Description :
This episode of Orality and Humanity is part of the European project Tramontana Network (Réseau Tramontana / Tramontana Network), co-financed by the European Union, which aims to connect mountain and rural territories across Europe in order to preserve their oral heritage, languages and cultural memories. Through his collaboration with the Tramontana initiative, Jean-Paul Ferré continues his work of collecting testimonies from the inhabitants of Couserans and neighbouring regions, highlighting how personal stories become part of a shared European memory. This programme focuses on the testimony of Louis Pagès, a man born in Catalonia whose life reflects the history of border crossings, exile and the deep human links created across the Pyrenees.
The episode presents the story of Louis Pagès, born in 1924 in Catalonia, whose father had fled France during the First World War after refusing military service and settled temporarily on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, near the Port de Salau. The testimony recounts the difficult journey back to France in 1930, crossing the mountains on foot while carrying a sick family member. Jean-Paul Ferré and the presenter reflect on the emotional power of such accounts, explaining that oral history is not only a collection of facts but also a transmission of feelings, memories and intimate experiences. The act of listening becomes a moment of shared humanity between the person giving the testimony and the person receiving it.
The final part of the programme explores the importance and urgency of collecting these voices before they disappear. Jean-Paul Ferré explains that many of the people interviewed over more than a decade belong to a generation that carries knowledge of vanished ways of life, languages and traditions. Through audiovisual documentation, Tramontana preserves these individual memories as part of a collective heritage, allowing future generations to access the experiences of mountain communities. The episode concludes by emphasising that beyond archives and recordings, the true value of this work lies in the human relationships created through dialogue, trust and the sharing of personal histories.