Legends -- Pyrenees; Pyrenees -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- History
On leaving S. Girons--about which I say nothing, as concerning it
nothing can be said--the factory of La Moulasse is passed, where
cigarette papers are manufactured in large quantities. The man who
started making them was named Jean Bardon, and he put his initials on
the little books of cigarette papers, with a lozenge between, thus
J.◊.B. This was read as Job, and such papers acquired the name and
became famous as Job’s cigarette papers. The name has been accepted on
the spot, and the sources of the Moulasse that feeds the factory are
now called “les sources de Job.”
Vic, now a little village of 150 inhabitants, was once a Roman station,
and remained of sufficient consequence in the Middle Ages to give to S.
Girons the name of Bourg-sous-Vic. It has a little church with three
Romanesque apses, and a ceiling of the sixteenth century with paintings
in squares. Beside the church is a Sully elm. Such elms were planted
throughout the country as token of rejoicing in 1593, when Henry IV
abjured Calvinism and joined the Catholic Church.
Oust also speaks of the Roman occupation; the name is derived from
Augusta. At Oust the road leaves the valley of the Salat to ascend its
tributary vale of the Garbet; to the south snowy crests appear and the
cascade of Arse comes in view. The Nine Springs is passed, supposed to
have an underground course from the marshy lake of Lhers, at a distance
of four miles. Usually it gives but little water; but after a storm the
source bursts forth suddenly with violence and pours down in cascade
over the rocks.
Aulus lies in an extremely agreeable situation, surrounded by
well-wooded mountains, above which soar snowy peaks. The place was
well known to the Romans, who worked there the mines of silver-lead.
As a watering-place it is furnished with a casino, a park, and theatre
in which every evening during the season comedies and farces are
performed; and in the park a band plays twice a day. Old Aulus lay on
the farther side of the river, but the new site is better exposed to
the sun. Aulus lies in a cul-de-sac; no road goes farther--at least
none that can be utilized by a carriage. Some little mountain tarns are
objects of a visit by those who spend a few days at Aulus, ascending
to them on the backs of mules. The largest of these lie in the valleys
scooped out of the mass of the Pic de Bassiès, 8165 feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account