La légende des hirondelles

Dominated by a sublime blue-green tinged with grey which connects the pond and the sky, the bespoke panoramic wallpaper La Légende des Hirondelles is an ode to the softness and tranquillity of the French countryside with its tender and soft colours. Painted in gouache, this wall mural illustrates a story that has become a tale, enunciated by Aristotle to explain the migration of swallows. According to the legend, these small birds spent the winter in the mud of ponds. We thus see the swallows, delicately painted in ink, emerge from the water and rise into the sky, heralding the beginning of spring. As an echo, the flowering irises in the foreground confirm the new season.

This wall mural can be connected with “Cent Lièvres”.

The legend of swallows was stated by Aristotle as early as 350 BC to explain the disappearance of swallows in the fall. Indeed, the migration of birds remained unknown until the eighteenth century. The story told that these little birds clung to each other to form balls and then burrowed into the mud of the ponds. It even happened that some fishermen caught them in their nets ! This legend was refuted by the naturalist Buffon in 1780, whose theory was confirmed by two monks thanks to the ringing technique. The migration of birds became known to humans and the first migratory maps were drawn.