La Fage – trail #11

2 points of interest

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  Water

  The Bramont river

  The Bramont has its spring at Roc des Laubies on Mont Lozère. It runs downhill from there through the gorge which bears its name, crosses the Valdonnez valley and flows into the Lot a few kilometres further on, at Balsièges.

  The Bramont is a peculiar river, which is both a major tributary of the Lot and, through underground stream captures, a hidden tributary of the Tarn.

  From its spring onwards, the river flows over granite bedrock. But near Les Bondons, on the limestone formation of the Cham (small plateau) of the same name, its water partly disappears in three zones linked to a cave that was explored in about 1987: the Bramont ponor cave. The water re-emerges in Les Combes valley where it creates a waterway also known as the “Bramont”, which becomes a Tarn tributary at Le Cantonnet.

• 

  

  Architecture

  La Fage

  The hamlet of La Fage has a wealth of ancient architecture and exceptional rural heritage. You can admire:

  - its former mill, below the road just before you enter the hamlet;

  - the bread oven, with its work room;

  - the stall for shoeing cattle;

  - the wash house;

  - its cross with stoup and granite slab, on which the coffin was placed during funerals;

  - the blizzard bell tower, built while waiting for a church that never materialised. The bell formed the pattern of daily life, and on days of powder-snow blizzards, the villagers ran it to help travellers find their way safely to the village.