L'Ermitage de Dominova

Today we walked up to the Ermitage de Dominova. It has an interesting history which can be read here - sorry only in French. We climbed up around 4oo metres during the morning for the views of the valley below and then returned for the real purpose of the expedition, a birthday celebration. The 'hermit' Frère Gérard, who has restored the building, joined us. He is a charismatic man and spoke of the miracles of this place of pilgrimage which has the reputation of a mini Lourdes. He also introduced us to his savannah (a Serval/cat cross.) The savannah behaves like a dog and always stays close. It is not particularly tame but fiercely loyal and protective. It can jump high and climb trees easily. He told the story of what happened last week. A school party was in attendance. The cat by its miaowing alerted the monk to a problem and led him to a hole with several baby wild boar in it. The wild boar mother appeared and was about to attack, until Brother Gérard jumped into the hole and threw the young out towards the mother, thus averting an attack. He maintained that, but for the intervention of the savannah, the nearby chidden would have been in great danger from the frantic wild animal.

There is a small flickr set here.