Coming across the remains of corbeled roofed (faux vault) dry laid stone shelters while working in France this winter was an inexplicably rewarding experience. There is a tantalizing mystery surrounding all these vernacular edifices which continues to linger long after you visit the Village of the Bories at Gordes in Vaucluse.
Augmenting this sense of delightful ‘unknowing’ is the fact that many of these rustic Bories or Cabanes seem to disguise themselves so well amidst the cedars and irregular rocky terrain we were exploring. It’s was as though they were playing a game of hide and seek with us. We stumbled upon one or two nestled into the landscape that only minutes ago we had walked by without seeing, on the winding double walled path we were following outside the actual village.
My heart was content to not know what my brain was needing to understand. What does it matter that you don’t know the why the when or the how? Finding these domed dwellings dotted over the rugged french countryside was a bit like finding curious looking shells on the beach. The lives of the inhabitants of the stoney huts we were exploring, their stories, their comings and goings, much like the sea creatures long gone from the shells they leave behind, are narratives we willingly allow to remain unimportant in comparison to the delight of discovering their beautiful abandoned crusty remains lying for the most part undisturbed by time and in uninhabited places.
These strange hollow 'dry stone' shells, unlike other crustaceans, are too big to pick up carry home in our pockets, but we take consolation in being able to take home many of our own personal impressions, and of course myriads of photos, to remind us of this enchanted place where these unusual limestone dwellings are gathered and seem to just bubble up to the surface.
