Courtesy photo Nashua artist Dominique Boutaud, who has been named a U.S. representative to the prestigious Academic Society of Arts Sciences Letters in Paris, was photographed with the certificate for the society's prestigious Diploma of Silver Medal award she received.

NASHUA – At first blush, prolific Nashua artist Dominique Boutaud’s recent two-week visit to her native France would seem like the ultimate dream vacation.

Reconnecting with friends and fellow artists, visiting favorite nooks and crannies of her birthplace, Nice, and taking part in a unique tradition as soul-nourishing and fulfilling to participants as it is curious to the uninitiated, it was the ideal getaway.

But what’s most impressive is what Boutaud came home with: Her third Academic Society of Arts-Sciences-Letters award, which by itself is a huge accomplishment – but also being told by the society’s president and its board chairman that she had been selected the society’s United States representative.

Some details, such as whether she is one of several regional U.S. representatives to the society, are pending, Boutaud said. Regardless, the selection has fulfilled a longtime goal.

“For me, it’s very important for this region,” Boutaud said, referring to her fellow artists, awareness of the arts and the arts culture itself.

“It’s very unique. I am so pleased.”

She expects to learn the details sometime in September, which is when the society’s next board meeting is scheduled.

“They told me I was accepted to be their representative, but they said they will tell me what they will want me to do,” Boutaud said, referring to September.

She said it was at the society’s annual awards ceremony that its president and board chairman pulled her aside and informed her of her acceptance – which, no doubt, made the society’s already elegant, moving 3 1/2-hour awards ceremony that much more thrilling for her.

It was during that ceremony at the 5-star InterContinental Paris le Grand, which she attended with some 400 artists and dignitaries from all over the world, that Boutaud was called forward to receive the society’s Diploma of Silver Medal award.

One of the society’s highest honors, the award was more than a year in the making – the biography Boutaud was required to submit covered the previous four years and some 180 pages.

And it’s not the first award Boutaud received from the society. In 2005, just before she moved her studio and herself to Nashua, the society presented her with its medaille de bronze (bronze medal), and then brought her back in 2014 to receive its medaille d’etain (tin medal).

But a week or so before all the honors were bestowed, Boutaud was down in the countryside of southern France taking part in an ages-old tradition: Walking along the Aubrac Plateau among decorated, bell-equipped cows.

An annual rite-of-spring ritual, which typically draws more than 1,500 visitors, is known as “transhumance,” and is highlighted by a festival of music, food and open-air markets.

“Transhumance” refers to the seasonal return of the herds of cattle to the Aubrac area from the valley where they spend their winters grazing on high-quality grass that yields high-quality beef.

Many artists are among the visitors, Boutaud said, because of their fascination with the cows’ appearance.

“The artists go to see (the cows’) unique faces … they look like they’re wearing makeup,” Boutaud said, explaining the animals’ unusual facial features.

The cows, which travel in groups that set out at 20-minute intervals for the roughly 20 kilometer – 12 1/2 mile – walk, are often colorfully “decorated” by their owners with small flags, floral arrangements, even small, flower-bearing trees. Each also wears a bell.

Boutaud came to Nashua from Belmont, Mass., about a decade ago, after learning about City Arts Nashua’s annual Art Walk.

Smitten by the history and character of the Picker Building, which at the time was an artists’ collaborative with dozens of studios, Boutaud decided to open a studio there and move to Nashua.

Not long after arriving, Boutaud got deeply involved in the city’s arts scene, and was soon a key organizer of the city’s annual Francophonie celebration – the month-long celebration of Nashua’s French-Canadian-heritage.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.