Why "The Perched Gazelle"?

The La Gazelle Perchée estate is located in the Cantal department (15) in the municipality of Ségur-les-Villas, on the edge of the Cézallier plateau.

The name «La Gazelle Perchée» is not insignificant. It refers to the «La Gazelle» hamlet where the cabins are located. As for «Perchée», the term here alludes to the design of the first cabin built on stilts as well as to the altitude of the location.

Why does this hamlet bear this name?

The cabins are as unusual as the name of the hamlet…!! Why does a hamlet bear the name of a mammal from the steppes of Asia or Africa, or is there another reason?

Like Ségur-Les-Villas, several other communes in the Cantal department have a locality named La Gazelle. Based on toponymy (the study of place names), this name is likely derived from vadum/Wad->gas, meaning a ford or crossing point.

La Gazelle in Ségur-les-Villas is identified as a village with a mill (which you can see on your right below the access road to the estate). In 1403 the village is mentioned with the spelling La Guazela, then in 1618 in the Dienne land register we find a trace of La Gazelle, and in 1667 in the Dienne rent roll under the spelling La Guazelle.

The story of the Gazelle does not end there; the village housed a place of worship for the Reformed faith and its Protestant community as early as 1603, but that is another story to tell you.

To find out more

Ségur, its history, Christian BAILLARGEAT-DELBOS, Gerbert printing works Aurillac 1988

Fouilleron, Joël. «The Cantal mountain and the stings of religious deviances (16th-20th century). Clergy, communities and family of

mountains of Europe, edited by Serge Brunet and Nicole Lemaitre, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2005

Toponymy

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