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..

The INSPIRE project: changing borderlines

Thanks to Michel Molia I discovered something amazing: the borderline between bm356 and 357 and between bm408 and 409 will most probably change.

The INSPIRE-project is a broad international attempt to synchronize geodata in the EU. One part consists of re-measuring and re-establishing the borderlines in bilateral agreement. Narrowing down to the ESFR-border: in 2015 an agreement was reached in the bilateral Commission Mixte d’Abornement in Toulouse.

You can see the result for the Pyrenees on this website showing the map with the borderline agreed-upon and the bordermarkers. The main purpose of the project is explained at this page
and specific to the ESFR-border on this webpage.

We read: “Commission mixte 2015. Une ligne frontière unique, bilatérale et numérique a été validée à la CMA de Toulouse en octobre 2015. Mais elle reste temporaire à proximité des bornes non encore mesurées précisément ainsi que de quelques sites où une mise en évidence contradictoire pourrait être produite.” So the newly measured (digitally) borderline is still provisionary because not all bordermarkers have been precisely measured yet.

There are many details still to study and to discuss here but let’s focus on two very interesting areas

Bm356-357
Last year I launched a new hypothesis how the borderline between bm356 and 357 was wrongly re-established in the 1950-ies (see this page). So I was happily surprised that the new borderline is exact as I thought it was meant in the Treaty of 1862 . Finally justice.

esfr-map-bm356-357-2015agreement-new-borderline

Bm408-409

I was even more surprised – but less happily – by the new borderline on this steep hillside. I have written about its intriguing story on this page. Conclusion then: the treaty leaves no doubt about the right borderline, the placement of four submarkers by Jean Sermet around 1965 served a diplomatic purpose but changed the borderline wrongly. Problem: no one knows nowadays where that new borderline was because 2 of the 4 submarkers are unfindable.
The CMA has aborted the borderline of Jean Sermet but has now its own diplomatic version somewhere in between the (supposed) Sermet-line and the Treaty-line. But it still violates the Treaty! In this case: justice needs to be done yet.

 

 

esfr-bm408-submarkers-2015agreement-with-explanation

 

To finish: the map which Michel Molia received from the IGN when he asked for information with some explanation by some IGN-official.

esfr-bm408-submarkers-2015agreement-with-explanation-from-ign-office

The explanation (added in black on the map) says that the Treaty was inprecise about where the source of the Ruisseau du Terme was. As said that is not true: in my opinion the text of the Treaty leaves no doubt about the course of the borderline.

Bm481fr in a changing world

I was happy to receive a picture of Carlos and Conchita, showing the plaque of bm481fr being lifted to the surface again. Bm481fr (Bourg-Madame in the Cerdagne) started his life as a large borderstone. It was removed when the road was constructed and replaced by a plaque in the tarmac. In 2012, however, the plaque got covered by a new layer of tarmac. Now it’s visible again.

Watch the changing fate of bm481fr on this page.

bm481fr-2016-with-conchita-745pxs

New website on the esfr-bordermarkers

I was happy to learn about a new website. Carlos and his wife Conchita informed me that they have recently started their own ‘quest’ for the esfr-bordermarkers. The starting webpage is here (and for the Llivia-bordermarkers this page). Apparently they live in the Cerdagne because their harvest so far is bm444 to 506.

Each day-account is detailed and contains large pictures (with often Conchita standing besides, I think Carlos likes her). There are also embedded maps (I’m jealous about that feature) and elevation charts and a link to their Flickr-albums.

website-carlos-and-conchita

Bm542 revisited

On september 11th,  I returned to bm542, starting from the hamlet of Can d’Amunt. It’s one of the most difficult to find bordermarkers along the esfr-borderline. I was impressed how trails and waymarks are getting vaguer and undergrowth becoming denser since I visited this bm for the first time in 2009, guided by Jean Iglesias. Though there is a direct descent possible from approximately bm541 (I did that last year), I found that route now too difficult because of the undergrowth.

I followed once againg the “route normal” of Jean Iglesias, establishing new waypoints and clearing the trails by cutting them back here & there and placing some cairns. Hoping to facilitate your journey to bm542.

2016-09-11-12-14-13-crop-and-enhanced

Border-festivities at Col de Somport

An interesting article about the annual festivities of three villages on either side of Col de Somport. Each year at 17 july they check the bordermarker 305 at Col de Somport (an easy job, I think) as prescribed by the article 9 of the “Traité des limites du 14 avril 1862” and celebrate their crossborder-friendship with gifts and dancing.

article-Le-traité de la Vesiau-France3-july 2016

Old Pyrénées magazines digitalized

I was happy to learn from Charles Darrieu that the famous Bulletin Pyrénées (published by the Musée Pyrénéen in Lourdes) has been digitalized and made available for all of us. There are two links because there are two successive series:

The first one is the “Bulletin Pyrénéen” (1896-1948):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb32732870b/date

The second one is “Pyrénées” (1950-2004):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb32846197s/date.r=bulletin%20pyreneen

Pyrenees-magazine-frontpage-2001-nr2

Charles is an admirer of the French border-commissioner Jean Sermet (1907-2003) who has written very much about the Pyrenean border and was the ‘leading man’ in many borderrelated issues. He has listed the articles of Sermet in these magazines: 106,104 (1975), 105,106,107,(1976) 109,111,112 (1977), 114,116 (1978), 117,119 (1979), 123 (1980), 130,131,132 (1982), 140 (1984), 183 (1995).

Four submarkers of bm597 to be establised

Thanks to information of Serge Poncet I learned that on the mountain-top of Querroig four submarkers of bm597 will be engraved (if the proposal will be approved by the “Commission mixte Franco-Espagnole”). Why? Apparently there were groundworks scheduled around the ruins of the former castle which could change the watershed and therefore the borderline.
In 2014 a team of officials made a reconnaissance of the terrain and marked the four rocks where the bordercrosses could be engraved when the project will be approved. I don’t know when that will be. In their report they list the coordinates which makes locating them on Google Earth easy.
bm597-submarkers-on-google-earth

The rocks in question were provisory marked with yellow paint crosses and spots. Like this one (bm597c):

bm597-submarkers-597c

Update 2017 or 2018: according to Serge Poncet, the project has been abandoned due to the estimated high costs.

How Spain lost territory to France without knowing

The border of the Spanish enclave of Llivia mainly crosses the fields around its pretty town in a pretty straight way and is marked with single bordermarkers. There are however two sets of double bordermarkers:

Bm17-21: with the borderline in the middle of the dirtroad between the double markers.

Bm31-34: with – I thought – the small stream between the double markers as the borderline.

But, I discovered that this is wrong! The borderline is ± 5m to the north of the stream!

After getting a question of the well known border-expert Jan Krogh, I read the treaty (http://www.grpdesbf.nl/esfr-html-bibliography-treaties-llivia.html ) again:

esfr-map-llivia-bm31-34-treaty-text

The text implicates that the double 31-34 markers once included a road north along the stream. The axe of that road was established as the borderline! One bm was placed at the N-side of the road, the other one at the S-side of the stream and the maximum distance between the double markers was said to be 5 meters. The road has disappeared and nowadays the double markers stand at each side of the little stream.

If you watch the French IGN-map, you can see the old positions of the bordermarkers and the original borderline (and the positions of the new ones as established with my gps).

esfr-map-llivia-bm31-34-IGN-map

At some point of time, the dirtroad has disappeared and out of convenience and ignorance- I think – the bordermarkers were placed on either side of the stream. But the borderline is still north of the stream.

esfr-map-llivia-bm31-34-on-GE-with-real-borderline

Finally, on this picture – the borderline shown on Google Earth. If we measure the territory lost to France, it’s a strip of approximately 5x500m.

But you might ask yourself: who cares? Well, I do!

Bm409 submarker 7 restored

I was happy to receive from Jean-Paul Laborie his report of the renewal of the submarker 409-7 close to bm410 near Pont du Roi which took place a few weeks ago.

gp-esfr409g-fr-20160428-restored-photo-by-jp-laborie

The beautiful ceramic covers were destroyed between 2011 and 2014. The ceramic plates have been remade by the same company of 45 years ago. We can see that they are identical with the original ones on the next picture. The bm409-submarkers were placed in ± 1970. See this page for more information.

gp-esfr409g-fr-20090606-with-bm410-with-destroyed-bm-in-frame

Jean-Paul Laborie is a “Délégué à l’abornement”, an official border-commissioner with the assigment to check the bordermarkers in the central part of the Pyrenees. I think he has a dream-job.