Author Archives: Eef Berns

About Eef Berns

Since 2000 I'm on a quest for the bordermarkers in the Pyrenees. My project is to find & photograph & document them all. And to connect them with a long-distance trail: the Grande Randonnée Pyrénéenne des Bornes Frontières About me: I was born in 1957, work as a psychiatrice nurse and live in Eindhoven in the Netherlands..

Another magazine: les feuilles du Pin à Crochets

This French magazine on the Pyrenees – with a literary style & design – published in 2006 an edition on the border aspects of the Pyrenees. Charles Darrieu told me about it and helped me to receive it. Bibliographic data:
Les feuilles du Pin à Crochets numéro 7 – Pyrenées frontières
Pau : Éditions du pin à crochets, 2006. – ISBN 2-911715-32-2 (website: http://www.editionspinacrochets.com)

It contains 7 articles on a variety of Pyrenean border issues and is illustrated by lots of b&w pictures, including old pictures of borderpasses.

One of the articles has a link with a previous post on this blog. It’s about a ‘disputed’ triangular area between the summit of le Grand Batchimale (or Pic Schrader) and the borderpass with the original bm330. That borderpass was originally named Port de Clarabide but nowadays is shown on the maps as Port d’Agues-Tortes. The current Port de Clarabide is a few kilometers to the east.
The article shows lot of map-samples from over the years and also on older maps we see usually the name Port d’Agues-Tortes or similar. Only a few give it the name ‘Port de Clarabide’.

En busca de los hitos fronterizos

Which means: “in search of the bordermarkers”. I just received this book, mentioned in the previous post. I already learned that the Darrieu-couple are friends of Javier and María-Jesús Sancho-Esnaola. They assembled 6 volumes of information and pictures on the esfr-bordermarkers. That makes one jealous!

This ‘book’ is In fact a special edition of the Spanish magazine Pirineos.
Bibliographic data:
Pirineos Especial 9 – En busco de los hitos fronterizos : rutas por la Muga / Javier Sancho
El mundo de Pirineos. – junio 2010. – 147 p. / ISBN 978-84-8216-450-2

Javier Sancho describes 21 circular routes to bordermarkes – all along the esfr-border -with routes starting both in France and Spain. The maps could have been more elaborate but the photo’s are superb! I put the magazine on my reading list for Christmas to explore the details.

 

Spanish couple did all the bordermarkers

An unexpected google-find: a Spanish couple who has searched and photographed every bordermarker on the esfr-border. See this this newspaper-article. It reminds me of course of that other – French – couple: Charles et Josette Darrieu who did the same.
Javier Sancho and his wife even published a book on their project, for sale on a lot of on-line bookshops. I immediately ordered it.

 

New update of www.grpdesbf.nl

It took a lot of work but now it’s ready: see for the update-details and direct links: this webpage

They comprise:
– my trips undertaken in august/september 2012
– one highlight: discovering the exact location of the buried bm196 and trying to excavate it
– another highlight: visiting the recently re-installed bm087
– third highlight: exploring a route from bm271 to 272
– Miguel supplied pictures of the original bm481fr and 482fr
– and an amazing discovery by Jean-Paul Laborie of the original bm330 on the original Port de Clarabide!
– and another discovery: there is a bm310bis bordercross, not yet documented by anyone
– I started a news-blog and set up an email-group

 

The discovery of bm310bis, unknown before

August 2012. This bordercross on Col de Peyrelue was unknown to the ‘bordermarkers-scene’. The official treaties do not mention this bm. But this bm was accidentally mentioned in 2 newspaper articles. A local historian – Jean-Pierre Dugène – is an expert on the crosses (other than official bordercrosses), used by shepherds as bordermarkers around Col de Pourtalet. He confirmed the existence of bm310bis and kindly sent this picture.

Amazing: the original bm330 rediscovered

September 14, 2012. Jean-Paul Laborie climbed to Port d’Aygues Tortes in freezing weather. He had a mission: finding the original bm330. We know that this bordercross was engraved in the 19th century at Port de Clarabide and nowadays  there is still a cross 330 at this col. But that cross was engraved in 2003, the previous one was unfindable.
Jean-Paul Laborie is a member of the Pyrenean bordercommittee. Apparently bm330 puzzled him and at some point he got a brilliant idea. Could it be that the toponomy of the borderpasses as shown on the maps have changed in the course of years? And that the original Port de Clarabide was somewhere else? He compared old and contemporary maps. And his hypothesis was confirmed! The contemporary Port d’Aygues Tortes used to be Port de Clarabide. And that’s where Jean-Paul found the original bm330.

Excavating bm196: who will finish the job?

August 25, 2012. Bm196 has been buried since ±40 years. In august 2012 I tried to excavate it. First I gave it a try at the left post of the former gate to the former meadow. One source stated that bm196 stood at the left post.
While I’m digging, a farmer passes by in his car and stops. He knows – the meadow was their property – that the bm stood at the right post of the gate and he points me that spot, say 2-2,5 meters to the right and ± 1 meter from the tarmac

Old air-picture from the SITNA-site

So I start digging at this second location. Fifteen minutes later his father passes and confirms his son’s story and points out the very same spot as he did. The buried bordermarker is a large square one and he shows the width with his hands: 50-75 cm square. And that is accordance with Jean Sermet’s account.
But digging here is tough because of stones and the dense, pressed soil. It became more difficult as I got deeper which is stil not quite deep. I gave up after 2 hours, Better tools – e.g. a pickaxe – are needed. Who – strong and daring – will finish my job?

Why this blog?

My website www.grpdesbf.nl is too ‘slow’ to catch up with the latest news on the bordermarkers of the Pyrenees. A blog makes quick communication of news much easier.

For example about articles found in the press or a new discovery of a bordermarker or any other novelty concerning the Pyrenean bordermarkers. The www.grpdesbf.nl – website will remain the overall container of information. The news on this blog will eventually be incorporated in the website.