The weathervane cardinal lives in Dierre … and we have met him)

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June 17, 2021
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This article originally appeared in 37 ° Mag, our print magazine.

A rooster, a hunting scene, pigeons, a hut and even the Château de Chenonceau… When you want a weather vane on your roof, the possibilities are endless. In Dierre, Gérard Morisset is responsible for their production.

The day we visit the Girouettes de Touraine workshop, rock spouts out of the enclosure placed in the middle of the tools. ACDC, Rammstein, Indochine… Sometimes Schubert, too. Gérard Morisset works in music. You have to be a well-tuned man to succeed with objects like those that come out of this old garage, refurbished into a craftsman’s lair for ten years.

We are in a beautiful stone building in the village of Dierre, a few hundred meters from the D140 which connects Tours to Bléré. Do not rely on the density of objects that clutter the place: this weather vane is an orderly man, to the point of having multi-purpose machines to optimize space. Son of an ironworker, trained in boiler making, Gérard Morisset in his sixties or rather “20 years plus 40 years of experience. “ Most of his career has been at La Poste. Like his wife. Because he didn’t want a job where he risked an accident. Then the desire for the manual caught up with him. During a skills assessment, he remembers his childhood bike rides around La Croix-en-Touraine. There was this farm and its weather vane which he could never approach, frightened by the guard dog. Irrevocable decision: he wants to start making these ornamental objects that tell us where the wind comes from. This will be done in parallel with the opening of a lodge and a part-time position kept in the public company.

Weathervane, “I never made a lot of money with it. About half a minimum wage per month “ loose this man who lives on passions (biker, he was also archery champion in his youth. The day he had to make an arching frog on a weather vane, the challenge was largely within his reach). Do not go and tell him that his activity has no great outlet: “There is potential. Just look at all the roofs without a weather vane. Anyway, I’m not doing this for the statistics but to find my account. “ Gérard Morisset believes he has achieved “Not far from 200 weathervanes” two of which overlook the home that has been his for three decades. One of them is shaped like a four-leaf clover, with a total of seven personal or family references.

The craftsman will never say what mechanism he has developed to make his weather vanes turn correctly. Confessing to have learned the gestures on the job, while observing, he juggles between zinc, copper, brass … and keeps the falls in his “Box of tricks”, because at the cost of the sheet, it always ends up being useful. It’s an applique. Its motto : “You don’t spend more time doing a good thing than a bad thing. So let’s take the time. “

Associated for several years with the Touraine designer Philippe Merlevede, Gérard Morisset encourages – for each order – to mature his desire. Some customers took 2 or even 4 years to make up their minds. The time to choose the object that looks like them: “I ask them for pictures of their house and the address. What they want and why. Let their weather vane not only mean the wind, but also mean something to their owner. I also suggest that they do a little cutting. For example, an accountant came to spend 2 hours with me. It has become his weather vane and I think it’s great. “

Photos: Pascal Montagne

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