Pont-Farcy, Calvados, Normandie, France [14380]
Son Histoire et ses Caractéristiques
By Christopher Long
Le Bourg
- L'église
- Le vieux bourg (en bas)
- Traces de la ville mediaeval quand les routes suivaient les ruisseaux et les moulins, etc
Vestiges des lieux construit pour constraindre l'eau (néttoyage de boyous de cochon, etc) – expert nécessaire)
- Etc., etc,
- Liste des batiments et (ci-joint) les differents commerces d'il y a 50 ans
- Portion de la roche visible sur laquelle la ville est construite
- Traces d'une ferme dans le bourg (côté nord)
- Traces de quelques comptoires sous les 'vitrines'
- Poste de relais (se renseigner auprès de André Larose)
- La vierge
- La grande calvaire
- Où était la lavoire communal? (à noter, les vestiges de quelques lavoires privées tel qu'au Bosquet, vue de la route)
- Mémorial aux Américains tombés dans la 2eme Guerre Mondiale
Pont-Farcy is a quiet, charming town in the heart of the Norman 'Bocage Virois'. But not long ago it was a busy commercial centre with a thriving port, sixty miles inland from the coast.
Perched on a rocky outcrop, above a bridge across the river Vire, Pont-Farcy dominates the end of a series of dramatic gorges in an area renowned for its delightful hills, woodlands, valleys and streams.
There must have been a crossing point here in Gallo-Roman times and, from the C11th, a bridge would have been essential to successive dukes of Normandy on the east-west road linking their provincial capitals at Caen and Avranches. The town also sits on the north-south road linking St Lô with Vire.
Le Pont
- Explication de son importance stratégique pour la ville (trans-Vire)
Pilgrims
By the C12th Pont-Farcy also provided shelter to untold thousands of pilgrims from all over Europe who spent successive nights at Caen, Villers-Bocage, Pont-Farcy and Villedieu-les-Poêles before first setting eyes on the sacred Mont-Saint-Michel.
- Pilgrim routes through Normandy — Le Mont-Saint-Michel
Les Calvaires
- Beauchêne
- Le Val de Vire
- Etc., etc
Agriculture
For centuries Pont-Farcy remained a small town commanding a vital bridge on a strategic road and pilgrim route, surrounded by hundreds of peasant farms that seldom exceeded three or four hectares (10-12 acres). The Bocage Virois was a relatively poor area in Normandy with no great estates and only a handful of modest manors.
Indeed, from the evidence of surviving architecture, it seems clear that Pont-Farcy, from at least the C15th onwards, was notably poorer than neighbouring communities. Pont-Farcy does not boast any of the substantial farm-houses built in the expensive and then fashionable Renaissance style such as those that survive in large numbers in Saint-Vigor-des-Monts, Morigny, Courson, Montbray and Saint-Sever.
The earliest surviving houses in Pont-Farcy are notably modest and only by the late C19th did a few farming families manage to build themselves more impressive longères, no doubt a result of the introduction of dairy cows..
Since the Middle Ages, these farms had been largely devoted to running sheep on the hill-sides and to growing a range of crops on any land flat enough to be worked by oxen.
But during the C19th an agricultural revolution began to take place. By 1850 sheep were giving way to dairy cows – notably the vache normande (which may have been derived from crossing an English 'Durham' bull with a native Norman breeds from Jersey and the Cotentin peninsula).
Throughout the rest of the C19th most farms made butter and cheese to be sold at weekly local markets and agricultural architecture changed dramatically to meet the needs of dairy farming (e.g. cowsheds, dairies and space for storing hay and straw. It is also likely that the configuration of fields, pasture land and hedgerows had to be altered to suit the needs of cows.
With the coming of the railways Normandy became associated with the renowned butter and cheeses which it supplied to Paris and major cities throughout France and beyond – Camembert being an early example of the marketing of branded products.
Only by the early years of the C20th did more prosperous farmers begin to use horses which were replaced by tractors in around 1960.
Careful study of agricultural architecture around Pont-Farcy reveals that most farm houses built or extended before the C19th incorporate a bergerie (sheep byre) while the configuration of those built later are almost invariably designed for dairy farming.
[At the time of writing, efforts are being made to encourage sheep breeding and the vache Normande is gradually being replaced by black-and-white Holstein cows.]
Les Boulangeries (Henri Letellier)
Une Fermette Typique (et toujours visibles)
'La Bénouvière' (vue à partir de la route nationale Pont-Farcy-Montbray, près du Ménage)
- Sa poullaière en torchi et chaume
- Sa grange et étable classiques
- Sa maison et dependences classiques
Les Moulins
- Sous Le Bosq
- Sous Le Bourg (Dedieu)
- Moulin Hy (Hermon) qui roule toujours
La Route Nationale
By the C19th Pont-Farcy had become more important. In an age of industrialisation and road-building, the town found itself conveniently placed on the great route nationale that linked Paris, Rouen and Caen with Avranches, Rennes and Brittany. Additionally it lay half-way between the major towns of St Lô and Vire.
Of course, the prime motivation behind the building of France's extraordinary network of routes nationales concerned national defence and internal security. But these roads also transformed rural life by making towns such as St Lô, Vire, Sourdeval, Saint-Sever and Villedieu more accessible to rural families in the Bocage Virois.
Both town and country benefitted from the expanding weekly markets. Farmers could sell excess produce and with the proceeds they bought commodities, supplies, services and small luxuries. Subsistance farming was giving way to commercial farming and Pont-Farcy benefitted from the passing trade.
The Canal & Port
Simultaneously, Pont-Farcy found that its river could be made navigable from the Channel coast, sixty miles away.
Horse-drawn barges now ran through a series of locks and canals transporting raw materials and finished goods of all sorts.
In particular, premium-grade granite was exported from the Bocage to St Lô and the coast, while lime was brought up river to enrich farmland in the Bocage. Lime, coupled with manure, was essential to sustainable dairy farming and the production of the finest milk, butter and cheese.
- Traces des écluses (trois ?)
Les Carrières
- Histoire et significance (port, ville, etc)
- 'La Carrière de la Grippe' et les autres...
Coming Of The Railway
For a short while, in the late C19th and early C20th, Pont-Farcy was one of the busiest commercial towns in the region. But soon new railways replaced the old canals because, in a few hours, they could carry granite to the coast, butter and cheese to Paris, and pilgrims from all over France to Mont-Saint-Michel.
Unfortunately the new railway line from Paris via Caen to Brittany by-passed Pont-Farcy. Eiffel chose to cross the dramatic gorges of the river Vire with a spectacular bridge at Souleuvre and the line ran through the town of Vire which was already the principal town in the region.
La Première Guerre Mondiale
Mémorial aux disparus de la première guerre. Derived from the original plaque which in 2004 was mounted on the wall of the small meeting room above the ground-floor Mairie in Pont Farcy.
|
1914 Léon Asselin Alphonse Godard Alphonse Hermon Marcel Jeanne Louis Laville Louis Manson Louis Pellerin Octave Postel Louis Salles Auguste Savary Auguste Voisin |
1915 Albert Champin Alfred Gesnouin Alfred Lefèvre Paul Lefèvre Paul Leparquet Raymond Potier Jules Salles Abel Voisin Réné Yver |
|
1916 Gaston Angot Auguste Barbier Auguste Belluet Paul Deguette Henri Laurent Louis Masset Louis Voisin Joseph Tirel |
1917 Henri Champin Constant Gripon Eugène Haye Auguste Ladroue Henri Laville Henri Loisiel Désiré Marie |
|
1918 Louis Cannet Prosper Delahaye Réné Gesnouin Alphonse Lefèvre |
In 2004 the following family names were still to be found in Pont Farcy, though relationships with those above (if any) has not yet been established: Godard, Hermon, Jeanne, Laville, Manson, Savary, Voisin, Gesnouin, Barbier, Deguette, Ladroue, Loisiel et Marie. |
Age Of Motoring
Nevertheless, during the 1920s and 1930s, Pont-Farcy continued to prosper thanks to the growing popularity of motor cars. Motorists needed its hotels, garages, bars and restaurants as they took the main road from Paris via Caen to Mont-Saint-Michel and Brittany.
World War ll
During World War ll, the bridge at Pont-Farcy was once again strategically vital. By 1940 the Germans occupied all of France and the bridge at Pont-Farcy guaranteed their communications across central Normandy and into Brittany. In 1944 the largest amphibian invasion ever known took place when British, Canadian and American troops landed on beaches in Normandy in order to liberate France and the rest of Europe.
Broadly speaking, the river Vire separated the American forces in the west – liberating the Cotentin peninsula, Avranches, Mortain and Brittany – from British and Canadian forces in the east – liberating the region from Caen to Bény Bocage, including Vire itself.
To prevent the Germans from retreating eastwards across the river Vire, American aircraft spent days trying to bomb the bridge at Pont-Farcy. They failed, though many of the town's houses were destroyed.
Eventually the Germans retreated across Pont-Farcy's bridge and destroyed it themselves with dynamite to cover their retreat.
A few weeks later they were annihilated in a pincer movement involving British and American troops at Falaise.
- Les neuf Américains tués à Pont-Farcy le 19 Aout 1944.
- Lieux des evenements du résau 'PTT' (Résistance) penadant la deuxième guerre mondiale – munitions britannique parachutées par le RAF sur les hauts de Ste-Marie-Outre-L'Eau.
The Post-War Boom
In the 1950s and 1960s, Pont-Farcy continued to serve the needs of tourists and visitors on the road from Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel and Brittany. During those years millions of cars and lorries thundered through the narrow high street, both sides of which were lined with dozens of small shops and no less than ten bars!
Les Commerces des Années 50
A Pont-Farcy en 1954 (selon André Lelouvier):
|
2 forgerons 2 moulins 10 bars 5 épiceries 2 boulangeries 3 bouchers 1 chartcuterie 4 abatoirs (abolis en 1961) 1 vendeur de vélos 2 coiffeurs 2 buralistes 2 cordonniers 1 bouredellier 1 mercerie 1 marchand de tissus/vêtements |
1 granitier 1 cancaillier 1 routier 1 restaurant/hotel 1 electro-menager 1 veterinaire 2 menuisiers 1 marchand de meubles 1 garde champette 1 garage des écuries les pompiers la gendarmerie |
By-passed In The Eighties
Inevitably, by the 1980s, the volume of traffic through Pont-Farcy became intolerable and a by-pass was built. But in consequence the commercial heart of Pont-Farcy began to die. In 2003, the by-pass became part of the new A84 motorway – l'Autoroute des Estuaires – which once again involved a dramatic crossing the river Vire. Fortunately this new bridge has an exit (No. 39) which gives us all the chance to leave the motorway and rediscover one of the more delightful towns in Normandy with an ancient history that in many ways parallels that of France herself.
Pont-Farcy Aujourd'hui
Les Ponts 'Bailey' (ponts Britanniques de la deuxième guerre – celui de 'la Grippe', maintenant disparu; et celui de la Grégardière à entre Pont-Farcy et Fourneaux qui en 2008 était à risque de disparaître).
- Panoramas sur Pont-Farcy et à travers le Bocage
- A partir des 'Hauts' su le national
- A partir des Cinq Chemins et la Hatuyère
- A partir de la carrière de Ste Marie-Outre-L'Eau
- A partir de Beau Costil
- Meilleure vue de la ville (et de la vieille route principale)
- A partir de la route communale près du lieu-dit La Masurie (SMOL)
- Lieu d'Etude des Ornithologues de GONm au Bosquet
- Vu à partir de la route nationale devant le lieu-dit La Sourcière
- Les Chemins Perdus
- Le Chemin Pavé – Route Romaine ? – : (Moulin Hy – Beauregard – jusqu'aux 'Hauts) &151; et bouché par les ordures de la ville …
- Le chemin entre La Sallière et La Sourcière toujours ouvert (mais sans poteau indicateur)
- Le chemin entre La Masurie (SMOL) et Pont-Farcy (vieux bourg) mais très récemment rendu inaccessible et abimé par un tuyau d'écoulement posé par Intercom ! (et sans poteau indicateur)
- Plusiers autres chemins maintentant bloqués ou abondonnés …
- Le Chemin d'Halage
- La Base Nautique
- Gorges et Vallée de la Vire (par canoë, à pied ou en voiture)
XXX NOTES XXX
© (2006) Christopher Long. Copyright, Syndication & All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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