Dernière mise à jour le 1 JANVIER 2024

Some of you are wondering about this name. 

Above all, you should know that once chosen, an affix of a dog breeder remains attached to the name of the breeder throughout its activity and whatever the address of its farm.

Also, I will try to satisfy your curiosity.

I spent my childhood in Nervieux, a small village nestled in the heart of the Plaine du Forez on the banks of the Loire, between the Monts du Lyonnais and the Puys d’Auvergne range.

When I started breeding Beauce Shepherd dogs, then later the Pyrenees mountain dog, I naturally remained attached to this region. My first installations of my breeding were carried out in an old farm, a few places from where I lived my young years. This ancient farm has the particularity of being located in the vicinity of the Château de la Bâtie d’Urfé, to which it probably belonged.

To understand, a look back at the historical past is necessary.

“La Bâtie”, this illustrious residence, is built on the banks of the Lignon, a river described in the Middle Ages as “the gentle flow”. The castle was built at the beginning of the 16th century by Jacques d'Urfé, who married Renée de Savoie.  Tutor of the children of King Henry II, son of François 1st.  D’Urfé imbues La Bâtie with the style of the Italian Renaissance introduced to France following the return of the numerous Italian wars. The Château de la Bâtie was remodeled at the beginning of the 17th century by the construction of a Gallery with 12 columns and an equestrian access ramp guarded by a sphinx.

Born in 1567, while the Wars of Religion were decimating the kingdom, it was in this home that Honoré d'Urfé's childhood passed. Very early on, country life attracted him more than the Court. He went to Paris to continue his studies at the Jesuit college of Tournon and at the age of sixteen, he composed his first pastoral poem, Sireine, which was not published until 1604.

Once his studies were completed, Honoré d’Urfé became involved alongside the Catholics. He made his profession in the Order of Malta and joined the League in 1590, thus opposing King Henry III. He was taken prisoner twice by royal troops. Forced to leave the kingdom, he placed himself in the service of the Duke of Savoy, his great uncle. It was the reconciliation between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Savoy, in 1603, which then brought him closer to Henry IV. 

Installed at the castle of “la Bâtie”, Honoré d'Urfé then published the second volume of his Moral Epistles (the first volume dates from 1598), which he expanded in 1608 and 1619. Honoré d'Urfé after having led a life adventurous, died in 1625.

Under the title “L’Astrée”, the work of the first French novelist is brought together. Pastoral novel of five thousand pages, composed of five parts, each divided into twelve books. This complex web of intrigues featuring nearly two hundred characters in a bucolic setting makes Astrée a difficult work to summarize. However, we will remember the dominant plot, which includes the loves of the shepherd Céladon for the shepherdess Astrée. 

This work, very quickly in its time, became a manual of politeness and a treatise on the art of loving or libertinage. His immense influence went beyond the framework of literature to create a work of civilization by serving as an example to an aristocracy that was still a little rough at the dawn of the 17th century.

This is why I wanted to include history in the choice of my affix.

The Plaine du Forez of my childhood with the novel de l’Astrée, whose scenerio took place near my first breeding of Beaucerons and Patous dogs, in Sainte-Foy-Saint-Sulpice, it seemed only natural to me that my affix was named:

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