The Loire at Salettes
A delightful setting on the banks of the Loire on this first category course, like an image d'Épinal in raw colors that gives this site a surprising character. I discovered the place recently. Coming from Le Puy-en-Velay, via Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille, I had to take the départementale 500 to get there. There, I passed through a small village from another era, with its mud square and old Romanesque church next to the cemetery. Then I drove a few more cables to reach the tiny parking lot with two or three spaces.
A blessed time
It was ten o'clock. A fisherman had just finished his fishing trip and, sitting on the low wall overlooking the Loire, he was peacefully breaking his crust. Had he caught any fish? He told me no, but that it didn't matter to him. His presence here that day was more akin to a pilgrimage than a real plan to catch fish.
He then told me that his earliest memory was of the blessed time of his fourth birthday, when his father had taken him fishing for the first time. And for some years now, he had made a habit of indulging his passion on this beautiful stretch of water on his birthday. With a knife in one hand and a piece of cantal in the other, he was the happiest of men at that very moment. Immersed in these memories, he was marking out his own existence by bringing back to life his loved ones. The weather was beautiful, the temperature mild, the banks of the Loire resplendent, and even if the fishing had turned out to be excellent, it would have added nothing to his happiness.
A modest chub
I left him quickly, so as not to affect his bliss, and made my way down to the river through the vorgines, trampling over poplar shoots and clumps of wild mint.
Indeed, the trout were in a capricious mood and I had to make do with a modest chub. But walking on the pebbles and gliding between the long aquatic ranunculus made me surprisingly happy, as light as the ephemeral that plays tricks on the winds.
