Anne-Marie Choffart: She has Hombourg-Haut in her blood!
Anne-Marie Choffart is a volunteer guide at the Tourist Office. She passionately defends the great and small heritage during visits to Vieux-Hombourg, an exceptional medieval site.
When Anne-Marie Choffart talks to you about Hombourg-Haut, her eyes sparkle.
There are mentions of her ancestors in Hombourg as early as the 1650s. That shows you if she is local!
Deeply marked by the stories told to her by her grandmother, born in 1896, she is full of tenderness for her city:
“I couldn’t live anywhere else, I always have to come back here. When you find yourself at the top of the rocky spur, at the top of the village, it's like being at the end of the world,” she tells us.
Once she retired, Anne-Marie volunteered to become a guide in Vieux-Hombourg and pass on her love of old stones. She trained and learned everything about the history of this exceptional medieval site from other guides:
“With experience, I have also learned to adapt to the group of the day, to walk at their pace, to adapt the speech. What I like is contact with people, sharing. It's great to interact with people who have chosen to be there. My best memory as a guide was in December. It had snowed a lot but it stopped just in time for the start of the tour. It wasn't too cold and the snow had created a really special atmosphere. It was a very beautiful moment. Each visit is different, it's always a pleasure. »
Your favorite place on the whole site?
“The chapel, in the Saint-Etienne collegiate church. I will always greet the young girl, wearing a hennin, sculpted in the ogive. I really have a special affection for her. The sculptor must have created it after a real person. His smile is truly unique. »
Would you have liked to live in the Middle Ages? What would your life have been like?
“I wouldn’t have wanted to live there. We must not idealize the past. There were a lot of codes and survival was a real daily concern. If I had lived in another era, I think I would have liked to know what the people of Hombourg felt in 1918, with the return to France. What did these people, who spoke mainly German, feel? »
Tell us about a book that had an impact on you.
" I loved Travel with a donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson. I reread it often, and every time I walk the Stevenson Path. I really like walking.”
What if it was a culinary specialty, or a recipe from your childhood?
“Oh, a good stew! »
To discover the medieval village of Hombourg-Haut, in the company of Anne-Marie, consult our agenda, or contact the tourism office.
