Look straight ahead, and you'll see the Quille-du-Diable rising up right there on the other side of the Rhône Valley. Read on to learn the legend of the mountain pasture of Tsanfleuron that no longer exists, but in those days was situated right behind the Quille-du-Diable. In ancient times, it is thought that the mountain pasture was called 'champ fleuri’ - 'field of flowers' - hence its dialect name of Tsanfleuron, as during the summer It was a broad field carpeted over with beautiful multi-coloured flowers.
According to legend, a white fairy came here every evening along the same pathway in the summer, around the time that shepherds milked the cows. Sometimes, a few shepherds would shout out or whistle loudly to scare her but the fairy went along her way quietly, disappearing from view. One evening, one of the shepherds said to his friends,
- I'm going to play a joke on that white lady.
He gathered some soot and charcoal one day and put it all in a bag, and then set off towards the pathway along which the white fairy would come. Alongside the pathway was a tall pine tree, and he climbed up it with his bag - and, sure enough, along came the white fairy. Just as she passed beneath his hiding place, the shepherd tipped the contents of his knapsack all over her, and down came a heap of black dust…the white fairy was blackened! She cried out and flew over to behind the Quille-du-Diable.
But vengeance was not to be kept waiting long. Two days later, great big blocks of the rock came away from the high peaks, then tumbled down the slope and covered a huge expanse of the area which became a glacier that is now called the glacier of Tsanfleuron.