Conférence : Les bateliers de Loire à travers les graffitis du Cher

Boat graffiti was found in 2022 in a barn on the banks of the Cher. Dated between 1720 and 1804, they were engraved on plaster, the ease with which they could be etched not only revealed previously unpublished details, but above all confirmed that, far from the River Loire, boatmen shared the same practices and formed a community that identified itself as being from the Loire.
Navigation times on the rivers depended on high and low water, so boatmen sometimes had to wait long periods before they could sail. Far from their homes and families, these teams of men often had a bad reputation among local residents. Idle, scanning the river, the boatmen waiting to embark (the authors of this graffiti from Vallon) apparently lived sparsely in these barns close to the river.
The architecture of the boats is detailed and, with rare exceptions due to the specific nature of each river, follows the models of the Loire. The names of boats, towns, people, dates, personal opinions and forms of manoeuvring are all typically Loirean.
Archaeologist Olivier Troubat will talk about his discoveries, which highlight the links between the mariners of the Cher and those of the Loire, confirming that they belonged to a genuine community of people who worked the water.