Pilgrim Prize for regional heritage book 2025

Like two vintages that have been left to rest for a few years and whose full flavor we rediscover. Two independent publishers, the Rhône-Alpes Lieux dits and the Bordeaux-based Confluences, are crowned again. They had already been among the first winners of the Pèlerin prize for the regional heritage book, created in 2019 with the Saint-Émilion Wine Council. Both proposed works that were a hit with the jury.

Thus, Confluences is our winner in the “New Aquitaine” category for a work on the industrial basin of Fumel, in Lot-et-Garonne, The hand of fire: a century of metallurgical industry, until 1970, from its birth in the flaming light of the blast furnaces until their sad closure.

“Its author, Vincent Joineau, historian and researcher in industrial archaeology, has carried out long-term work,” says Éric Audinet, founder and director of the Confluences house – which very recently passed into the fold of Cairn, an independent publisher and broadcaster based near Pau (Pyrénées-Orientales). Vincent met many Fumélois who had the intelligence to keep family archives.”

“It is a book incarnate: a story of men in the service of earth, fire and iron. When the human rises to the height of the myth…” comments biographer and art historian Alain Vircondelet, member of the jury. “An unprecedented subject, the establishment in the 19th century of an industrial basin at the heart of an agricultural society,” continues Catherine Lalanne, creator of the prize. “It’s a real historian’s work, using collections of largely unpublished old photographs.”

A feeling of pride

“The work also raises the question of safeguarding this heritage at a time when factories, once prosperous, are closing, and can be extrapolated to other territories,” insists Philippe Bonnet, chief heritage curator and member of the jury.

For the release of The hand of fire, Éric Audinet and Vincent Joineau have increased direct sales and signings in Lot-et-Garonne. “We saw entire families arrive as if inhabited by this industrial history,” says the publisher. They left with three or four copies to give away, with a real feeling of pride. It was particularly moving.”

Labor and cure, after work care… Thermal spas and resorts in Burgundy-Franche-Comté invites us to it. Winner in the “France” category, Lieux dits, which left Lyon for Haute-Loire, carried out, as usual, outstanding publishing work, in collaboration with the inventory and heritage service of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region. Fabien Dufoulon, research manager, directed the work.

He was able to compose a real story on the cross-development of hydrotherapy in Luxeuil-les-Bains, Salins-les-Bains, Besançon, Santenay and Bourbon-Lancy. Which at the same time immerses us in the history of hygiene and health over the last two centuries.

“Exciting, enriching, moving, the work can be devoured like a saga of hydrotherapy,” enthuses Catherine Lalanne. “It’s a discovery. An entire universe is restored,” confirm Sophie Laurant, senior History reporter, and Victor Macé de Lépinay, deputy editor-in-chief at Pilgrim .

And Alain Vircondelet concludes on behalf of all: “With this book, the spa towns and their spa establishments in Franche-Comté display the grace of their facilities, their old-fashioned charm under the Second Empire and the Belle Époque, and their renaissance today. At a time when thermal cures are under threat, this book recalls their beauty and their benefits!”