Bohemian Mountain

 
"SEE THE TABLE!
Le Grand-Bornand cultivates the art of getting out of the... framework. Alternative and full of audacity, an invitation for hipsters of all kinds to go green."

 
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ART LOVER(S), GET OUT OF THE FRAME!
 
A journey through the art cow or the contemporary art "vachement" accessible!
 
Unique in the world, evolving, arty and offbeat as much as possible, the Parcours de l'Art Vache allows walkers to appreciate the hundreds of works, paintings and sculptures, permanently installed throughout the village, maintained and regularly renewed by professional and amateur artists from all over the world. A real open-air art gallery, for a new and offbeat vision of the ruminant "star" of Grand-Bornand.
At the Café des Artistes, a look in the... retro
 
The Café des Artistes, a former bistro that has remained in its original state and is now a very old-fashioned place, nestling in the narrow streets of the old village, will reopen this summer with workshops to introduce you to the old trades, demonstrations of arts and crafts, snail races, grandmother's pie contest, concerts and other artistic performances by the young local artists brought together in the "Melting Paint" collective. The perfect opportunity to sip a locally designed lemonade while learning the basics of typography, for example, in a unique atmosphere, theatrical at the possible thanks to the frescoes of the painter Piero Amoudry integrated into the "Parcours de l'Art Vache" decorating the old walls of the neighborhood ...
A visit... to Poterie Martin...
 
A discreet workshop, glass canopies with small tiles with a patina of decades, clay floor, old stove, centuries-old walls and framework - whose simple push on the heavy door heralds a beautiful journey back in time. That of the Savoyard master potters, whose art Edith and Patrick Martin perpetuate by giving just the right amount of nobility to their glazed earthenware pieces... Bowls with traditional motifs (peas, birds, floral decorations), pitchers, bowls and other utensils clutter up the rough wooden shelves, often drying boards of reblochon cheese recovered from the neighbouring farm. From turning to varnishing, via engobage, which consists of staining the clay into the mass before firing, a visit to the workshop allows you to learn all about the manufacturing process of these ultra-trendy and touchingly beautiful folk art objects.
Learn the art of pottery with your family, at the Prunier workshop.
 
A Savoyard tradition by excellence, pottery can be discovered all summer long in the form of workshops and other discovery courses involving parents and children from the age of 4, given by the ceramist Nadia Belfer. From her Provencal childhood with a father who was a ceramist, the artist, whose workshop occupies an adorable little house on the corner of the village square, has developed a style at Le Grand-Bornand that does not imitate any particular artistic movement and aims at the essential, the most natural expression... The program, therefore, includes turning, modelling, decoration with engobes then glazing... and the shared pleasure of leaving with a small object of her own creation.
At the saddler's, Didier plays hard to... leather...
 
Didier Perrillat is a local craftsman, a figure of the Grand-Bornand who perpetuates an ancestral know-how with the work of leather, using age-old tools. His workshop-boutique is located in one of the oldest chalets in the village. There isn't a Bornandin ski champion who hasn't been offered a bell with his name on it, the supreme reward, coming out of his workshop! As a perfect ambassador of a trade that has become rare, as much as of the beautiful work "made in France", Didier leads, around the stove, workshops to introduce people to leather work and contributes by his art - and his loquaciousness - to the preservation of a trade as noble as it is old. Manufacture and sale of regional and home-made handicrafts (handbags and travel bags, belts and bracelets, saddlebags, traditional games, etc...).

 
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TASTE THE AUTHENTICITY
 
Play the "little farmers" in an authentic farm-school
 
What could be more natural, for the 1st agricultural commune of Haute-Savoie, than to train the next generation of farmers by introducing 5-12 year olds to the gestures and know-how of rural life? As real small farmers, children and young teenagers are led to take care of animals (sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens and ducks) and work in the vegetable garden before the final pony ride, a deserved reward for their efforts!
BOOK YOUR LITTLE FARMER WORSHOP
 

In the warmth of the barn, the secrets of the reblochon farmer revealed...
 
2,000 cows for barely more inhabitants contribute, all year round, to making Grand-Bornand the leading production area for the famous round cheese with its smooth hazelnut flavour. The resort is also the leading agricultural commune in Haute-Savoie with around fifty farms in operation, and every Wednesday morning offers the last Reblochon market in the region. An institution dating from 1795... Every week, one of the many farms of Grand-Bornand opens its doors to the public. This is an opportunity to discover, in situ, the different stages of reblochon production. From milking the cows to maturing in the cellar, the "cream of cheeses" prized by hikers reveals the secrets of its flavour and inimitable texture during a final tasting with the producer.
Visit a farm
 

Visit A 400 Year Old Chalet... by the lantern!
  
Like more than 400 chalets in Grand-Bornand, the Maison du Patrimoine is an authentic farmhouse that has survived through the centuries, acquiring a patina that gives it its full cachet. The Maison du Patrimoine presents a collection of furniture, objects and costumes from yesteryear, skillfully staged... that can now be discovered by taking advantage of the very special atmosphere of a lantern-lit night visit. Between darkness and light, the crackling of the wood and the crackling of the fire in the fireplace, will you be able to find the date, hardly believable, engraved upside down on the oldest beam of the venerable residence? A clue... take the barn stairs!
Festival Au Bonheur Des mômes : "And above all, don't be too wise..."  
 
A major event of the French cultural summer, Au Bonheur des Mômes and its programme full of audacity and sweet madness will once again shake the more than 90,000 festival-goers expected this summer at Le Grand-Bornand. A resounding success and a model of its kind, the European meeting place for young audiences will more than ever titillate curiosity and open-mindedness around an artistic stage as playful as its ambition remains great, with respect for differences and living together as its guiding principle(s). Shaking up its world, the "Children's Avignon" will cultivate all week long during small and big happinesses the time of a last big break ... They are pretty, the puppets, yes ... but they have things to say too! String and paper, shadow or girdle puppets, marottes, puppets and other giants of the fairgrounds will be... manip', as the 'happy' guests of this 29th edition, Le Grand-Bornand will highlight this ancestral and universal theatrical art... So hands up, and all to the most tender festival of the summer! A scoundrel's spirit of rigour, therefore, for festival-goers big and small, the hundred or so international artists and companies announced for more than 400 street performances, in halls or tents, as in the depths of the mountain pastures... it's going to be another one of those haystacks!

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