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Thanks to the magazine "Chemin-Faisant"
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Above, in the hill of Clape, in the middle of an ocean of pines and of always green oaks, Our Lady of the Auzils (coming from the word in Romance language auxilium Latin : help) watches over the sea and gives to the sailors hope to reach the next harbour.To reach the chapel, it is necessary to walk on a rocky road lined with unusual commemorative monuments.
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Since in 1936, Paul Valéry has written songs dedicated to the maritime cemeteries, this name became bound to this place. But as says J. Carbonnel with his thunderous voice, who is somebody special and a great storyteller "one should rather call it the Path of Castaways".
This title would be indeed better, because these graves are really cenotaphs seeing that the bodies of the unfortunate disappeared people are swallowed up for ever by floods.
When in 1797, a terrible storm caused the disappearance of 32 fishermen of Gruissan
, the population made a pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Auzils every Monday at Easter.
Becoming witnesses of this popular devoutness, the walls of the chapel were little by little covered with ex-voto honouring the fishermen and the sailors of Gruissan who were dead in these, often very far from to them, during their business sea travels.
It has been discovered here that in the nineteenth century, a lot of inhabitants from Gruissan built magnificent schooners, brigs, and other buccaneers from the glorious times of the sail marine.
This remarkable collection, listed historic monument, was plundered in 1967 during a burglary. The population, which was filled with consternation, intended to find any tracks of its heritage. So, with these collected archives, a restaurant owner of historic monuments has been able to build up again the collection by replacing the stolen ex-voto by... doing trompe l'oeil paintings.
No one could see the difference, oh well done ! The work has been done in a splendid way and it results of it a lot of sensitivity, emotion and also the devoutness of the people of Gruissan.
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