Broussous

5 points of interest

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  Fauna

  The beaver

  You may be lucky enough to spot a beaver (1 metre long including tail, and weighing 15 to 30 kg) as you walk along the Tarnon at dusk or dawn. Keen eyes may discover clues about its presence. Beavers live in lodges dug into the riverbanks, with an underwater entrance. During daylight, they stay dry in a “bedroom”. Whether from its Latinised Celtic name, biber, or the Languedocian bebrou, the beaver gave Vébron its name and features on its coat of arms.

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  Flora

  Pine forest

  The uphill section is in forest that partly stems from reforestation in the 1930s. First, there are Scots pines, whose patchy canopy lets through enough light for a grassy undergrowth to develop. A little higher up, a tightly reforested area of Douglas firs has no understory: no plants can grow for lack of light. Higher still, the undergrowth thins out here and there, and chestnuts reappear. There is a huge tree stump to the right of the path, a vestige of an ancient chestnut grove belonging to Broussous.

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  Architecture

  Broussous

  Broussous seems lost in the woods, and yet it was an inhabited farm until the 1950s, surrounded by farmland and chestnut groves. Broussous being built in the schist/limestone contact zone, its architecture combines both types of rock. Its limestone lintels, which have been carved rounded, and its vaulted openings show that it was a nobleman's estate and then, in the 17th century, the sharecropping farm of one of the lords of Vébron.

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  Geology

  Schist or dolomite

  Schist areas form a rock base on which layers of sediment - limestone and dolomite - have collected. These are covered in chestnut trees and heaths of heather, broom and ferns unless they have been reforested. Underneath this vegetation, the transition between the two bedrocks is not always visible, but it is indicated by the human settlements at mid-slope. Rainwater that has filtered through the rocks emerges again where it hits the impermeable schist, creating springs.

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  Architecture

  Vébron

  A village of 200 inhabitants, Vébron extends from the Tarnon valley to the Causse Méjean. It has a school, temple (Protestant church) and shops. Every summer, it hosts the International Video Film Festival, whose patron until 2014 was  French veteran actress] Bernadette Lafont. The square at the heart of the village is a lovely spot for a little rest.