Madame de Budoy, La Folle des Pyrénées

Lived with bears

At the beginning of the 19th century villagers and other local inhabitants of Vicdessos en Ariège (in the Andorra / Spanish frontier region) had been telling stories of a wild woman who lived with bears. In the spring of 1807 an expedition was mounted to capture the woman, who wandered in les bois de Suc-et-Sentenac.

Capture!

La Folle des Pyrénées was taken after two days of trying. About 40 years old, skinny, with long blond hair and wrinkled skin, she was forcibly dressed and fed, and locked in a room.

Escape!

By the following morning La Folle des Pyrénées had disappeared, having fled through the window. Next year another attempt to capture her was mounted, and this time she was taken to the Prefecture of Foix, and held captive for several days but escaped again.

Captivity and Death

A third attempt was successful, and La Folle des Pyrénées was never again to see her mountain home or her bear family. She died at Foix on 29 October 1808.

Who was she?

La Folle was never a feral child. As in so many of these cases, it was probably war that was responsible for her situation. Fleeing the revolution in 1793, and making her way to Spain, she probably became lost and separated from her husband; or, she might have become lost when attempting to return to France, some years later. She could speak: apparently, she said "les ours sont mes amis, ils me réchauffaient!" (the bears are my friends, they keep me warm).