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 experiences are not the past the better preparation for the future allowing us to move forward more serenely on the paths of life?
Leonardo da Vinci's biography
Engineer, inventor, painter and sculptor, universal genius.
Leonardo da Vinci, born in Vinci on April 15, 1452 and died in Amboise on May 2, 1519, is a Florentine painter and a man of universal spirit, at the same time artist, scientist, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, urban planner, botanist, musician, poet, philosopher and writer. After his childhood in Vinci, Leonardo was student of the famous Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. Your first works important are made at service of Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan. He then worked at Rome, Bologna and Venice and pass the last years of his life in France, withinvitation from King Francis I.
Leonardo da Vinci is often described as the archetype and symbol of the Renaissance man, a universal genius, a humanist philosopher, observer and experimenter, with a “rare gift of spatial intuition”, and whose infinite curiosity is only matched by the power of invention.
It's first like painter that Leonardo da Vinci is recognized. Two of his works, “The Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”, are very paintings famous, often copied and parodied, and his drawing of “Vitruvian Man” is also taken up in many derivative works. Only one fifteen works is reached us. This small number is due to his experiments constants and sometimes disastrous new techniques and its chronic procrastination. Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks containing drawings, scientific diagrams and reflections on the nature of painting, are a legacies to future generations of artists, many of whom consider it as only matched by Michelangelo.
As engineer and inventor, Leonardo develops ideas way ahead of their time, as the airplane, the helicopter, the submarine and even the automobile. Very few of his projects are realized or even only achievable during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions such as a machine for measuring the elastic limit of a cable enter the world of manufacturing. As a scientist, Leonardo da Vinci has much advanced knowledge about fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics and hydrodynamics.
The flour mill
Le windmill from Saint Francis Square is one of the last witnesses of the industrial heritage of village. Bormes is a rural village , here mainly depends on agriculture and which was formerly organized into lordship. The inhabitants cultivated early vegetables such as beans, cabbage and chickpeas, and various fruits in orchards located among the vineyards. The forest was also exploited for hunting and wood, welcoming in particular charcoal burners and cork lifters. The olive tree was predominant in the landscape and the olive harvests were used in the many oil mills in the area. Some plots were sown with wheat or barley and pain had a central place in the diet of the agricultural population.
The lords locals have initiated the construction of wind and water mills for production of oil and flour. The windmills of Bormes were built according to the same plan, with a diameter and height of 6 meters for the load-bearing walls. Above, a wooden structure, often made of oak, covered with a roof, housed a solid and efficient mechanism. This mechanism transmitted wind energy to two stone millstones located under the roof in the miller's workroom. all-purpose flour was harvested at the lower level of the mill. Le meunier had to be a experienced technician and know the local winds. He had to master the settings delicate of the work tool and adjust the grinding wheels to get a best quality flour, without ruining the work of farmers.
The position of the mills was strategic. They were placed on ridges capture the winds coming from all directions and doing turn the mill as often as possible depending on the weather conditions. To optimize their position and look for air currents, the The roof of the mills was movable. From the inside, the miller could orient the blades in the right direction using a wedge, without leaving the workroom on the first floor.
La Industrial Revolution finally made windmills obsolete. We started using steam mills, which could run day and night with a optimal performance, without depending on wind or water conditions. The Saint-François square mill was almost abandoned at the beginning of the 19th century, after having been in service for almost two centuries. The last miller, Mr. Trophime Celeron ReymonencqWas buried in the old chapel cemetery Saint-François, a few dozen meters from the mill. On March 19, 1913, the mill was sold to the commune in its current state by Mrs. Marie Théophile Michel, former cork maker, for the sum of 400 francs. Since then, it sits enthroned on Saint-François Square, waiting for men of good will to give it wings again.
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.