27
Return of the Pasture Animals to the Valleys from the Mountain Pastures: Festival in Annecy, France
Written by admin| 1 Comment »
Every year in the French Alps in October, the shepherds/cowherds bring the cows and sheep down from the mountain pastures to the valleys and barns for the winter. In French it’s called Le Retour des Alpages. It’s easy to get trapped behind these herds of cows on the mountain roads during the month of October if you happen to get unlucky. It happens again in the spring when they take the herds back up to the mountain pastures again.
The city of Annecy decided to make the event into a festival and parade the animals in the streets all dressed up in their ‘Sunday best.’ I went to the 2009 Annecy Le Retour des Alpages and took video. I posted a short version of the parade last year on my blog. But I also have a long version (14 minutes!) of the parade which I’ve never posted before so I decided to show it this year since I didn’t make it to the 2010 Parade. So if you love animals and parades, grab a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and enjoy!
November 27th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Hey Cynthia, this was great. I loved the animals especially. Several variety of cows I have not seen here in California – the beautiful soft buttery suede color and the chestnut color. Loved their giant cow bells, even though the straps and bells looked very heavy for them and the flower garlands. Interesting hats the women wore in the beginning, they looks like gathered black silk – are they indigenous to that region? Thanks for sharing a bit of France with us
Linda