Le Pas de l'Ane

3 points of interest

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  History

  Trèves

  
  From Tabrî, meaning “village close to the water” in the Chasséen culture (Baume Lairoux, La Verrière, etc.), which lay on the trade route between the Gabali tribe, the coast and the Arecomici tribe. It was given a wooden bridge by the Romans, occupied first by Arian Visigoths and then by Nicene Christian Franks, and destroyed by Muslims around 730. It was revived in the Carolingian period with its Romanesque bridge, and was loyal to the Kings of France, who granted it a consuls’ charter in the 14th century and the bell on top of the church, which had remained Catholic. In the 17th century, Trèves had hemp fields, whose hempen cloth was used in the draperies in Lodève. Its blue sheep’s cheese, its galena mine and its terraces of almond trees and lentils belong to the past. Only the Pétassou  (local pagan character and festival) remains (M.MOULINIER, historian).

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  History

  Espinassous and its castle

  This is the Espinassous plateau with its 15th century castle. It only has one tower; the second tower allegedly imitated that donkey and fell into the ravine on whose edge it stood.
  The castle courtyard with its former farm outbuildings is magnificent; you can see them through the bars of the gate. These buildings are typical of Causse architecture: heavy limestone roofs, facades flanked by buttresses, narrow openings in the pointed barrel vaults.
  The hamlet is in an agricultural plain near the cliff’s edge.

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  Natural environment

  Tropical forest and the Causse flora

  The Causse vegetation is very different from that on the valley floor of the “ravine with no name”.
  On the Causse with its dry limestone soil grow pale flowers, such as the blue/mauve liverwort or the white wood anemone. A yellow spot is a California buttercup, without forgetting the thyme which perfumes the path!
  Boxwood lines both sides of the path. Downy oaks and Scots pine give some shelter in summer. The “ravine with no name” is a total change of scene. All of a sudden, you find yourself in a dense tropical forest; boxwood and lianas share the ravine. The sun never pierces the plant cover to warm the stream – never! It is chilly down here.
  Moss grows everywhere. Luckily the waymarking is perfect.