Bories in Provence

On our way to Saignon and Marianne’s goat farm, Kathy and Charley stopped by some farmland to show us another of their “special spots.” As we traipsed past a hedgerow and across the next field toward their surprise—one of 3,000 dry-stone huts left in France—we noticed rows of fragrant cilantro mixed with wildflowers, scattered poppies, thyme, and rosemary. 

This borie was more elaborate than some others, which are basically stone igloos. This one had a side corral for animals and a separate, smaller borie to cover a well. When we ducked in the front door, we saw a bed frame. 

 

Kathy and Charley speculate that a shepherd or farmer needed to tend something up here, where it might have been too far to go home every night, so camped out here. Or maybe shepherds waited out storms or Provence's famous wind, the Mistral. Some bories simply stored peasants' tools, but this one seems to have been lived in.

It is an old borie though because there is no mortar between the rocks. Dry-stone architecture from as far back as the Bronze Age has been found in most of the world.