The Albarine Valley revives its industrial past

Anthony and Lauriane descend a hike on the sets overlooking Lyon. Upon their arrival in the village of Saint-Rambert-en-Bugey (Ain), they are attracted by a massive building, the Museum of Boggist traditions.

The curious couple push the door. Some volunteers eagerly accompany their steps in a first room dedicated to the vineyard: in the last century, each family of the valley had some surveyors. Anthony and Lauriane observe the hut which made it possible to go up the earth, the still which was used for the distillation of local alcohol, the barn, provisional habitat of the winegrowers.

On the upper floor, they enter a farm. “She reminds me of my grandfather’s stories,” notes Anthony. In the bedroom, a wheel, a bathroom, hand sewn curtains. Follows a reconstruction of the Le Bon Marché store, a forge and a classroom. And above all, at the heart of the museum, a detailed exhibition on the Schappe industry, in other words the manufacture of wire from silk waste.

As elsewhere in France, the arrival of the machine transformed the Albarine valley. In Saint-Rambert-en-Bugey, almost everyone worked at the factory. “My mother went there from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., and my father from 4 am to 1 pm,” recalls Nicole, a volunteer retired at the museum.

October 24, 1986: The date is registered in memories. On that day, the schappe buildings burned. “It was evening,” recalls Huguette, a worker of her 14th birthday at her 50th anniversary. According to the still vivid rumor, the bosses, in the midst of the textile industry crisis, would have voluntarily set fire to the last factory in the valley. Be that as it may, the fire sounded the death knell for a world that was inexorably blurring, leaving whole families on the tile. To be definitively forgotten? Simone Vérel, school director and history passionate, did not resolve it. Shortly after the fire, the Museum of Boggist traditions was born in the old offices of the factory. The inhabitants had lost everything in the flames and deindustrialisation. And yet, they had a lot to transmit.

Proud of their past

The bugrs have drawn precious details from their memories and extract from old objects from their granaries. They saw them, with pride, dusted, exposed, transformed into an immersive story of a missing life. This museum is theirs: they have deposited their history there, that of their valley.

And the approach is bearing fruit. By wandering through theaters, each of which traces the daily life of a part of the population, visitors have beautiful meetings, first with the volunteers who welcome them.

During the visit are drawn in dotted the tenacity and the courage of the inhabitants. Touched, visitors may be. Pushed to reflection, certainly. They remember that a short time ago, we banged heavy hooves, we lived with a meager salary and we entered the factory at 14 years old. We also manufactured any yourself, using tools that have fallen into oblivion. And we exercised a thousand professions – Matelassier, hawker, drummer – whose young generations no longer even have an idea.

“It was not so long ago,” says Anthony, fascinated by the harsh life of charcoal burners. However, beyond admiration, the visit arouses some relief among some. “I am happy to have been born in my time!” Ysée slice, a Lyonnaise student passing through.

Touring to the future

The museum welcomes tourists, associations, retirement homes, schools. Not long ago, the guides led their first visit to kindergarten children. “The mistresses were delighted,” said Monique, one of them. The abundant associative life of the valley animates the museum and its surroundings, according to bug -wakes and days of waffles.

“Tradition is not the cult of ashes, but preservation of fire,” says Monique, quoting the composer Gustav Mahler. Objective achieved. Around the museum, a new generation takes over. Stéphane Paret, a painter in his forties, embellished the walls of colorful frescoes.

The newcomers, some of whom are neorural and families in search of a better living environment, arrive with the ideas of their generation: it is now planned to open a third place in the Museum of Boggist traditions.