Fountain 42 A Source in Parc Mercantour 17 August

 

Mt. Bego

my ultimate destination

Some journeys are too sacred and profound to record hastily in a blog setting.

However, Mt.Bego, 2872m, the site of my Sorcier, required two attempts in two years, over 4000 miles on minor roads with my beautiful motorbike, Louise, 24 hours of walking, 42 recorded fountains, perhaps 100 unrecorded fountains, uncountable baguettes, 

bottles of water, camp sites, and more importantly, the people I met along the way.

The name Bego, is possibly derived from an early Indo-European language: "be" meaning sacred mountain and bull god, and "go" meaning cow or earth goddess. 

In 1460, Pierre de Monfort wrote "C'etatit lieu infernal avec que figures de diables et mille démones partout taillez en rochiers ". It was a hell place with devil figures everywhere engraved in the rocks.

 Approximately 70,000 petroglyphs, carved around 5000 years ago

have been discovered in this area and I came to find just one, the engraving of Le Sorcier.

 Several years ago I had found his illustration in a book destined

 to be re-pulped at the local recycle centre.

 I tore the drawing from the book and took it home with me.

I was charmed by his vulnerability: his little hands held up over his head and his down turned mouth. 

After a time the picture got buried in my studio, and some years later it turned up, 

 late one night in a box of mixed random stuff. 

I fell in love with him again and made several little lino/mono prints 

oblivious to who he was and his significance.

A couple months later, during a flying visit to Grenoble, 

I happened across a photographic exhibition, and there, framed and hanging on the wall 

was my beloved Sorcier.

I contacted the photographer, Emmanuel Breteau, and he pointed me in the right direction to find him.

http://breteau-photographe.com/galerie/vallee_merveilles_1.php

 

The page from the book

 

 One of the many prints

other work about Le Sorcier is on my website

www.meganplayers.co.uk and facebook Megan Players Art.

 I will be having an exhibition at Birdwood House, 

Totnes, England in October 2015

My photograph of Le Sorcier on the day we finally met.

Examples of other petroglyphs at Mt. Bego.
The engraving on the right is also illustrated on the page taken from the book.

   

The terrain 

    

The weather can change quickly from hot sun to cold storm with

lightening and thunder and there is virtually nowhere to take shelter.

My new Italian friend fills a cup with water from a source we found beside the path on our the climb to the guest house at the base of Mt. Bego.

to read more about my Italians, see the post

Gli Belli Italiani 22 August