Massonne nature reserve: with the Wind Watchers, ready to hear the song of the trees blowing

PDue to its rarity, it is a rare event not to be missed for lovers of nature and walks in the woods. Located across the communes of Gripperie Saint-Symphorien and Saint-Sornin, the regional nature reserve (RNR) de La Massonne opens its doors on Saturday 12 October and Sunday 13 October (from 10am to 5pm), a harvest season suitable for exploration.

Annual meeting together with the holding of the 4th edition of the festival Veilleurs de Vents, with the theme “The song of the trees in the great concert of life” held every two years.

An initiative from the source we found the painter and writer Jean Michel Bénier, the owner of the reserve, who is completing the exhibition of his paintings “Sortilèges du vivant” in the house: “at the beginning (in 2017), the idea was very simple: to try to make people aware of the beauty of nature.” In this magnificent setting of about one hundred hectares, very open, visitors are invited (there were almost a thousand two years ago) to take a 6 km route through this patchwork of different landscapes.

Reserves

Allow three hours to complete (properly worn with walking shoes or boots) this route punctuated by stages allowing you to discover the work of twelve artists invited by the association. In residence for several days, the visual artists, painters, sculptors show sensitivity,” says Jean-Michel Bénier and Annie Dubeau Gilardeau. And who is generous: they are not paid​​​​ to create these short-term works from materials and resources taken from the reserve (dead wood, logging waste) that will remain on site.

Among the latter, Arnaud Araguas, sculptor in the Basque traditionused to shape wood on both sides of the Pyrenees. Member of a workshop based on an affiliated workshop Axuri’Arte in Sare (64), he carved a traditional instrument, txalaparta, from pieces of wood that he hits with shorter sticks.

“It repeats and softens,” he breathes. The proximity of the lake near where it should have been placed could carry the sounds to the clearing where François Quesnel took his place. For several days, the sculptor has been carving the heads of “rather strange peaks” on the trunks of around ten trees. A marshy ground he makes a cob that has no grass, but sheep’s wool. To enjoy the site this weekend!

Artists, craftsmen, painters, sculptors, writers

Also present will be Laure Dominique Agniel (writer), Bruno Barbara (cabinet maker, marine carpenter), Sylvie Forcioli (painter), Fabrice Diphe (creator of dreams), Héloïse Hélène (painter), Alain Persuy (forester, expert nature, writer ), Catherine Poulain (writer), in the presence of Denis Cheissoux, host of the exhibition “CO2 mon amour on France Inter” and with the participation of Natalia Bouis from Librairie du Rivage in Royan. Food and beverage bar.