Camprieu trail

6 points of interest

• 

  History

  The Path of the Dead

  In the Middle Ages and until 1870, the Catholic village of Camprieu had neither church nor cemetery. “Its inhabitants therefore went to the hamlet of Saint-Sauveur de Pourcils. To transport their dead to the remote cemetery, they had to take the ‘Path of the Dead’. They carried the coffins on their backs and, at every rest stop, recited the prayer De Profundis. Funeral processions stopped using the path in summer 1872. That year, the village of Camprieu finally obtained its own cemetery. But the name has stuck: “the Path of the Dead”.
• Agriculture

  Les Monts wash house

  The wash house in Les Monts still has running water but the washerwomen have disappeared for good. The site is magical. The water is clear enough for dragonflies to lay their eggs in and for birds to drink
• 

  Landscape

  Col du Suquet pass

  You are at the highest point of the hike. On the right bank of the Dourbie, the path crosses a sheer slope that is alternatively made up of zones of solid granite and other zones where it has decomposed due to weathering into coarse granitic sand. To the south, the views encompass the entire Lingas massif, a high wooded plateau overlooking, further south, the region around Le Vigan and the Languedocian plain.
• 

  History

  The forestry labourers’ shelter

  Deep inside the forest, you will soon see a little house. From the 19th to the early 20th century, it gave shelter to the forestry labourers in charge of reforesting the mountain. The work site was too far from a proper foresters’ house to get back there every evening, especially since the working day was long. There was no question then of working only 35 or even 40 hours a week! The trees were planted one by one using a pickaxe; the daily minimum agreed on was 100 trees per man per day. A total of 68 million were planted…
• 

  Natural environment

  The hidden life of the forest

  Trees grow upwards towards the light while mosses benefit from their shade on the ground and spread out. Like soft cushions or carpets, they hug everything that sticks out of the ground, such as old tree stumps. This soft felted surface is pleasing to see, and an undergrowth without mosses would not be worthy of the name. Legend has it that mosses show which way is north. Wrong!
  Mosses indicate a degree of moisture; they protect the soil from drying out by retaining every last drop of dew. They prepare pockets of humus for the future occupants: grasses and herbaceous plants. They also love the damp of tree trunks and can grow there, on the side that is most exposed to the prevailing rains.
• 

  Natural environment

  The Mont Aigoual forest

  “Aigoual, Forêt d’Exception”
  The French Forestry Office, which manages state forests, launched a programme in 2013 called “Aigoual, Forêt d’Exception” (Aigoual: An Exceptional Forest) with the aim of highlighting the massif’s natural and cultural heritage. The Forestry Office thus tries to foreground the different aspects of its multi-facetted management: production, protection and receiving visitors. One key aspect of this approach, which complements other initiatives by local actors, is to improve visitors’ experience in the forest.