Tag Archives: Robert Darrieumerlou

Robert identifies the unidentified bordermarker!

unidentified-bordermarker-from-lucbazin-documentaryIn spring 2011 I received a documentary on Jean Sermet (“L’homme de la frontière”). Jean Sermet was an erudite French bordermarker-commissionary.In the documentary we see Jean Sermet while showing slides of bordermarkers. One slide puzzled me: no number or location was mentioned and I couldn’t identify the very spot or bordermarker.

 

But I think that Robert Darrieumerlou now has found the answer which he kindly shared with me. Between bm061 and 062 there’s the former venta Urtxola, just over the esfr-border in Spain and only accessible from France. As a young man, Robert used to frequent this place with his mates. Nowadays it’s a restaurant. In front of the restaurant there’s a local bordermarker with a S (Sare) and B (Baztan) on either side, there are more like these in this region. We found this one on 7 april 2009. Robert compared the various pictures and that’s pretty convincing! Judge for yourself:

unidentified-bordermarker-from-lucbazin-documentary-identified-by-darrieumerlou

unidentified-bordermarker-from-lucbazin-documentary-identified-by-darrieumerlou-comparisonAnd this comparison will show it even better: the building must be the same! Mystery solved, thank you Robert!

 

 

Cross 145 ‘raised from the grave’ by Jacques Koleck

Jacques Koleck (see this previous post) makes me jealous: he lives close to the Pyrenees, is retired but still physically fit and has plenty of time to search for esfr-bordermarkers. His latest discovery: the original bm145!
We know bm145 as an atypical borderstone with its number vertically engraved.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Robert Darrieumerlou, I learned that there’s a cross engraved in the rock at its foot. See this webpage on my website. Apparently – I thought – an older delimitation-cross from a pre-numbering-era. But: ‘the Treaty’ stated that bm145 was a bordercross.
Jacques got the brillant idea to undig that rock and discovered an engraved number on it:So this rock is the original bm145!!! For Jacques, this discovery was understandably “un très grand plaisir “.

Another cross found near bm002

We know that there are several crosses engraved close to bm002 and bm007. See this webpage on my website. They are older than the current bordermarkers and marked the border when there were not yet numbered markers. Close to bm002 there are two crosses engraved in the rocks but Robert Darrieumerlou recently found a third one on the rock 2 meters behind bm002.

He shows that third one on my compilation of the pictures of the Darrieu’s. But you can see this third cross far better on his own picture on this webpage. It seems so visible that one wonders how other searchers could miss it (but I didn’t find any of them).
And Robert found another unnumbered cross, between bm001 and 002 and the altitude of 245 meters: see this page