Post 12. Partières / Goat Pens and Tsablos

This was the partière a term that refers to a pen where all the goats of the village were put in the morning before the goatherd would take them to graze at Montagnette.

While the cows were at pasture, goats, that also supplied milk, spent the summer in the village. Every household owned a goat or two. One cow was left in the village for all of the families.

To reach the Montagnette, up at the edge of the forest, you have to cross the tsablos, a dialect term that indicates the corridor dug out by the stream. Apart from wooden logs, avalanches also come down this slope. One would not linger in the tsablos. These corridors belong to the Bourgeoisie.

Every day, young goatherds went in turn to the Montagnette with the goats of the village. They were given a meal for each goat, plus bread and cheese. The goatherds came down only when the sun no longer lit the Navisence stream.

Since the last avalanche of 1984 that came down to the square where we are, avalanche barriers, visible above the forest, were built at Chaché and Montagnette. Then new constructions began to extend into the tsablos corridor between Saint-Jean d’en-haut and Saint-Jean du-milieu. Previously, barriers were limited to the ridges of the mountain.

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Continue the visit by going toward the raccards above Saint-Jean du-millieu.