[ Museums and monuments - The Cern - A country, a history... - Traditions and craft industry ]
| Between traditions and modernism, Pays de Gex finds the right balance ... | |
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Though at the top of scientific research with the CERN, Pays de Gex has not disavowed its Jurassic spirit nor its past. The popular festivals like the threshing festival or the festival’Oiseau tell the history and the traditions of the Pays de Gex. Each summer, the best woodcutters continue to brave eachother and the herds regain their mountain pastures until winter. This season was formerly devoted to cutting the fine stones or manufacturing shingles, these small spruce planks protecting the exposed frontages of the traditional houses of the Valserine valley. (On the right: frontage of a house covered with shingles) |
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| A strong and old craft tradition | |
Pays de Gex has always had a strong craft tradition. On the one hand, the driving force of the torrents allowed as of the Middle Ages the establishment of corn mills and paper mills, of forging mills (tilt hammers) and sawmills, on the other hand, the forced spare time of the snow season supported a small craft industry similar to which one finds in the close Jura (lapidary industry especially, linked to the clock industry). Lastly, in the 18th century, the will of Voltaire, as well as the social problems in Geneva between Natifs (Genevese of new stock) and Bourgeois supported the sector of the clock industry. (On the right: old sawmill of Bief Bruyant, downstream from Mijoux, animated by an iron water wheel) |
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| Agriculture of Pays de Gex | |
The agriculture of Pays de Gex, a long time the first and most important economic activity, finishes an important change today. Although the ploughings formerly occupied considerable surfaces, the first agricultural activity is breeding. the vast traditional farms testify (see below) where the barn and the cattle shed were neighboring under the same roof as their Masters. On another side, the mountain pasture on Monts Jura is an old practice, attested in the17th century already. Today, only the young cattle spend their first years of life in the mountain pasture. Herds of ewe and dairy goats perpetuate the cheese-making tradition, supplemented by some tourism related activities. |
 Haystacks in a field in Vesancy ...... |
| The traditional housing of Pays de Gex ... | ||
More or less large according to the importance of the concern, the Pays de Gex farm presents some characteristic elements : one block house with a rectangular base and partially paved open court. It is capped with a broad two sidded roof that overhangs only on the principal frontage, where the doors of the dwelling place, the barn and the cattle shed follow one another. In the Valserine valley, the traditional farms were built according to a logic dictated by the climatic conditions, in order to provide a certain comfort to the residents and resistance against bad weather. |
 Traditional farm of Pays de Gex |
 Traditional farm in the Valserine valley |
| More information, follow the guide... | |
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