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Abriès (Municipality, Hautes-Alpes, France)

by Arnaud Leroy

Presentation of Abriès
Municipal flag of Abriès

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Presentation of Abriès

Abriès (276 inhabitants, 1,900 in 1831) is a village located in the Queyras massif.

Queyras is a massif located south of Briançon (via the Col de l'Izoard, 2,360 m), watered mostly by the river Guil, tributary of the Durance.
Geologically, Queyras is a complex mixture of nappes, schists, flysch and Oxfordian marls. The region enjoys a relatively clement weather, with limited rainfall and a lot of sunshine. Accordingly, forests grow in Queyras up to 2,300 m a.s.l., which is a record for the Alps. On the sunny slopes, villages inhabited the whole year round are located at unusual elevations: Saint-Véran-en-Queyras is the highest municipality in Europe (2,040 m). Most of Queyras is nowadays a Parc Naturel Régional, where winter and summer tourism is the main source of income. The Tour du Queyras is a must for experienced hikers. However, wood handcrafts was the main traditional activity in Queyras, especially in wintertime, since metal was rare and expensive. Wood things were mostly made during the long winter. They were decorated with typical Alpine motives such as the rosette, which can be found on tools and furniture as well as doors and mailboxes. The rosette is interpreted as a solar symbol related to man, sometimes surrounded with a snake symbolizing the moon and related to woman.

Wood was also used to build the traditional houses, locally called fustes (from Latin fustafuste sensu stricto, built in larch wood and used as a barn and a hayloft. The fuste was naturally aired, which was absolutely necessary: due to the short summertime and thunderstorms, hay was often stored into the hayloft before being completely dry. Airing decreased the risk of fermentation and blaze. Food was also kept in the fuste during wintertime. The main facade of the house was exposed to the south and had balconies, on which the washing and grain sheaves were placed to dry. The lower balcony, called lobbio, had a permanent floor, whereas the upper ones had racks. Inside the house, the main room in the first floor was the "court", cobbled with larch logs sticked into the soil. A traditional fuste can be visited in Saint-Véran (Museum Le Soum).

In the Middle Ages, the political system of Escartons was set up in this region of the Alps. The Escartons were groups of villages that were formed in the Middle Ages to solve together problems