The project of the Path of the Wise was born during a session of the Council of Elders, made up of 9 women and 9 men aged 60 and over, chosen for their wise experience by the Municipal Councillors. On that day, the subject of reflection was the question of how to bring our republican motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” to life?
The birth of the Path of the Sages
The idea germinated that sprinkle the city with sentences emanating from famous women and men, globally recognized for their wisdom and their humanism, could challenge the awareness of passers-by Borméens as tourists. In order to justify this bold and innovative project in the eyes of the Mayor and his Municipal Council, the decision is taken to combine this route with historical plaques which were to be installed on the city's emblematic monuments. The members of the Council of Elders then determined the route of this path within the medieval village and worked on the support, texts, images and symbols of these plates.
Le butterfly symbol is chosen because it represents joy, beauty, grace and lightness of being. It refers to the power of personal transformation by its strong power of rebirth. Indeed, before being a butterfly, this insect is first an egg, then it becomes a caterpillar before being a chrysalis and finally a butterfly. Each new step symbolizes a change in life, the let go on what you were to appreciate what you have become. As a symbol of wisdom, This animal is a source of inspiration in life. Under his fragile appearances,
The butterfly has a great strength. Indeed, his life is fleeting (life span of a few days to a few weeks) and yet, it spreads joy and good humor by the grace and beauty of its flight, enjoying every moment that nature offers it. So why not do like the butterfly, to approach with confidence everything that life offers us, good or bad experience, because after all it only lasts a moment. These These experiences are not the past the better preparation for the future allowing us to move forward more serenely on the paths of life?
The biography of Jean Jaurès
Founder of the French Socialist Party and the newspaper "l'humanité".
Jean Jaures was born in Castres on September 3, 1859, in a bourgeois familyHe did brilliantly at school, came first in the Higher Normal School and in 1878 third in the philosophy aggregation in 1881 then doctor of philosophy. He became philosophy teacher at the Albi high school. Jean Jaurès took his first steps in policy at 25 years old. He chooses the republican camp, is supporter of the secular laws of Jules Ferry, is elected MP in Castres from 1885 to 1889 center left.
He resumed his activity as professor at the Faculty of Letters in Toulouse. He then wrote his monumental Socialist History of the French Revolution, before joining the Toulouse city council as deputy mayor in 1890. In 1892, the Carmaux mines strike Jaurès plunges into the reality of the working class and converts it definitively to socialism. In 1902, he founds the French Socialist Party and obtained the seat of deputy in Carmaux, thanks to the support of the workers. In 1905, he actively participated in the merger of the two French socialist parties, giving birth to the SFIO (French Section of the Workers' International). It helps to develop theworkers' unity with the CGT and to promote dialogue between parties and unions. In the same year, he was one of those who drafted the law on the separation of Church and State. Jaurès published numerous articles in the “Socialist Review"to defend socialism and opposes Marxism. Il based also in 1904 the journal Humanity which he will lead until his death and where he will defend Alfred Dreyfus and oppose Jules Guesde.
On the eve of the First World War, Jaurès recommends peace and plans with the Workers' International a general strike in the event of the outbreak of war. His pacifism got the better of him and his pacifist speeches have made unpopular on the eve of the First World War and hated by the nationalists. His desire for reconciliation between peoples is then perceived by his enemies as a betrayal. The calls for murder are launched and heard. Le 31 July 1914, leaving the offices of Humanity, he is assassinated by an ultra-nationalist named Raoul Villain at the Café du Croissant in Paris. His murderer said he wanted to eliminate “an enemy of his country". Three days later, Germany declared war on France. At his funeral on August 4, Leon Jouhaux, secretary of the CGT, expresses itself like a premonition : “Victim of your ardent love of humanity, your eyes will not see the red glow of the fires, the hideous pile of corpses that the bullets will lay on the ground…”. To the end of the war, on March 29, 1919, in a context of strong nationalism, his murderer is acquitted. Ten years after his death, his ashes were transferred to the Pantheon, thus joining the great men of the homeland.
The castle of the lords of Fos
Le Bormes Castle is located on a narrow plateau overlooking the village, the plain and the sea. The buildings, resembling short ruins, are ofghostly appearance. The exact date of their construction is not known. feudal castle has been transformed into convent and remained almost intact until 1792. Subsequently, it was used as barracks for volunteers joining the armies of the Republic, marking the beginning of its decline. Although thehistorical and archaeological interest of the castle/convent either limit, picturesque interest is remarkable. The strangely jagged lines from the convent from the plain or the village add to the beauty of Bormes.
La Lordship of Bormes includes the castle, the village, the woods and the arable land. The land are divided into two parts : the "reserve", exploited by serfs for the Lord, and the “tenures”, rented to peasants of the lordship. The castle is located high up to allow a territorial surveillance et to affirm the high social status of its occupants. The history of the castle dates back to 1257, when Roger of Fos settles there.
Several lords succeed one another until the Revolution. After the revolution, the convent is put up for auction et purchased by Donat Crest. En 1850 François-Philemon Giraud acquired the ruins and had a chapel built. Over the years, several owners follow one another, and 1926 the castle is listed site and natural monument, and historical monument in 1931. It then passes through the hands of different families.
Within the castle grounds there was a old chapel before the construction of the Saint-Trophyme church in the village. The chapel was destroyed and replaced by a new parish dedicated to Saint-Trophyme, Romanesque style and able to accommodate approximately 1600 faithful.
Also find the Path of the Sages on Baludik!
To discover the fun and geolocated route, scan this QR code. Games and surprises await you with the Baludik application.