Post 12. Lo Pirlo

Lo Pirlo, meaning “room” in the local dialect, is a two-storey house, one per family. The house on the ground floor included a kitchen and a room for the whole family, of nine children.

The date 1887 is inscribed on the central beam and the soapstone stove is dated 1889.

In the cellar, there was the “ potato hole ” (creux à patates) necessary for storage for the month and a half spent in Zinal in winter ; milk and tommes cheese were also kept there.

In the cellars of the principal houses in the villages at lower altitudes wine was stored in barrels. The celebrated Glacier wine is Rèze wine that was transported from the vineyards of the Rhone valley to the cellars of the mountain villages.

The stable, to the right of the house, was destined a mule, the left (now converted into a small veranda) was used for the pig, on one side, and on the other, sheep. The pig found its food in the bourlett, a basin where left-overs were placed.

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Mon Repos is located further on after Lo Pirlo, to the right.