Saugeais

The Saugeais or Sauget is a geographical entity made up of eleven communes of the Haut-Doubs in France joined together in a baptized folk republic “free Republic of Saugeais”. Montbenoît is the capital of this “republic” of 125 km ².

History

Origins

About the year 1000 a religious community organized by a hermit named Benoît develops the saving in this portion of the valley of the Doubs which will become ecclesiastical Seigneurie until the Revolution. This community of regular canons of Saint Augustin (organized by the abbey of Saint-Maurice (Were worth)) will build an abbey at the 12th century which presents by its architectural framework, its history and its vestiges an main interest. It is today the only medieval religious whole of this importance preserved in Doubs.

The nave of the 12th century contrasts with the chorus of the 16th century indicating the influence of the Italian Renaissance. The cloister dates from 12th and 15th centuries. In the church, 26 stalls out of wooden carved, all different, are particularly remarkable, as well as the arched kitchen or the small doors which lead to the dungeons or the oubliettes.

One finds the first traces migratory in 1350, (1348 and 1349 were the two years devastators of large the black Peste) in particular the arrival of Chaboz (Chabod) to the farm of “at the seed” which will give rise to a whole line of Saugeais: Chabod, Bole-Richard, Bolle-Reddat, etc

The language saugette, always spoken, differs from the other local patois. It finds its roots in the high valley of Aoste (Italy) and the Haute-Savoie at the 15th century, imported by the companions come to restore the abbey vandalized by the armies of Bernard Saxony of Weimar for the account of Louis XIV.

The “republic”

In 1947, the prefect of the Doubs, Mr. Ottaviani, of passage to Montbenoît, lunches with the hotel of the Abbey, whose owner is Georges Pourchet. When the Prefect between with the hotel, Georges Pourchet asks him on the ton of the joke if it has a pass to come in the Republic from Saugeais. Surprised, the prefect asks him: “Mr Pourchet, explain to me that”. After the explanations, the prefect declares to him, joking him also: “For a Republic, one needs a President. And well, I appoint you President of the free Republic of Saugeais”. Georges Pourchet then decides to take this title in load.

The abbot Martial Jeantet, priest of Montbenoît of 1964 to 1982, also takes part him to reactivate the folklore of this community. Indeed, this impassioned of architecture finds the required funds with the restoration of the abbey. The dynamics initiated by this work sees reappearing a regional folk current increasingly important.

After the death of Georges Pourchet in 1968, the Republic remains 5 years without President. It is in 1972, whereas his wife Gabrielle Pourchet (1906 - 2005) had a meal of village fair for the benefit of the restoration of the Abbey, that one came to say to him: " Saugets have just named you Présidente." It then tries to structure this “republic” by the nomination of representatives ambassadors, the striking of currency or the creation of a passport saugeais. There exists a Saugeais anthem, made up in 1910 on a music of Theodore Botrel, the Breton bard, by the Canon Joseph Bobillier, born in Montbenoit. A French stamp of 2,50 F created in 1987 is devoted to Saugeais.

Successive presidents

Saugeais TV

Born in September 1978 around a team from voluntary, Télé Saugeais set up a network of mobile unit cinema supplemented by the diffusion of a video magazine of local information. In 1988, association undertakes an experiment of hertzian local TV on Haut-Doubs, produced on line Abbey of Montbenoît. It is the time of the production of the “Montagnons” (12 X 13 minutes).

Then of 1989 with 1995, Télé Saugeais occupies during 15 minutes each month the network of France 3 Burgundy-Frank-County by diffusing “the life Tops”. The 50 magazines thus carried out treat rurality and testify to the economic activities, cultural and social of this area.

This whole of documentary received the Gold Cock of the best magazine to the festival of the Local mediums in 1991.

Télé Saugeais also developed an independent production diffused on the regional and national antennas.

Annual demonstration: 24 hours of Montbenoît

The 24 hours of Montbenoît are an organized sporting event atour of various activities: “Saugeathlon”, excursion VTT, price cyclist, duathlon of the young people. It is about a snuffed appointment of spring in Haut-Doubs, an occasion to discover the landscapes of the canton which lend themselves particularly well to the practice of many sports. They were even accompanied in 1985 by circulation by a special rail-car on the Pontarlier-Gilley line (since displaced and transformed into cycle track: the “way of the train”).

This demonstration joins together each year nearly a thousand of sportsmen and 3000 spectators. More than 300 voluntary are implied in its organization.

Local alternative of the Triathlon, the “Saugeathlon” requires to prove reliable in three disciplines: a course of 7 km descent in Kayak on Doubs, follow-up of a Race on foot on 9 km between City-of-Bridge and Lièvremont, and of a made uneven circuit with VTT of 12 km for the ladies and 24 km for the men. Other tests take place the second pedestrian day, excursions and VTT.

Communes

The republic counts eleven communes:

Personality

See too

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