• At the initiative of Jacques Pedehontaà, local elected representative of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the Folies Béarnaises will be held on Sunday March 6, a transhumance of 2,022 sheep.

  • The animals will be guided by shepherds and shepherdesses and their dogs, and accompanied by singers, dancers and even Henri IV on his white horse.

  • Through this operation, Jacques Pedehontaà wants to “celebrate rurality in the heart of the capital”.

"On the plane returning from the Salon de l'agriculture in March 2020, I had a dream," says Jacques Pedehontaà, mayor of a small Béarn village and vice-president of the attractiveness and development agency. tourist attractions in Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

We were going to take all the animals out of the living room to make them wander around Paris.

I woke up during the descent in Pau, but I kept the idea in mind.

“Taking advantage of the confinement, he then wrote the project, that of the Folies Béarnaises, a transhumance on the Champs-Elysées.

The story may not be entirely true, but in any case it is beautiful, like the image that Jacques Pedehontaà wants to give of his terroir.

Two years after this dream, the Folies Béarnaises will therefore be held on Sunday March 6, at the end of the International Agricultural Show (SIA), taking advantage of the monthly day of pedestrianization of the Champs-Elysées.

On the program, four Béarnais polyphonic groups will perform on a stage near the George V metro from noon to 2 p.m., just to warm up before the big parade.

This one will stroll on a course of one kilometer between the Etoile and the roundabout of the Champs-Elysées.

"Composed of seven paintings, it will be led by Henri IV on his white horse", specifies Jacques Pedehontaà.

For the record, the Vert-Galant will be embodied by the actor Bernard Montfort, also in charge of the scenography, and whom some may have come across on the Tour de France dressed up as the King of Navarre.

"It didn't always smell good"

Next will come, “2,022 sheep with shepherds and dogs;

cattle teams with donkeys, mules and horses;

350 artists, singers, dancers, circus performers;

giant puppets", lists the Béarn elected official, who promises a final apotheosis with a canterà (final song) in unison.

The main attraction will of course be the unusual presence of these thousands of sheep on the Champs.

They will arrive by truck "36 to 48 hours before the parade so that the animals recover", explains Didier Hervé, director of the Institution patrimoniale du Haut-Béarn (IPHB) who specifies "having planned pastures at the horticultural school of Saint-Germain -en-Laye and on a farm in the Oise".

Finally, so that the animals are on top to show off, they will be "monitored by a veterinarian and a physiotherapist".

But it's not just animals, there are also shepherds and shepherdesses.

It is also the aim of the parade to "bring these men and women to the fore" because "each shepherd is a book of history", assures, lyrically, Jacques Pedehontaà.

The 2,022 sheep will therefore be guided by the 13 oldest shepherds and 13 youngest shepherdesses from the valleys of Ossau, Aspe and Barétous.

Among them, Célestin, who is looking good in his 80s and has "experienced a lot of transhumance".

At first, “it wasn't easy, the good places were taken,” says the old man.

We had to make the hut when we arrived, cut a trunk to stretch a tarpaulin over it”.

He himself agrees, "we washed the tip of our nose, it didn't always smell good".

Célestin left the mountain pastures (summer pastures) in the Pyrenees 4-5 years ago,

“Celebrating rurality in the heart of the capital”

This way of life, which seems so distant seen from the Paris region, Sandra perpetuates it with her husband and her two children.

In the mountain pastures, “we stay from July 1 to the end of August, details the shepherdess.

For the first five years, we lived in a two-room shack with a tin roof, no water or electricity.

» Located at an altitude of 1990 m and 1h30 on foot from a road, the refuge is supplied by helicopter before transhumance or by muleage once a week to « bring bread and fresh produce and lower the cheeses to the salting tub » .

Because these are made on site.

"Since we have nothing to cool the milk, we have to make the cheese in the morning and in the evening," explains Sandra.

From July 1 to August 15-20, we start around 6 a.m. and we finish around 11:30 p.m. - midnight,

A life far from “French Tech” but which responds to a “need for nature and freedom”, explains Karine, shepherdess for fifteen years, and who after two days in Paris, already wants to return to her mountains.

"The Folies Béarnaises allow you to get in touch with our daily lives, it gives a little insight," she adds.

Jacques Pedehontaà says it all, he who wants to “celebrate rurality in the heart of the capital”.

With his Folies, he wishes above all "to deliver a positive message of rurality" and to prove that we can "make tradition and modernity coexist".

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