A family legacy
Didier is a native of the region, and what a region it is! There are no words to describe it: of stone and lauzes, earth and sky, rock and ice, it really is one of the most beautiful villages in France. Father and grandfather were farmers here, so there's a bit of atavism in the fact that Didier is also in the business. "Yes, but I really chose to raise sheep when others opted for cows, Tarine and Abundance.
"Here, Nature dictates to man".
Bonneval sur ArcJuly 10, 2024. To the east, the Roc du Mulinet rises to 3,442 m, with the eponymous glacier on its flanks, clearly visible from Bonneval. The snow still present above the village is a sign of the winter that lingered until mid-spring. And in July, we still don't know how to dance with the weather! Didier Anselmet is adapting. Like all his fellow farmers in this wonderful valley floor, he has no choice: "Here, Nature dictates to man.
I find him at the wheel of his tractor, in a pasture around the village, busy with forage. We'd planned to meet around a table, but the still uncertain skies brought him back to the meadow well before the appointment. So we did the interview in the cab of the Massey Ferguson! The form and content were there. Since this morning, he's been making hay bales and wrapping them in protective film. He'll need between 50 and 60 tons to get his flock of 180 ewes through next winter. " The hay was just in time to be mown," he says with satisfaction, and what's more, he was able to get the job done before the rain that was forecast for midday. That's the kiss cool effect!
Sheep farming adapted to mountain pastures
His animals are thônes et marthodthe emblematic Savoy sheep breed, recognizable by its white fleece, black muzzle, ears and limbs. He raises them for meat: "I've always had a 'sheep farming approach'. That's what I wanted to do, and the timing was right, because we have pastures more suited to sheep than cattle, at high altitudes up to 2,700 m."
His flock was renewed in the spring, the ewes gave birth and 190 lambs are growing on the Bonneval mountain pastures all summer, before being sold in September.
In winter, the ewes will take up much less of the farmers' time when they're in the stables in the village's agricultural zone. They'll "just" need to be fed in the morning and evening, and their well-being looked after.
We've got a beautiful village, we've got to make it last!
Resilience and attachment: the balance of mountain life
A few years ago, Didier married Melissa. As a child, she used to spend her vacations at Bonneval. She fell in love, and not just with the mountains. They have two young children, who join over thirty others at the village school from September to June. Both are bi-active: in the summer they're busy farming, and in the winter they work in tourism, Didier as a ski instructor and Melissa as a sales assistant in a sporting goods store.
Didier is a happy man. "The job isn't always rosy" (euphemism) and it's even full of constraints, with the presence of the wolf adding further uncertainties, even anxieties! "We live with predation, protection nets, a shepherd, dogs, a lot of administrative farm management (paperwork)..." But he feels in harmony with his environment. He built his house with his own hands, helped by others in the village; he knows he can count on other farmers when he needs them, and on his father, Louis, and his uncle, André, and it's reciprocal, because here, we help each other.
"I could be at the factory in St-Jean or always on the road, but I'm lucky enough to be here, to live here. We're lucky enough to work the land and take over what our grandparents built and our parents ran. And our different professional activities complement each other today, as the country now also lives and breathes tourism."
Didier is active in his guild, defending his profession and the interests of other sheep farmers within the Syndicat Ovin de Savoie, as well as being a local councillor in his commune. As he leaves the meadow where he's made fifteen bales of hay, he greets someone on his bike, pedaling with a fork resting on his shoulder. "Here, everyone bumps into each other all the time and we all know each other, and our children between them. We've got a beautiful village, but we've got to make it last!
Article originally published on Terra Modana, the regional newspaper of the Haute Maurienne Vanoise
Thibault Anselmet, winner of the Ski Mountaineering World Cup 2023 + 2024
