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Tracols, Accols & Saccols

TRACOLS, ACCOLS & SACCOLS

I've always wondered what Georges Pérec would have thought of the Club des Cents Cols, and of those sweetly mad cyclos who compile, compare, compile, count, tally, censor (censor?) and classify the passes (as well as crossing them!). Georges Pérec not only loved to play with words and language, he also loved bicycles.

A list of a few hundred mountain passes, let alone THE list (the Chauvot), lends itself, like any mathematical series, to all sorts of manipulations and statistics. It's also often tempting to play with the words and names of the passes. Another angle of attack is to look at "purely regionalist or even separatist names" (1).

For example, my department, the Ardèche, has a PERTUSOL with a transparent etymology, Pertusol, quite rightly approved by Robert Chauvot (07-0639).

The Ardèche is also known for its COULETS. There are 16 "Le Coulet" passes in the Chauvot, 13 of which are in the Ardèche. If we add to these passes two "Col de la Croix du Coulet", one "Les Coulets" (my thousandth pass) and one "Le Couletet" (all these passes being in the Ardèche), we can see that 17 of the 22 passes in the Chauvot with the name "Coulet" are in the Ardèche. There are also 9 passes in the "bible" with the name "Coulet" ("Coulet de xxx"), 9 passes of which 5 are in the Ardèche.

Le Coulet: F-04-1870, F-07-0370, F-07-0446, F-07-0479, F-07-0490, F-07-0517, F-07-0582b, F-07-0594, F-07-0650,
F-07-0729, F-07-0740a, F-07-0750, F-07-0855, F-07-0900, F-30-1063, F-84-0370
Pas du Coulet F-34-0621
Col de la Croix du Coulet F-07-0540a
Col de la Croix du Coulet F-07-0551
Le Couletet F-07-0605
Les Coulets F-07-0892
Le Grand Coulet F-05-1869
Coulet de Nouron F-04-1132
Coulet d'Audi F-06-1657
Coulet de la Conquiste F-07-0604a
Coulet de Vernadel F-07-0684
Coulet d' Auzon F-07-0749
Coulet de la Soulière F-07-0834
Coulet de Pecoyol F-07-1264
Coulets d' Estrets F-34-1015a
Coulet Redon F-84-1022

The etymology of the word COULET poses no problem: it means "collar", "little collar", COULET therefore being the little little collar...

This concentration of COULETs is found to a lesser degree in the family surnames: 63 of the 951 COULETs registered by telephone are from the Ardèche (but 136 from the Hérault, 80 from the Bouches du Rhône, 70 from the Gard, 62 from the Var...).

This allows me to open a parenthesis to evoke my COULET ancestors: my great-great-grandmother Thérèse COULET (1846 - 1916) from Lablachère (07), and, going back up my direct line, Jean François (son) (1813 - 98), Jean François (father) (1788 - 1864), Jean (? - 1826), Pierre COULET (? - 1770) from Gravières (07)...

This brings me to a second parenthesis: at a time when mountain pass signs are springing up in certain regions in the name of a "local custom" (which most often comes as a surprise to the inhabitants of these regions), I think a more credible example of a "local custom" can be found in the COULET family of Lablachère; Their name, obviously derived from a geographical feature of the habitat of one of their (my) ancestors, was present in this (very) mid-mountain region long before the idea of a curious two-wheeled vehicle had occurred to Baron Drais, and even longer before the idea of a no less curious club had occurred to Jean PERDOUX. I'll close these brackets to mention another quasi-specificity of the Ardèche: the TRACOL.

5 of the 8 TRACOLs at Le Chauvot are from the Ardèche :
F-07-0295, F-07-0400, 07-0640, 07-0740b, 07-0971, 38-1445b, 42-1083, 63-0362

In terms of surnames, the concentration in the Ardèche is even greater than in the case of the COULETs: in 2000, 80 of the 399 TRACOLs listed in the directory in France were from the Ardèche (and 116 from the Drôme). The 3617 RACINA genealogical database gives 5 references prior to 1820 to people named TRACOL, including 4 references from the Ardèche, one of which was located in Preaux in 1464! "Lo Cercaire", who carried out a study of the Ardèche directory ten years ago (2), also notes that, with the exception of one case, all the TRACOLs found at that time lived in the Haut Vivarais, which confirms the etymology: TRACOL should be understood as "tras col", literally beyond the pass, across the pass, over the pass; hence the Occitan verb "tracolar / trecolar", pronounced "trakoula, trékoula, trékola" meaning "to pass behind the mountain": the sun "trècoule"... Or, in the figurative sense, to pass beyond, to disappear, to die. "L'ome de la Loisa a trecolat...". L'Occitan - Nord Vivarais" dictionary (similar to the expression used in our club, "il a franchi son dernier col", meaning "Louise's husband has gone over to the other side"). I've heard it used in a weakened sense of passing through, crossing: "j'ai tracoulé vers Fabras...". "Lo Cercaire" adds: "what TRACOL evokes is the inhabitant of a house huddled near the pass, generally on the south side". This is particularly clear in the case of TRACOLS 07-0400, 07-0640 and 07-0971, for which the 1/25000° map clearly shows that the locality is slightly below the pass itself; the same is true for the TRACOLS located 1 km below the Col de Mezilhac, the other 200 m from the Col de Juvenet, these two TRACOLS not being officially recognised as passes.

The term TRACOL leads me to two other very similar Ardèche terms, ACCOL and SACCOL.

The ACCOLS, sometimes known as "accou", "couol", or depending on the region, "faïsse", "bancel", "escham", "chamba", etc., are the terraces: these structures on the slopes, forming a sort of step, make it possible to grow crops where they were not possible before, thanks to a series of horizontal levels supported by dry stone walls (3). The ACCOLS bear witness to the perseverance and doggedness of our ancestors, who were faced with the problem of finding and developing arable land in the harsh Ardèche region. We are struck by the colossal amount of work involved in removing stones, filling in, channelling and building in order to establish and maintain agriculture, sometimes in very remote areas. When mountain-biking in the Ardèche, it's not uncommon to discover that a hill that you thought was 'wild' was in fact entirely landscaped, having disappeared under the forest...

Given the difficulty of accessing these hillsides, work was usually carried out on the backs of men, using the "besse", a large basket made of chestnut splints or wicker, slung over the neck with a cushion, the SACCOL or "coulassou". Materials could also be transported directly in the saccol. Popular wisdom, playing on alliteration, thus said:
Per lou païs d'en bas,
lou bat;
Per lou païs d'accols,
lou saccol.
(For the lower country, the "bât" - the donkey, the mule -; for the accol country, the "saccol" - hence the man...).

What do accols, saccols and cols have to do with anything? None at all, all this was intended to help you enjoy the scenery as you climb the passes of the Ardèche, and to highlight this heritage that is unfortunately slowly disappearing. It is, however, "evidence of a rural civilisation that had perfect mastery of water and stone, to create a nourishing, harmonious landscape, a reflection of the successful alliance between man and his land" (3), and I would add at the price of hard work.

Bernard "Biki lou biker" Pommel
CycloTourisme Aubenas Vals

References
(1) Laurent Laruaz, Cent Cols magazine no. 18, 1990, p. 23
(2) The story behind your name: TRACOL, Lo Cercaire, Le Dauphiné Libéré, 3/2/90
(3) La Belle Lurette, dossier tradition : les terrasses, June 1996 (published by Savoirs de terroir, 07600 Vals les Bains)
On the terraces, see the Internet