The Stones of Balazuc: A French Village in Time

by John M. Merriman

Experience village France with its historical dimension in place. In a spirited history, John Merriman allows us to see the presence of the past in the people and ways of this beautiful village in the Ardeche. Balazuc is a tiny medieval village carved into a limestone cliff that towers above the Ardeche River in southeastern France. Its dramatic landscape and Mediterranean climate make it a lovely destination for summer visitors, but for its residents over the centuries life in Balazuc has been harsh. At times Balazuc has prospered, most notably in the nineteenth century through the cultivation of "the golden tree" and the silkworms it fed, a process whose rigors and rewards are gleefully detailed in this splendid book. But the rewards proved fleeting, leaving only the rigors of life on the "tormented soil." Historical events from the French Revolution, through the Paris Commune and the two world wars, sent ripples through this isolated region, but the continuities of everyday life remained strong. Twenty-eight men from Balazuc signed the list of grievances against the king in the spring of 1789; the families of nineteen still live in the village. This is a story of resilience. It is the French story of tensions between Paris and the village expressed in battles over the school, the church, the council, and people's livelihoods. Most of all it is a love letter from an acclaimed historian who with his family has made Balazuc his adopted home. With a new "golden tree," tourism, now flourishing, the struggles of the village to prosper and to retain its identity continue, transmuted to a world of cell phones and an imagined village past.

Genres: France, History, Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

John Mustard Merriman was Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University. He earned his B.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1972) at the University of Michigan. Merriman received Yale University’s Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize in 2000, and was awarded a Docteur Honoris Causa in France in 2002, and the “Medal of Meritorious Service to Polish Education” (Medal Kimisji Edukacji Narodowej) awarded by the Ministry of Education of Poland in 2009.

Reviews

[Martha E.]

Well, very much a stretch to say I’ve read this book. I have no idea how it got on my list. I guess it seemed it could take me to an enchanted April under the Ardeche sun ( Do not judge me). Rather this turned out to be a history of the village - a history of one natural and man made disaster after another.
This sentence sums up the village history: “If anything, Balazuc‘s problems seemed to get worse.”

[John]

It was an interesting treatise on the history of a town in southeast France. For those that live there, very interesting. Have to kind of gloss over all the names and dates and go for the feel of the place they invoke.

[Linconter]

Merriman goes to live in a small town in the Ardeche, one that has been on the brink of extinction for most of its existence. He probes the history of the town, from its medieval days through the silk industry's relative "prosperity" to the modern day tourism focus, and he makes you feel what it's like to live in a very small village in the middle of a scenic wonderland where life is anything but easy.