Billy goat

There was no bridge nearby but this billy goat looked very impressive in his goat herd. The walk this week was above above Mosset at the end of a valley we do not visit often. The scenery is less dramatic but the views are lovely. We returned via the youth and education centre of La Coûme. In 1936, Le Mas de la Coûme became a hostel welcoming groups of young Oxford students for work camps. In the visitor book are recorded the names of these students, including former English labour politician Denis Healey and philosopher Maurice Mzerleau-Ponty. In 1939, thousands of Spanish refugees began pouring over the Pyrénées in the Spanish Retirada. The Quakers asked La Coûme to take in child refugees, mostly orphans. Over the coming years La Coûme welcomed, clothed, fed and educated numerous children regardless of race, religion or background. It was throughout these years that La Coûme’s reputation for openness, unity and cross-disciplinary education developed. Informed by their background in education and interest in new teaching methods, The founders, who originally had been dismissed from their teaching posts in Nazi Germany and escaped to this area with the help of English Quakers, continued after the war to create ‘l’Ecole de Plein Air’ (Open Air School for Health): a unique learning environment to encourage individual abilities, along with independence and physical health.