CHAPTERS
LE PIGEONNIER
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Rebellion and Revolution
This chapter introduces the reader to the importance of the role played by pigeons and pigeonniers in French society and explains how they became one of the main grievances aired by the peasantry during the 1675 rebellion of Les Bonnets Rouges and in the run-up to the Revolution of 1789. Three weeks after the storming of the Bastille, the National Assembly introduced new laws on who could own a pigeonnier and how they should operate.
The Observant Naturalist
With the help of the writings of Pliny the Elder, this chapter explains why people wanted to keep pigeons in the first place (meat, manure, medicine, messages) and introduces some key facts about the bird’s conjugal habits.
A Tasty Bird
Among the earliest known recipes is a 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet telling us how to make pigeon stew. By the time of the Renaissance, baby pigeons were a staple part of the French diet. The rich began to build large freestanding pigeonniers to ensure a steady supply of fresh meat.
The Gentleman Farmer
The French agronomist Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) offers guidance on how to choose a suitable site for a new pigeonnier, how to design it and how to populate it.
Inside the Pigeonnier
Because the pigeons were given the same freedom as wild birds, pigeonnier owners went to extraordinary lengths to provide an attractive and safe home for the pigeons to roost and raise their young, including the provision of aromatic herbs, tasty titbits and carefully-designed nests.
Manure, Medicine and Messages
The pigeon’s meat alone did not justify the cost of building and running a pigeonnier. This chapter looks into the importance of pigeon manure, and sheds light on peripheral uses including medicine, egg production and delivering messages.
The Pedicurist
After the age of four, a female pigeon lays fewer eggs. In this chapter we discover how an annual pedicure enabled the owner to track the ages of all his birds and take the old ones away so that his pigeonnier would run at peak efficiency.
Evolution of the Pigeonnier in France
From its humble beginnings as a small cage in the farmyard, the pigeonnier evolved into an ostentatious, monumental symbol of its owner’s wealth. This chapter provides an overview of the way in which the pigeonnier’s design evolved between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Photographing Pigeonniers
Jon gives practical guidance on the best way to photograph a pigeonnier, including tips on lighting and composition.
Deconstructing the Pigeonnier
However aesthetically pleasing a pigeonnier may be, it is important to remember that even the decorative elements served a function. Key among these was protecting the birds from predators such as rodents and birds of prey.
The Lawyer
Denis de Salvaing, a 17th century lawyer and advisor to the king, summarises just how complicated and fragmented the laws on pigeonniers had become by the 1650s.
The Rules of Ownership
This chapter builds on de Salvaing’s comments by using examples of litigation where the nobility sought to preserve their exclusive rights to pigeonnier ownership.
Sowing the Seeds of Discontent
The birds in a modest 200-nest pigeonnier would eat the equivalent of 13 hectares of wheat per year, enough to make 34,000 baguettes. The peasants were forbidden by law from harming the birds and they could do little to protect their crops. At the start of 1789, one community complained to the king that the birds from 22 pigeonniers in its parish ate enough grain to feed a quarter of its population.
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
The people’s hatred of the pigeonnier was amplified by a series of poor harvests before the Revolution of 1789. This chapter explains in more detail the new laws passed by the National Assembly on pigeonnierownership and operation.
Decline and Fall
The new laws took away the pigeonnier’s social prestige and increased its operating costs. The nobility stopped building new ones and gradually abandoned the larger ones. In contrast, the richer peasants began building pigeonniers, often in a style known as ‘mule’s foot’. But when the demand for pigeon manure slumped in the late 19th century, the economics of ownership deteriorated still further. During the early part of the 20th century, nearly all of France’s pigeonniers were abandoned by their owners, and by their former residents.
Obsessed by Pigeonniers
In the first of three chapters about the growing interest in pigeonniers and their preservation, an acknowledged expert on the subject recounts his personal struggle to save one of the oldest pigeonniers in Occitanie.
Alix David - The Winemaker’s Mission
In the 11th century, the counts of Toulouse insisted on the exclusive use of pigeon manure to fertilise their vineyards around Gaillac. This is one of the factors that inspired Alix David to create an association of female winemakers who raise money through an annual auction of their wines and use the proceeds to restore pigeonniers in the area around Gaillac.
A Pigeonnier for the Night
This chapter tells the story of how a collapsing pigeonnier was dismantled and transported to a new site where it now serves as the bridal suite at a wedding venue.
Modern pigeons and pigeonniers
Since the demise of the pigeonnier, the pigeon has transformed itself into an urban bird (or flying rat). Today, numerous municipalities in France are using modern pigeonniers as a means of controlling this population.
Pigeons for the Table
Today, pigeon is a speciality which you are most likely to find on the menu of a gourmet restaurant. In this chapter, a leading supplier to restaurants in France and Spain talks about his business and his love of pigeons.
How to Cook Pigeon
A cookery class with a chef who learned to cook pigeon when she worked at the world’s best restaurant (Noma in Copenhagen).
Pigeonniers Around the World
A brief overview of pigeonniers in other countries: Egypt, England, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and the United States.
Ending with an Enigma
The book closes with reflections on pigeonniers, and why those that are still standing are largely ignored by the birds for which they were built.