Sheep Festival in La Brigue, Alpes-Maritimes, France, Digi Mart USA News (La Brigue, Alpes-Maritimes, France): The village of La Brigue in the Alpes-Maritimes held the 16th edition of the Brigasque Sheep Festival on October 18. For one day, the village’s few hundred residents were joined by a large number of visitors, many of them from Italy.
The festival was created in 2009 in this village in the Roya Valley to save the Brigasque, a rustic dairy sheep breed emblematic of the region that was then threatened with extinction. The breed is recognizable by its distinctive, convex muzzle, and it is the star of the day.
A local sheep and goat farmer, Bartholomé, explained that the breed has been little selected for agri-food production. It is hardy and resistant, with limited milk quantity but milk particularly rich in protein and fat.
Only about 1,200 Brigasque sheep remain in all of France, a decline the organizers attribute to urbanization along the coast, which has reduced the low-altitude areas where the sheep once spent winters in the sun. Farmer Bartholomé brought roughly one hundred Brigasque sheep back to the village for the event.
Visitors also took part in a basketry workshop further down the village, where children and adults learned to weave willow and rattan. Throughout the day, attendees strolled among local food and Italian-influenced flavors.
Baptiste Roy, co-organizer of the festival, said the event showcases peasant farming and local craftsmanship focused on quality products for food accessible to all, presenting an alternative to industrial agriculture.
The day concluded with the transhumance of 3,000 sheep from the valley, as shepherds moved their flocks through the village on their way to winter at lower altitudes.
