photo: In the village of Biert the party gets going with a local band including the cornemuse, a pyrenean bagpipe.