Sunflower Capitol of the World and Copper Pots

The Chateau at Saissac

The lake that feeds the Canal Midi

Copper pot in the museum. Not the pattern that is made by careful pounding with a padded hammer.
This is the man who has made copper pots here his whole life and was featured in the video

He shows us his technique with the hammer.

Vol tries here hand at . She was actually pretty good.

Sunflower Capitol of the World

Wednesday Vol and I planned to go for a drive to Durfort, a little village that has been making copper pots since medieval times and then to stop by a reservoir in the mountains which is the source of the Canal Midi and supposedly has crystal clear water.

I picked Vol up and 8:30 am and we programmed Durfort into the TomTom and headed west. The first part of the drive was very nice, not much traffic, and took us through many attractive villages on and off the canal. We passed through Carcassone (the actual modern town) and could see the Medieval Castle/town pretty closely although we didn’t stop.

We kept heading west and before long we were in a very different landscape – very rural – and suddenly in every direction there were fields of sunflowers as far as the eye could see. Van Gogh would have been thrilled. It was such a pretty sight with all of the flowers turned to face the sun directly. Certainly these flowers must be used to supply sunflower seeds (and their products) on the world market. There is no way anyone could possibly market this many flowers just to see pretty sunflowers in vases.

As we drove through these foothills the crops being grown changed to wheat and corn. Vol said, “I predict that we will soon come upon cows.” Miraculously just around the corner was a herd of spotted cows.

It did seem like we had been driving quite a distance and had not yet come upon any of the towns that we knew were located by Durfort. Finally we saw a sign for Durfort but it pointed to something that looked only slightly more improved than a cow path. The other very confusing thing was that this road forked and signs pointed in both directions “Durfort.” After going back to the main road and trying to find an alternate road to Durfort to no avail, we went back to the “cow path” and headed up one of the paths. Before too long we came to the end of the road which was a small square and one medium size house with a sign saying Durfort. Not a sign of the copper museum, shops or anything. This was obviously not the Durfort we were looking for.

On the map and TomTom we located a town we knew was very close to our Durfort and headed northweast. Even though this drive had been a mistake in the search for our Durfort we were very happy to have found the Sunflower Capitol of the World.

An hour later we arrived at the town near Durfort and there was a sign saying “Durfort”. We stopped and had lunch and discovered on closer inspection of TomTom that there were two Durforts – the copper one is Durfort Tarn.

Durfort is a very small village in a little river valley. There are several shops selling copper items and then a number of others selling various knick knacks and tourist stuff. We went into the Copper Museum (that is Cuivre Musee). It was just two rooms. Two older men were working there. They collected our entrance fee (3 Euros?) and escorted into the second room. In both rooms were copper bowls, pots, other items setting about and many pictures on the wall. The second room was set up with chairs for a small audience and a TV monitor. One of the men started telling us about the museum and copper pot making in French of course. I could get about every tenth word. Vol tried to fill me in as much as she could without interrupting the speaker. Then they turned on the video. It was a documentary showing how they have made copper pots through the centuries here in Durfort. The main copper worker being shown in the video was one of these two men.

It was very, very impressive relative to how much strength, skill, talent, attention to detail went into the making of a single pot. Also the setting in which all the work is done is incredibly hot – probably at least 120 F. Metal pieces after being forged are pounded by a huge stone cylinder driven by water from the nearby river. The seated worker turns the copper piece with his hands (oh my gosh watch your fingers) and by his feet (watch those toes). After the copper piece is made thinner and rounder in this process it is then pounded by hand with a hammer-type instrument. This is a long process and actually they put 4 pots into each other and do all for at the same time. Afterwards the single pots are given much more shape by more, and more pounding. The upper edge is rolled over a rounds wire and pounded into place as the lip of the pot. Eventually the outer side of the pot in pounded into a beautiful pattern of round shapes (characteristic of these pots) - see the picture above - and sometimes they are even given hand done patterns inside. Some of the pots (like bread basket shapes) are cut into shapes and then folded and sautered together. Finally the pot are dipped in chemicals and miraculously they change color into the beautiful copper color. They are then rinsed in the stream (yikes – the EPA would not be happy).

The visit to the museum was a great experience. We had certainly gained an appreciation as to the time, effort, and skill that goes into making one of these pots. The prices in shops outside seemed now much more reasonable.

We then drove a short distance up the mountain to a beautiful reservoir lake which is the source of the water for the Canal Midi. The blue water was beautiful against the forest. There were lots of people enjoying sunbathing, swimming, and boating. There were even dogs on the beach, the first place I’ve been that's allowed them.

The drive home was pretty uneventful. We did stop in Saissac to see the ruin of a Chateau. The little town was pristine and quiet. To get to the Chateau it was a long walk down hill (obviously followed by a long walk up hill). I got one so-so picture. The entrance fee to the Chateau was 7 euros and since I didn’t have any change and the amount seemed pretty high just to get a better photo, I skipped it – so did Vol.

We drove the rest of the way home following Madame TomTom’s directions – through little town alleys, farmer’s paths in vineyards, bumpy sideroads. But she got us there in good time and I enjoy driving on these kind of routes. When we got back to Vol’s she gave me the ultimate compliment, “You drive like a French person.” Thanks Vol. It was a fun day.