The picturesque village of Sainte-Suzanne
In the tarot, the Wheel of Fortune and the Chariot signify, among many other things, an upcoming trip . And there they were. Announcing me that I would soon have to pack a suitcase with a destination, perhaps, abroad.
It's not that I'm very esoteric, but what do you want me to tell you? What scorpio I am, the tarot and the zodiac attract me deeply. As I had imagined, it did not take long for the opportunity to present itself: the Pays de la Loire , west of France.
Suitcases packed, it was time to board an Air Nostrum Madrid-Nantes that would save me, for a few days, from the heat of Madrid's plateau summer.
Along the paths of Sainte-Suzanne you will find...
Everything that, by its name, can evoke in our imagination the only region of France that is called "country" , it fulfills it to the letter once you get there. This piece of land, which follows the meanders of the legendary river Loire , is one of the most romantic areas in Europe.
And yes, if what I expected were dreamy landscapes with medieval castles , a delicious local cuisine, stone and wood houses and endearing cobblestone streets where you think that, at any moment, you will come across a character from Beauty and the Beast ; That's exactly what I found.
The area is full of bucolic chateaux -that amalgam between castle and palace so representative of the French territory-.
One of the best known is in the medieval village of Sainte-Suzanne , since, in addition to being in one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Route of the Castles of the region , it is a château full of history and fantasy, as it became a symbol of resistance against the failed siege of William the Conqueror, in the 11th century.
Château de Sainte-Suzanne
The medieval village of Sainte-Suzanne It is the capital of the department of mayenne and is part of the list of “ les plus beaux villages de France ” or, what is the same, “the most beautiful villages in France”, but in French it always sounds better.
Known as the “Pearl of Maine ”, is located in the heart of the Historic-artistic country Coëvrons-Mayenne and it also has the green holiday station and small villa with personality labels.
What I could not imagine is that there I would find that Sainte-Suzanne had in the past -and currently maintains- a link, precisely, with the world of tarot . It was when I arrived at the idyllic château that I discovered it.
A huge poster with the figure of The magician I was waiting with his colorful and strange clothes. The image shows a magician behind a table, but not an illusionist who does magic for shows, no, but one true and ancient , more similar to an alchemist who has on his table all the necessary objects to achieve any of his transmutations.
But this Wizard was not alone. Scattered throughout the town, were other characters from the depths of clairvoyance. The Devil, The Priestess, The Hermit, The Star or The Hanged Man are some of the symbols that decorate the streets of Sainte-Suzanne.
Are you superstitious?
The relationship between the town and the best-known divinatory art in the world goes back a long way . In the 16th century, its inhabitants began to invest in the use of erve river and, currently, there are still vestiges of, at least, twenty two water mills.
Four of them were specialized in the manufacture of excellent paper destined, among other things, to produce playing cards . The failure to modernize these mills led to the disappearance of the paper business and, 1835 and 1840 , the Sainte-Suzanne paper mills finally closed their doors.
Of those mills that, in the past, elaborated one of the most beautiful inventions of man, not everything has been forgotten, but rather, there is a route along the river Erve in which the charms of these traditional factories that border it are discovered, always with the beautiful view of the city as company.
This is a guide known as the ** Promenade des Moulins **, which reveals the milling heritage of Sainte-Suzanne, which today serves as a witness to its industrial past and whose mills have been carefully restored.
One of them, Le Moulin a Papier of Sainte-Suzanne, continues making paper by hand : with fabric -using old cotton, linen or hemp rags-, by hand and sheet by sheet.
The main activity of this place is the paper sheet production , but it also has a shop where they sell self-made items, among which are, among many others, decks of tarot cards.
Also, charles robert , the master manufacturer and one of the last paper craftsmen in France, offers guided tours sharing his passion, discovering to the visitor the techniques and tools invented by the Italian papermakers of the 13th century.
And even, he conducts workshops for children to make the paper themselves with suitable material and in the same artisanal conditions with which he manufactures them.
How nice that he gave me to browse and go out in search and capture of these mystical signs that are strategically distributed in businesses and premises in accordance with their meaning.
Thus, it is not surprising that I ran into the Hermit hiding behind some hydrangeas, with the Temperance in front of the pharmacy , with the Priestess at the library door , with the Crazy scanning the roads , or with the Star at a crossroads; like luck, which can appear around any corner.
It was precisely in Sainte-Suzanne where he settled Jean-Claude Flornoy (Paris, 1950 - Sainte-Suzanne, 2011), an artisan who, after studying philosophy and being a potter for 15 years, became cartier-enlumineur.
The Priestess awaits you at the Sainte-Suzanne Library
Flornoy spent 25 years of his life studying the Tarot of Marseille and his deep passion for authenticity made him a specialist who, in 1996, undertook a oversized restoration of Nicolas Conver's tarot (Marseilles, 1760).
His goal was to recover, in its original freshness, this traditional imagery and to do it as faithfully as possible. After that, he updated other original historical tarots, preserved mainly in the National Library of France, in Paris , such as that of Jean Noblet (Paris, around 1650), Jean Dodal (Lyon, 1701) and Jacques Viéville (Paris, around 1650 too) .
He was painting each arcanum on giant canvases when he was able to understand the significant details of each by itself . This fact led him to regularly collaborate in exhibitions, conferences or workshops in a wide variety of contexts related to the French traditional tarot.
And it was, in Sainte-Suzanne, from where he was at the head of Le Tarot Editions , along with his wife Roxanne.
Contributing, in addition, to the decoration of the streets of the town with his card designs made with a metal base, those enigmatic signs that led me to learn of their existence and on which he was working until the day that the one who presides over the Nameless Arcana came to take it away.
Sainte-Suzanne, one of the most beautiful villages in France