In Eure, the partnership between this municipality and ASALF has enabled the restoration of the Mallé fountain

For 35 years, the Association for the Protection of the Areas of the Lévrière of the Forêt de Lyons (ASALF) has been working to safeguard the natural and built heritage of the valley. Regularly, great achievements are to his credit. Latest: linauguration of the Mallé fountain in Bézu-la-Forêt (Eure).

The president of the association, Olivier Blanchard, spoke to the elected officials and residents gathered the other Saturday morning around this fountain located at the exit of the village, on the edge of the D 14, which goes up the Lévrière valley. “Some will think that restoring a small fountain, certainly registered in 1840 and a little isolated since the transformation of the roadway in 1965, is not essential and is only child’s play. Not really…”

With the municipality

And Olivier Blanchard continued his overview of the construction site. “After Anne Belhoste, architect and first deputy in Mesnil-sous-Vienne and member of ASALF since the dawn of time, had thought about the work to be carried out, we visited the town hall of Bézu-la-Forêt. The town hall immediately supported this project. We then decided to carry out the work at shared costs between the Town Hall and ASALF.”

A monument surrounded by customs

The monument proudly presents itself a few meters before joining the D 316 which leaves from Bézu-la-Forêt to reach Morgny and is surrounded by legends and customs no longer up to date… Several verses summarize this tradition specific to the fountain Mallé and aimed at single women who were formerly called “old maids”: “Village young lady, tired of being too wise, in search of a husband, therefore stops being married. All you have to do is go to the Mallé fountain. You will remain an old maid if you forget your needle. It shouldn’t leak, if you’ll coo.” An entire program…

Other projects in progress

The partnership between the commune of Bézu-la-Forêt and the ASALF has allowed the fountain to come back to life and local heritage to be reborn. A mission that the ASALF intends to pursue, as Olivier Blanchard emphasized at the end of his speech, with projects in his head: “I wish to meet you in front of the bread oven of the town hall of Mesnil-sous-Vienne and in front of the well of the deniers in Martagny on the day when these two new restoration projects will have arrived safely. » Chick!

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