THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

BY DIDIER SCHMUTZ
PHOTOGRAPHS ANNE-LISE VULLIOUD
We are now on a quest that will take us off the beaten track, in search of the elusive
perfect guitar-tree. Before starting we had to find Lorenzo Pellegrini, our guide. In
fact he’s more than a guide, because they don’t make them like him anymore. Out of 10 or
15 thousand spruce trees, he can find the one you can make a musical instrument from. This
gift makes him essential to makers of stringed instruments.
We had arranged to meet up with him somewhere in the Risoud forest above Le Brassus.
“Not far from the Bambi hut,” we were told. But this enchanted forest of the Jura is so
dense and so wide …
“Lorenzo!”
“Lorenzo, where are you?”
LORENZO, A GATHERER OF PRECIOUS WOOD
IN THE RISOUD FOREST; JEANMICHEL CAPT,
A GUITAR-MAKER IN LE BRASSUS: THESE ARE
THE HEROES OF AN UNUSUAL TALE.
LORENZO, THE
LAST GARDENER
OF THE RISOUD
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