We found a two minute promotional movie on dailymotion.org announcing a soon-to-be-released documentary about the city of Mazamet. (Sorry, I couldn’t imbed the link.)
It’s includes a fascinating fact – that Mazamet once supplied 80% of the world’s wool. I was reading a book left here in the gite entitled “Life’s not all wine and roses: a collection of tales from Southern France” by Bruce Watson and read a fascinating story about the wool industry during and post WWII.
The story goes as follows: A gentleman by the name of Jacques Lombart, who had been captured by the Germans, worked as an auto mechanic in a prison camp in northern France. He managed to escape and return to Mazamet where he started a business of converting cars to run on wood alcohol rather than gasoline (because of the rationing of gasoline). But the car business was slow as was the wool industry. The demand for wool had come to a virtual standstill. The fellmongers with imported Argentinian wool in stock sold the bales cheaply to get some return on their investment. Jacques Lombart saw an opportunity and as wool prices decreased, Jacques started to buy. He mortgaged his house to spend the capital on buying all of the wool that he could afford and store. He rented empty warehouses and piled up thousands of bales of the stuff.
Then the war ended and the demand for wool resurged. But the ever prudent Jacques did not immediately sell. When the prices rose ten times, he began to sell but cautiously as he did not want to flood the market.
Clever Jacques made his fortune but according to the story, also lost it and made it again in forestry, coffee and peanuts.
The absolutely gorgeous houses in Mazamet are a testament to the town’s once wealthy status and in the black and white film footage, note the Cafe de Paris that is still here in town with what appears to be the same awning.
Click on the link here and enjoy:
Bande Annonce Mazamet Story
Uploaded by Doomyx
