Au cœur de l'Auvergne

The author recounts personal memories of an Auvergne childhood and family roots, moving between Parisian exile and return to the mountain homeland. Vivid sketches portray regional language and communities, the cabrette and bourrée music, seasonal food traditions and pig slaughter, domestic festivals, and the persistence of patois among emigrant colonies. Interwoven are scenes of hardship during urban refuge in wartime and reflections on how rural customs sustained identity. The work blends memoir and travelogue, alternating anecdote, sensory description, and cultural observation to evoke landscape, social bonds, and the enduring presence of provincial ways within city life.