Summer in Couserans: A ray of happiness! 
Living traditions 
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The Couserans through the seasons 
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We have some good descents at Guzet! 
Trail running in Couserans 
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GOING OUT IN TROUVILLE-SUR-MER 
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Some ancient trades have disappeared from Couserans, but others have been perpetuated for thousands of years through the transmission of know-how.
This is done through enthusiasts, from here or elsewhere, who take the plunge and restart wool weaving looms, carve wood, extract marble, make paper, often at a different pace, but for the love of noble materials.
The want to do, to perpetuate traditions, know-how, to share experiences, to create objects, jewelry, bags, toys too, games, clothes, clogs, shoes, lampshades, figurines, plates, glasses, belts, in wood, cardboard, leather, stone, pearls, paper, porcelain, recycled...
“Made in Couserans” is all that!
bring back a memory of Couserans handmade, it's sharing much more than a memory, you will have understood it well... Visit our artisan shops and discover below some historical raw materials in Couserans.
Wool
The Couserans is a land of pastoralism and breeding. However, the sheep's wool is still often thrown away, not casually but because using it requires time and know-how.
Here, around twenty local producers and artisans have chosen to invest in a project revaluation of local wool, by restructuring this sector which has been abandoned for too long.
From the wool of the herds to the finished products, discover the know-how of Ariège, and more broadly of the Pyrenees, and the wool quality brought up to date!
The “Pyrenees Threads and Wools” association is a corporate shop to discover in Saint-Girons, and it also offers workshops. of transmission of know-how, open to all ages and all levels.
Wood
Overexploited until the beginning of the 20th centurye century the forest of the Ariège Pyrenees is very present today. The forest covers half of the area of the Regional Natural Park and still tends to progress. The PNR works with its partners to understand, manage and enhance the value of this important wood resource.
At the same time, artisans are enhancing this noble material:
- Julien Feraud, in Oust, is a creator of magnificent wooden light fixtures !
- Julien and Barney, are one of the last clog makers From France, they manufacture both everyday and decorative clogs. You can visit their workshop in the village of Soueix.
- Our small markets are full of wood craftsmen who will sell you their unique creations, including the return of the famous spinning tops, in original versions!
- Beautiful wooden objects, you can buy some, but also learn how to make them, thanks to the gliding benches and the experienced animators of the Land of Traces, in Saint-Lizier.
Marble
The Pyrenees are deemed since a long time for quality and beauty of their marbles. The Couserans provides an astonishing diversity. Even if most of the quarries are no longer exploited, some productions continue to artisanal scale.
Among the Ariège marbles, the jewel is the "Great Antique". It is solemn, a deep black crossed by large white veins. An astonishing contrast which has ranked it for centuries among the most beautiful marbles in the world. Its exploitation, in a quarry located near Moulis, at a place called Aubert, had ceased in 1948. It resumed in 2014, operated by an Italian design company. Grand Antique is a very hard marble, difficult to work, but particularly robust. It is found in Istanbul at Hagia Sophia, in Rome in the Basilicas of Saint Peter, Saint Mary Major, Saint Cecilia, to Venise in Saint-Marc, in Paris in the Church of Saint-Louis des Invalides, in London at the base of St. Peter's Monument in Westminster, in Versailles in the Salon de Diane…
Aubert Marble Days
Every summer, sculptors come to create a marble sculpture on site in front of the public or offer sculpture workshops. Guided tours of the marble quarry are also organized during these events.
Exhibitions, conferences, films, artistic workshops, aperitif concerts and shows in the mabrière enliven the days.
More info here.
The “Vert d'Estours” is the other very famous Ariège marble, and still exploited. This marble is ivory-colored, veined with fine parallel and undulating green lines. Access is available under the quarry from six, going towards the Estours Valley (nice hike). On find this marble, renowned since Roman times, in many buildings including the Chiragan villa (Martres-Tolosane), Saint Bertrand de Comminges, the Cloisters of the Saint-Lizier Cathedral and the Augustins in Toulouse.
This marble quarry has resumed a craft activity a few years ago, thanks to an Italian family business. A local craftsman, Pierre Ménaspa, even now makes some remembrances from Seix: whisky stones, chessboards, to be found in local shops and markets.
In Couserans, many other small marble quarries produced varieties of colored marbles in Seix, Saint-Lary, Montégut, Balacet (a hike allows you to see the Balacet mines), Cazavet, Riverenert, Esplas-de Sérou, Castelnau-Durban.
A book to buy in our bookstores to find out everything: “ The Couserans remain unmoved“, Sans F., Fert D., Delgeilh M., Ondry J., Ortet A., (2016, republished in 2019) – – Coll. Memory of Ariège, Les Cartophiles ariègeois, 80 p.
The paper
La paper making is a major local cultural and industrial heritage, which remains a very lively economic activity in Couserans:
The Aristide Bergès Museum, in Lorp, presents all the history of paper material.
During the visit, we learn how it is made and the technological innovations it has enabled: the use of cellulose, paper pulp, applications in unexpected fields such as medicine, automobiles, aerospace, etc.
From the history of paper to the most contemporary uses of the material, we discover in turn the past, the present, the material and the technique.
It's the the only museum in France where you can see a production line contemporary continuous paper.
