The Luech valley

3 points of interest

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  Architecture

  Stone bridges over the Vildou.

  The small stone bridges have long replaced the wooden footbridges, which the floods invariably carried off every year. Mostly built in the 18th century, these modest but astonishingly resistant structures are true artistic and technical masterpieces. Inspired by a Roman model, they consist of a single arch that straddles the waterway and sits on bedrock at each end. No central pillar blocks the flow of the river.

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  Water

  The hamlet of Chareneuve

  The charm of these handsome village houses invites us to slow down. Our eye is drawn to the wide, white-water béal (irrigation channel). This very old and still maintained channel takes the water to the gardens, which are said to have the canton’s earliest harvests! The channel empties into a basin of calm water. Behind it, the mill with its admirable roof ridge consisting of crossed lauzes (tilestones) had a system of wheels placed horizontally and driven by a vertical shaft, which enabled them to function even in times of low water. The water stored in the basin could also compensate for low flow.

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  History

  Le Chambon

  The history of Le Chambon is turbulent and set to the rhythm of its successive owners: feudal lords, the parish, the school authorities and the village council.

  The oldest parchment dates to 17 April 1295. It refers to the sale of the fiefdom of Le Chambon to the Lord of Portes, whose property it remained until the 17th century, when it was bought by Mr Roussel. It later became part of Sénéchas. Le Chambon did not become its own municipality until 1839, when it had around 800 inhabitants.

  After endless debates about how far away the surrounding churches were, le Chambon built its own in 1889. At the time, its lanes were animated by two schools, six cafés, many artisans and miners. When the coal mines closed in the 1950s, the village began to empty. Today, green tourism is reviving it.