The Spanish Pyrenean village of Mont in the Vall d'Aran sits high on the south slope of the Garonne River valley. Mont was home to more than a hundred inhabitants in the 19th century, but by the 1960s the population had dwindled to 26 persons in six families. The forest above the village is a source of income for Mont, as are the mountain grazings that lie above the tree line.
Seen from above, Mont is surrounded by meadows, kitchen gardens, and fields of barley and oats. The forested slope in the distance lies on the opposite side of the valley of the Garonne River.
Every family keeps a few chickens and rabbits. Mrs. Monge feeds the chickens in the courtyard of her farmhouse.
Two pigs will provide meat for the family during the year.
In the 1960s most of Mont's houses lacked running water. Three housewives chat as they do laundry. A mountain spring runs through the wash trough.
Mr. Monge chops wood in the courtyard of his farmhouse in Mont.
Scythed three days before, dried hay is gathered by hand. The Monge family's horse, with its pack-frame, waits to carry a load back to the barn.
Pedro and his father rake and gather the windrows of dried hay. Haying is a critical activity during the summer in Mont because heavy snowfalls keep the animals in the barns during winter rather than grazing on pasture. Farmers in Mont hope for two cuttings of hay each season.
The horse gets another load of hay. Mont's church is on the other side of the road that leads to the village.
Mr. Monge's son usually works as a carpenter in Vielha, the valley's main town, but he returns to Mont to help with the haying. He leads the loaded horse back to the family's barn in the village.
In summer the Vall d'Aran's cattle and sheep graze on the high-altitude pastures, some of them astride the international boundary between France and Spain. [Clot de Baretje, Vall d"Aran.]
A stone monument demarcates part of the border between France and Spain near the Clot de Baretje. The view looks south across the Vall d'Aran towards the Maladeta massif — the highest peaks in the central Pyrenees.
Two men from Mont make a weekly climb from the village to the mountain grazings to bring supplies to the herder. Mont's six families combine their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle during the summer months.
The trail is narrow and steep in places. It will take two hours to reach the herders' summer cabin on the summer grazings.
A pause on the climb. In addition to supplies for the herder there are bags of salt for the cattle.
The packers arrive at the herders' summer hut on Mont's high pastures. Two men, the shepherd and the cattle herder, share this shelter.
The herder (in beret) and the two men from Mont who have made their weekly climb from the village to the mountain grazings to bring supplies. The herder holds a bag of salt for the cows.
The cattle are brought together to receive a ration of salt.
Mont's cowherd gives a ration of salt to each cow separately; he knows each animal's particular needs and gives more to some, less to others.
On the walk back down to Mont from the summer pastures, just before the trail enters the forests above the village, the view opens to the valley and its main town, Vielha.
In August the village's sheepherder brings the flocks down from the mountain pastures for the sale day. Buyers have arrived from Vielha, the Vall d'Aran's "capital," to bid on the sheep.
The day the lambs are sold is a festive as well as an economically significant occasion for the whole village. The sheep buyers' cars are an unusual presence in the village, which is served only by a rough track from the main road in the valley. Logs from the village forests are also stacked here; they will be auctioned on another day.
August: in a field above the village the Monge family mows and stacks sheaves of barley.
In late August the Monge's courtyard becomes a threshing floor for the barley harvest. The first step is Mrs Monge's: she beats the sheaves of barley against the edge of an upended table. Many of the barleycorns fall to the other side. The remaining grains will be threshed by the trampling of the horse's hooves on the threshing floor. This way of threshing is more than two thousand years old.
Sheaves of barley are spread on the ground and the family's horse circles the floor, separating the remaining grains from the straw.
The Monges tie a bundle of straw together before carrying it to the barn.
Mrs. Monge pauses during the threshing.
After threshing, Mrs. Monge carries a load of barley straw to the barn. It will become winter bedding for the family's sheep and cattle.
Village children romp in the straw. Pepita (center) is the Monge's granddaughter.
![In summer the Vall d'Aran's cattle and sheep graze on the high-altitude pastures, some of them astride the international boundary between France and Spain. [Clot de Baretje, Vall d"Aran.]](images/1967-04-32.jpg)
