At the end of the 1st millennium, inhabitants settled at the end of the Arc valley. They discovered iron mines, such as the Sarrasin mine on the heights of Valfréjus. By exploiting these ores, they eventually accumulated immense wealth, particularly those of Faudan, a small village between Bonneval sur Arc and l'Ecot. They were so wealthy that every Sunday, they passed the time with a game, the ancestor of pétanque, using... pure gold balls!
Such opulence soon led to a complete relaxation of faith and morals among the inhabitants of Faudan. Moved by this state of affairs, the Father Superior of the Novalaise Abbey in Piedmont sent a holy man, the monk Landry, to bring the miscreants of Haute Maurienne, and specifically of Faudan, back to God.
Bringing those Faudan miscreants back to God
But nothing went according to plan. Not only did the inhabitants of Faudan not listen to the monk, but... they ended up knocking him unconscious and throwing him into the torrent! The waters of the Arc, particularly turbulent at this point, carried the monk's body to a cave at the foot of Lanslevillard. The village's bells immediately began to ring out. Alerted, the inhabitants of Lanselvillard had just enough time to leave their homes to see the processional cross emerge from the church! Stunned, they followed the cross, which led them to the river and the cave where they found the monk's body.
Landry's martyrdom
Bells ringing on their own, a cross flying and guiding parishioners: a miracle! But for the people of Faudan, who were not only unmoved by the episode, but felt no remorse! They went on with their debauched lives and soon forgot all about Landry.
Time passed and only Marguerite, an old woman who lived in a poor hovel away from the houses of Faudan, was affected by the situation.
Exactly one year after Landry's murder, an exhausted old man, overcome by cold, hunger and wind, arrived in Faudan. He had lost his way in the Haute Maurienne mountains and was staggering with exhaustion. A little more and he'd fall lifeless by the side of the path.
The exhausted traveler knocked on the first door, then on the next, then on every door in the village, begging in vain for a piece of bread and a bit of straw for the night. Everywhere, he was scorned and jeered at. Sometimes he was even chased away with a stick. In despair, he crossed the whole village. Growing colder and hungrier, he collapsed on a stone just outside Faudan.
Marguerite's farmhouse is her only refuge
The Marguerite's cottage was nearby. She spotted the poor man and immediately invited him into her modest home. She rekindled the hearth so he could warm up and offered him a cheese from her only goat. Then she hung a cast-iron pot over the embers, in which a little soup remained.
After attending to the traveler, Marguerite apologized for the poor meal:
- That's all I can offer you. But eat heartily, for a good Christian must share what little he has with others.
When they had finished their simple meal, the stray warned his hostess.
- Don't be afraid, and pray to God to have mercy on these Faudan miscreants.
With these strange words, the traveller left his host. As Marguerite offered him shelter, he disappeared into the night. Disturbed, Marguerite was slow to fall asleep. Then, around midnight, she was rudely awakened. With an apocalyptic crash, the mountain was collapsing. The walls shook, but her house stood firm. At dawn, when she opened the door to her hovel, she could only see the catastrophe: that the village had simply disappeared. In its place lay an immense chaos of rock. The cataclysm had spared only her poor home, swallowing Faudan and its inhabitants forever beneath the scree that now stretched to the banks of the Arc.
Bonneval sur Arc, discover the resort's must-do activities
In the footsteps of the village of Faudan
