Maurice and Denise Gladine have been collecting homemade scarecrows for almost thirty years, in Rimeizenc, near Fau-de-Peyre. In an old agricultural shed, they made a museum of curiosities.
“I’m twenty years old” laughs Denise, at the entrance to the old agricultural shed turned museum, in the small hamlet of Rimeizenc near Fau-de-Peyre, on the Aubrac. “And me, eighty horses”, continues Maurice, as he opens the door to their Ali Baba cave. “She’s Pucette, she comes from Montpellier”Denise exclaims in front of her little Pinscher, bundled up, trembling because of the cold that has suddenly returned to the department.
It is a veritable gallery of disguised scarecrows that appears before the eyes of visitors. Life-size or miniature figurines, created from natural or recycled materials. Made by the hands of the spouses during the long evenings of the harsh Lozère winter. The visit is free, commented by the owners. Each piece tells a story. From Michael Jackson to the policeman in situation.
FREE MIDI – Michel Pieyre
The spouses are local. Denise was born here, in Rimeizenc’s house. Maurice is from Cantal. Married for fifty-five years, they started the improbable collection because of an unwanted visitor: “A hawk was coming to eat our chickens. We had to scare it away”, remembers the retiree. The first scarecrow was created in 1999. In 2001, thirty-nine were already installed. Today, the museum has 400, not counting those visible outside, along the road, in the meadow overlooking the hangar. “I carve wood with a chainsaw, it’s the most dangerous,” exclaims Maurice, pointing to the bones of the models.
Standing, seated, around a table and a game of cards, the figurines enhance the museum in several paintings. “Me, I paint and I dress. A gendarme brought me a costume, I have to act as a scarecrow. I will do it in the winter,” Denise predicts. If the visit is free, there is no question of machine-gunning the works excessively: “People pay €10 for photos, that’s normal,” she warned.
FREE MIDI – Michel Pieyre
From the ceiling, thousands of yogurt pots are hung along a string: “There are 5,000 of them altogether. I eat two of them every night,” says the owner, proudly. The hundreds of faces, many carved on birch wood, challenge the gaze of the curious: “There is Michael Jackson. He is making his first communion”, laughs the creator. A little further on, a scarecrow is dressed in a rabbit skin jacket. Another is braided with peasant twine. Chicken or turkey feathers, cowhair mustaches, champagne corks – “we were going to the Nasbinals ball” -, rock wool, painted chicken bones, wine bottle caps, everything is good for decorum.
“The museum is full, notes Denise, We’re putting them out now.” The late Louis Nicollin, the truculent eternal president of the Montpellier football club (MHSC), also has a place in the museum. At the scarecrow farm, no need to book, just ring the house gate. Maurice and Denise Gladine will be there to share their passion. As an Egyptian proverb says “uA scarecrow is only frightening from afar. And it’s very true.
