Chalet Neighborhood

The Neighborhood of Brameloup
Musièges - Frangy - Chaumont

SIGNY FARM

My nearest neighbors cows

The chalet is in the middle of the forest, with no other houses around it. The nearest house is the farm at Signy about a kilometer away up the forest path, but the old farmer has died and the pastures are rented to a farmer with a big farm in the village of Quincy two kilometers up on the plateau. No one lives at Signy now. My nearest neighbors are in fact his cows, whose bells I can hear as they graze in the local pastures.

Signy farmhouse

The farmhouse at Signy

Signy barn

There is a large two-storey barn with an entrance at the upper level, and the ruin of an old house

The farm is surrounded by pastures with lovely views
fields

In the picture on the right, my chalet is barely visible through the trees at the end of the pasture

Below my property is another small pasture between my land and the path down the hill. In the spring before the cows graze it, it is full of wildflowers.
lower pasture

MUSIÈGES

Musièges in the distance half way up Le Mont, taken from Signy farm

My local commune is the village of Musièges, with about 300 inhabitants, but it is high on a hill named "Le Mont" (the mountain) on the other side of the Usses River, and I am its only resident on the south side of the river. When the mayor came to help with my water connection a few years ago, it was the first time he had visited this part of his commune. Between Brameloup and Musièges, on the other side of the river, is Les Bonnets, an economic activity zone (a kind of small industrial park) with a sawmill, agricultural store, warehouses and a Fromagerie (cheese factory). At least when I buy butter and cheeses at the local supermarket, like Tomme de Savoie, rebluchon or raclette, I know that it was made locally, probably with milk from the cows whose bells I hear, very ecological with minimal transport. My eggs come from Seyssel, another town on the Rhone River about 15 km away.

Musieges from Le Mont

Views of Musièges and of the Genevois valley looking towards Geneva from the top of Le Mont

Towards Frangy View towards Frangy

Usses River

FRANGY

The closest community to Brameloup is in fact the large village of Frangy, with about 1,800 residents. I am just at its limit, with part of my land in that municipality.

Frangy Church and War Memorial

Frangy is just a 10 minute walk down my road, through a tunnel under the national highway bypass, and across a suspension footbridge over the Usses River.

Tunnel under the highway

Tunnel

Footbridge

Suspension bridge Bridge

Bridge from Frangy

Frangy is a cantonal centre, with a gendarmerie and fire station, doctors and dentist, schools and multipurpose hall, bank, pharmacy, a variety of stores and a supermarket.

Centre of Frangy

School

Shops

As with all the villages in our area, old houses are being renovated and small apartment blocks being built as more people move in, so it is not looking as run-down as when I first moved here. The city of Annecy is less than a half hour away, and is developing in our direction, with a giant shopping centre and new hospital complex only 15 minutes from Frangy. A new superhighway between Geneva and Annecy is just being completed, which will also improve access to the region and bring more people.

I am glad that planning restrictions limit new construction to existing villages, and that my side of the river is zoned for nature conservation with no building permitted. My green island of calm is reasonably secure.

CHAUMONT

Above Frangy on a rocky outcrop on the side of the mountain opposite to my chalet is the village of Chaumont, higher than my chalet and in the middle of my view across the valley. Chaumont is dominated by the remains of a medieval castle, built in 1124 by the Counts of Geneva. It was a strategic site of great economic and military importance, at the intersection of two great routes in the Middle Ages between Geneva and Lyon, and between Genoa and Franche-Comté. The castle was razed in 1616 (along with a similar castle at Clermont 15 km south of my chalet) by Henry 1st of Genevois-Nemours, cousin of the Duke of Savoy, to prevent the region from having the capacity to resist his domination.

Chaumont from my chalet

Village

Castle from village

Mairie (city hall) Mairie

Ruins of the castle of Chaumont
Castle

Of the first church in Chaumont built by Agnès of Chalon in 1308, only the Gothic choir and the door to the bell tower remain.

Chaumont church

Gothic door to bell tower

One of my wife Martine's ancestors came from Chaumont. François-Antoine Curtet (1763-1830) was the son of Christophe Curtet (b. 1707), the notary public of Chaumont. He trained as a surgeon in Turin, joined the French army of the North in 1794, and after being assigned to a hospital in Brussels, settled there in 1797, where he later helped to re-establish the Medical School after the Napoleanic Wars. His daughter Cécile married Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874), a famous scientist, permanent secretary of the Belgian Royal Academy, founder of the Brussels Observatory and the meteorological service, and a key figure in the development of the science of statistics. Martine is the great-great-great granddaughter of Quetelet. There were still Curtets living in Chaumont in W.W.I, as a Felix Curtet is listed on the war memorial (d.1917).

The view from the Chaumont castle ruins shows what a dominant position it had.

Looking south from Chaumont over the valley of the Usses River, my chalet is in the middle of the forested area beyond the river, and Frangy is to the right.

Below Chaumont is the little Saint-Jean chapel used by the inhabitants of Chaumont since 1198. It was burned by the Bernese in 1590 when they invaded the region and established Protestantism, was reconstructed, and last restored in 1826.

St Jean chapel

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Last updated 3 July 2010