Saint-Elix is a charming little village nestling in the heart of the Astarac region.
In the past, more than 50% of the commune's surface area was covered by forest. The Arrouy forest belonged to the local lord and the Moines forest to the Benedictine monks of Saramon. This forest played a very important role for the commune. At the beginning of the 13th century, Lord Arnaud de Betcave granted the inhabitants of Saint Elix the right to collect dead wood in the Arrouilh forest. In 1491, the Count of Astarac authorised the syndics of Saint Elix the ‘right to graze in the Arrouilh forest’ for their livestock and the possibility of obtaining green wood to repair their houses and tenant farms. The inhabitants of Saint Elix have the right to graze all their livestock, both large and small, except in the autumn when they may only graze 3 pigs per family during the tasselling season. They may take dead wood for heating, and green wood to repair their houses, according to the deed of 1491, paying for each fire and head of house every year one sack of oats, measured in Saramon, two liards, and one hen. When property was nationalised in 1790, the Benedictine forest of Saramon became a ‘national asset’, then a state forest and an imperial forest. The Saramon forest disappeared towards the end of the 19th century (except for the small woodland adjoining the Saint Elix communal forest). Today, all that remains of the 420 hectares of the Arrouilh forest are the 52 hectares of the Saint Elix communal forest and a few tubs.
