Creative peaks

In a harsh, deserted corner of upland France, Paul Lamarra discovers an inspiring new art trail created by the British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy

A sinuous line moulded in red clay grows out of the gravel floor and unfurls up to the very apex of the gable wall in graceful coils. The artist’s caption explains that the relief is meant to resonate with the meandering path we have just followed out of the valley.

Yet this was no hushed, climate-controlled gallery but a candle-lit mountain refuge with an unusual twist. Reinvented as a refuge d’art by the internationally renowned British artist Andy Goldsworthy, it is one of seven such bothies in the mountains of Haute Provence, south-east France, where walkers can travel and shelter in the company of art.

My walk involved climbing a steeply winding path, and the dust clouds created by scuffing feet had – as predicted by the artist – formed an uncomfortable red layer on my clothes, boots and hot skin. But now, before preparing dinner or setting the fire, I was being asked to elevate my experience with a piece of art that had been purposely placed for the delectation of walkers.

Majestic and brutal landscape

With so much else to contemplate from my walk, the addition of art hardly seemed necessary. In the early evening cool I’d emerged from the depths of a narrow limestone gorge sliced open by the river Bès and, once clear of the restricted view, the brutal majesty of the mountains was revealed. The bare summits and mountainsides above the tree-line acted as a screen, on to which the sun projected its palling light. Going from pink to orange and then cool purple, there was just enough of a glow for us to locate the red-tiled refuge set in a high meadow.

Here, in the predominately limestone mountains, where the temperature swings wildly between extreme summer heat and winter snow, life would never have been easy. The vegetation is stunted and contorted with thirst and it clings to the once-prehistoric sea bed like coral. The grassy meadow, although green, was brittle and coarse. Yet what the flora lacks in stature it makes up for in pungency, and the night air throbbed with the scent of pine, rosemary and thyme. In the absence of any human habitation, the night sky came alive with the afterglow of the galaxy.

Formerly one of many derelict buildings in the abandoned village of Vieil Esclangon, it has now been given a new purpose as a mountain refuge. The roof has been replaced and there is a mezzanine floor with five bunks, a dining table and benches, a fireplace and that snake-like clay artwork – entitled La Javie – which is held together with donated human hair. Water, however, is nowhere to be found, and has to be brought with you. The bothy is free to use overnight and can be booked in advance with the Musée Gassendi in Digne-les-Bains, who will provide you with a key in exchange for your passport or driver’s licence.

Sculptures that create mystique

It’s all part of a concerted effort to attract walkers to the region, which is often overlooked in favour of its near neighbours, the high Alps and the Cote d’Azur. Originally, Andy Goldsworthy was commissioned to make just one of his trademark environmental artworks in Digne-les-Bains, but the project has literally taken legs, and now a 150km/94-mile trail has been created following ancient byways between seven refuges and other sculptures, including a series of stone beehives, or eggs. Goldsworthy regards these eggs as sentinels guarding the gorges and the high passes. Three more refuges are currently being ‘artworked’, too.

It isn’t a walking trail in the traditional sense

, since a car or bicycle is required to link the walks. But what the art has done is create resorts and landmarks where, previously, there were none. The old chapel at St Madeleine, high on a promontory above the village of Thoard, has been given a new mystique with an almost blasphemous installation that replaces the altar with a dry-stone niche in which you can stand to fill the void. None of the artworks are well signposted, but this may be a deliberate attempt to engender a sense of serendipity about each encounter, cultivating the idea that the art emerges from – and is complementary to – the landscape.

Compared to the snow-capped Alps, I found the mountains of Haute Provence something of an iguana: difficult to love, and its charms not at first apparent. On part of the trail I crossed ugly mounds of shifting black shale, known as marl, that swallows trees and telegraph poles as it slips down from the mountaintops to settle in the valley. But the shale is whipped into miniature peaks and ravines during floods, forming a strangely compelling landscape that felt edgy and impermanent. Several times I had to scuttle across loose gullies that threatened to funnel me downwards.

Beyond the marl, a clearly marked path negotiated a more familiar world of meadow and light woodland of pine, ash and rowan. In every direction there were shapely and accessible peaks of up to 2,300m/7,500ft.

Eventually I arrived at La Ferme Belon, a former war-time resistance training camp, and yet another building to receive the Goldsworthy treatment. Rescued from dereliction, its basement houses a series of six white, rough-hewn limestone arches that interlock in the gloom. Unable to see where I was placing my feet, I found it a strange and intimidating place; these ‘architectural ghosts’, the artist claims in his caption, are being protected by those egg-like stone sentinels positioned at the entrances to the passes in the surrounding area.

It might seem far-fetched, but the craft and scale of the piece was undeniable. Later, at a viewpoint 1,150m/3,370ft above the village of Esclangon, I recognised echoes of those arches in the sweeping swirl of rock strata that geologists have nicknamed ‘the velodrome’. It was then that I began to properly appreciate the scope of Goldsworthy’s project.

What the artist has succeeded in doing is building on what is already there. His materials and inspiration emanate from the landscape, and I found that there was a coming together in my consciousness of the art and the region’s remarkable geology. It’s a subtle approach that has added unobtrusive landmarks and breathed new life into a largely unspoilt area, abandoned for more than a century. Far from adding sentinels, Goldsworthy has actually created beacons.

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Enjoy a walking holiday for two – choose from six trips, including an Andy Goldsworthy Walking Tour in July or September – courtesy of Adventures in the Alps (click here for further details). 

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HOW TO ENTER
Complete the entry form at www.walkmag.co.uk/competitions (where you’ll also find full terms and conditions) or send your name, address, telephone number and email to Alps competition, walk magazine, Ramblers, 2nd Floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TW. Closing date is 31 January 2012. The first completed entry picked at random after the closing date will win the holiday.