The Stones of Balazuc: A French Village in Time

The impetus for John Merriman's The Stones of Balazuc, his affectionate but commendably evenhanded history of an obscure French village southwest of Lyon, was an apparently simple question: What difference had the "great events"--including the French Revolution and the two world wars--made there? Balazuc (population 339; 1,000 during the summer), built on cliffs overlooking the Ardeche River, is a place of "savage," and to some, forbidding, beauty. Over the centuries its fortunes--based primarily on silk production (and to a lesser extent chestnuts and vineyards), and more recently tourism--have risen and fallen dramatically. Merriman briefly traces Balazuc's pre-history and its Roman and medieval periods, but concentrates on the last few hundred years: the ravages of agricultural diseases, wars, and ferocious storms, and more recently, the ominous and steady exodus of young people. More intriguing, however, are his spare, unprepossessing investigations of the quotidian, such as the arrival of television, the development of a municipal drinking water system, the real estate market, the shifting cast of customers of the local café, and villagers' reflections on their changing world. Francophiles, especially, will appreciate this book. So should general readers hungry for something beyond another frothy look at quaint, colorful, French rural life. --H. O'Billovich