Ash

There was a great fire.

But who am I kidding? “Great” fires happen here all the time. The climate is dry, the air hot, the sun blazing… It’s not unusual to see smoke fill the azure sky and, shortly after, several yellow planes dance amongst the clouds, dropping water and chemicals on the blaze below. Not too long ago there was a fire so devastating and powerful that, no matter how much the planes tried, it swallowed the land outside St. Maxime entirely and for years afterwards, only charred black sand reminded locals of the tremendous forest that once grew there. It’s just that usually those fires don’t happen here.

That doesn’t mean they don’t happen here. I speak of the story – and
not for the first time – of this house’s namesake, Le Chêne en Croix. There was a fire, right on Cap Camarat, that engulfed the land and filled onlookers with fear. Surely nothing would be spared. But this house, full of life and magic, would not fall again (it was once seized and destroyed by the Nazis), and it had the help of a sacred tree – a tree shaped like a cross. This tree stopped the fire then and there, just a few hundred feet from the house. (Some may argue that the fire died out for more natural reasons – like the unique cross winds created by the cape – but that would take so much romance out of the story.) The Michel family wept with joy and relief, and to this day it is tradition to say "hello" and "thank you" to our beloved chêne en croix – or, en anglais, our “cross of oak.”

This year, we have even more reason to thank it.


I just don’t understand it; how dare nature do something so terrible to a place so beautiful? How sad to see this land – once full of color and life – drained to dead embers and broken sticks?


But even as I say this, I’m reminded of the power of nature. For as devastating as the fire (be it a natural fire, as are so common, or arson, which is the rumor) was, hope lingers. Life remains. The land is still fertile… perhaps even more so now. Just a few short weeks after the dramatic event (which made the front page of newspapers as far as Spain, what with five airplanes and a helicopter trying desperately to stop the blaze to no avail), green is growing again on the side of the mountain, overtaking the ash. Next year the trees will start to grow leaves again. Beauty will come back to Cap Camarat.


What will take longer, however, is the devastation caused by the “repairs.” The mountain was without electricity and phone-lines, and so they brought their giant, gas-guzzling machines in to rebuild telephone poles and re-give the gift of power. But look what they took away…



And in preparation for the next fire, the locals are clearing unwanted brush from the mountain. Ludo said he’d come next month to see how to better protect the house. (I still have faith in the Chêne en Croix, but some feel a tree can only do so much) Already we’ve lost the quaintness and greenery of some of our favorite pathways.


Finally, I want to add here that the Chêne en Croix still reigns with all its glory… and the paths to the sacred tree remain fresh and green.