The place name ‘LE MONAL’ remains somewhat a mystery to this day, despite mnemonic writings, my ancestral heritage and the work of many scholars. The mysterious nature of the hamlet, in the autumn months especially, is intensified by the feeling of secrecy that prevails in this timeless place.

“Monos”, “Monial” this hypothetical place name takes its roots from monastic relics. Indeed, under monastic influence (Benedictines, Cistercians, templar, Saint-Bernard monks, several hundred religious beliefs were formed in the Savoy during the nineteenth century), the land was worked to increase the number of useable mountain pastures and meet the needs of a soaring population. This clearing of the local area had in fact already begun in pre-Celtic times, by the first inhabitants of the Alps: the Centrones, a pre-Roman Celtic tribe, but then ceased. One must take a moment to imagine what these hostile areas would have been like almost 500 years ago: only accessible in summer by mule track, hard to negotiate, no transport network, wild animals, bandits, unforgiving climate etc... As a result, depending on the era (population explosion, famine, invasions, plague epidemic, glaciations...) man has always sought  salvation, where there was doubt, to create a chapel, an oratory, a cult.

The Monal hamlet is nestled at 1874m, on the supple Alpine tectonic plate, made up of metamorphic rock, gneiss, glazed schist, between numerous fractures, in the Triassic bedrock – limestone, quartzite (Mesozoic era). Formed through the glacial erosion of the Quaternary which divided the landscape into a U-shaped separated by small openings in the rock, which would later see glacial waters flow through them.

These same waters followed these small openings down the hillside, eventually ending up in the Isere valley. Further upheaval disturbed this pattern, with the shifting of debris, moraine rock for the most part – the ‘Rochers de Pierre Pointe’, which settled itself in the Monal area. All the small rocks that are visible in the fields surrounding the chalet are a direct result of this past landslide. These rocks flowed down the waters in the gulley between La Combaz and the Monal to arrive at their current position of the ‘Nant du Clou’.

This is how the terrain of hills and lakes that forms the incomparable alpine landscape was formed. And in the middle of these mountain pastures, surrounding the St Clair chapel was built the hamlet of Le Monal in 1550. A few decades later, it grew with a few chalets being built at the exit of the hamlet, towards le Clou (“Séru”).

The remaining outlying buildings were constructed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, near the Clou torrent (“Kivir”).

All the construction materials were taken on site: larch wood(hard and non rotting) was used for the joinery and carpentry, rock (quartzite and gneiss) was used for the walls, schist for the roof covering and lime for the crépi.

As a general rule, the front side of the building was South facing for light and heat and the barns were North facing.

The ground floor were for the animals with the first floor devided into a living area and the barn where wood, grain, tools and hay were stored. Hay and fur dried in the beams.

Like many working chalets, families had a “Bouida” which was a small stonebuilt igoo, cleverly traversed by a small stream which served as a refrigeration unit for dairy products (beaufort cheese, tome cheese, milk, butter...)

These small rivers (“Rivettes”) between lakes (“Gouilles”) originating from the re-emergence of glacial lakes situated in the Clou valley were, and still are, helped by man (local inhabitants) in autumn, poking at the water with large sticks (“Sappa”) so as to keep it flowing and not stagnating on site, therefore flowing to the houses and their stables.

Men and their herds from nearby Saint Jean and Saint Michel populated the area. They cultivated crops: wheat and rye grew well thanks to warm and dry summers (traces of barley have been found at l’Echaillon dating back to the end of the nineteenth century).  

Potatoes were discovered in the second half of the eighteenth century, and are believed to have been the staple food.

The hay was kept under roof in the hamlet, and then taken down to Ste Foy by cart, along with other harvests, in preparation for the long winter months. Little was left in the village over winter, due to the cold and the water that ran under the houses (drainage system) which would rot any perishables. In times when crops were abundant, only grain was left to ‘hibernate’ in the chests.

Looking back through the local records, from the first census of 1561 to the parish from the end of the eighteenth century, no birth certificates, death certificates or marriage certificates have been found for the winter months, proving that the village has never had inhabited on a permanent bases, something that my grandparents always assured me as a young boy. To close this chapter, it is important to note that since the Savoy region became a part of France in 1860, deeds have gone missing and the local archives were burnt. Thus many unanswered questions remain surrounding the past history of the place, and many a far-fetched story has been written and sold. Sadly for our children, the doings of their ancestors have slowly been lost over time, forgotten from generation to generation, through political and economic upheaval (boarder changes, war...). Nonetheless, this intrinsic memory was also very much a part of our heritage. Perhaps, therefore, this informal note is equal only to my nostalgia and my sentiments...