La Faye - the abandoned hamlet

We are frequently asked about the history of the hamlet La Faye by our visitors who are curious about its quietness and isolation. La Faye is full of derelict houses in a ruinous state - in some ways it is a ghost hamlet. Which is why its such a haven for animals and wildlife and for guests seeking refuge from busy overcrowded cities. The geography of the hamlet gives away part of its own story. Apart from the derelict houses one can find an old disused well and the small stone building that houses the bread oven where locals brought their bread to bake. Up until the 60s this was a thriving community of farming people who kept livestock and small cereal crops. Now the huge fields of rape, wheat, maize and sunflower surrounding us give a clue to the changes in farming where large cereal crops in the main are the most profitable for the agriculturers who continually diminish the woods and copses in order to attain more land.

Local people, however, recall La Faye. Dances in our own house after the harvest and a life that has now completely disappeared. In one of the barns here a German soldier was captured and lived out the days until the war finished working on the land before he went back home. There was active resistance in this area against the nazis - the Vichy border is only a few kilometres away. It is hard to imagine that somewere so peaceful and gentle was occupied and under seige. The lists of dead in Antigny's church show the first world war took many young men away. If one thinks of all the small places like this and how many there are and that each suffered loses then the scale of loss can be imagined.

Today some of the news as focused on the troubled history of Algeria and the hurt that still remains regarding that most bitter war. May 13th 1958 is a date with a kind of commemorative power but too turbulent to celebrate as a public holiday. Protesters took to the streets today to publically show their anger at missing loved ones - people who completely disappeared and were never again to be found.