Le Luech viaduct, MTB circuit #1 (blue)

5 points of interest

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  History

  The Jean-Pierre Chabrol literary circuit

  Starting at the mairie (town hall), a literary walk takes you through the village of Chamborigaud in the footsteps of local author Jean-Pierre Chabrol (about 5 km, can also be started at the train station).

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  History

  Pont de Rastel

  Pont de Rastel, like Chamborigaud, La Vernarède and Chambon, experienced substantial economic growth during the Golden Age for spinning-mills and coal mines, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This is the former Le Gravas magnanerie (silkworm farm) to which the writer Jean-Pierre Chabrol, born in Chamborigaud, often referred in his works. It has been the family’s home since the 14th century.

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  History

  Le Luech bridge

  That’s a railway up there, linking Nîmes with Paris!

  One hundred and two tunnels were dug and 46 bridges built. The Luech bridge is the most remarkable with its 29 arches, its length of 384 metres and its height of 46m. For 150 years, trains have advanced slowly so as not to derail in the bend. Impossible to gather speed for the abrupt climb into the tunnel!

  In the old days, leaves blanketed the rails in the autumn, making the wheels of the heavy convoy slip on this 1-in-40 gradient. Mechanics worried about being left stranded up there.

  “While Marius braces himself in front of his voracious firebox, Léon, his hand on the control valve (…), attentive to the smallest sign indicating slippage on the rails, skilfully measures out the power of his 240 [locomotive]” (extract from Les Chevaliers des Cévennes by Raymond Fayvaisse).

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  History

  Mas du Cotton

  “I have happy memories of the days I spent at “Cotton” when I was a child in the 1960s and 70s. The sheepbells moved down the slope of Le Rigal, mixing with the high-pitched calls of the female shepherd dressed in black. Her three sheepdogs helped her funnel the animals to the great door, which has not been changed. (…) In those days, the road wasn’t tarred and life was a calm joy, with chickens leisurely crossing the road from morning to night. The mas [isolated farm or hamlet] was vast and well-run, it smelled of lavender or apples. (…) Forty years later, this scenic ensemble of farmland and handsome traditional houses is still marked by its agricultural past, but I can’t come back here without terrible nostalgia for the flock’s bells and the scent of the lavender that was drying in big bunches on top of the wardrobe”. (B.M.)

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  Flora

  Tree heather

  Do you like heather honey?

  Bees love it, and yet the nectar is difficult to harvest!

  One of the stickiest of nectars, it makes insects lose time, by trapping them and covering them, forcing them to have a long clean-up after work. But how could bees do without the only nectar on acidic soils that is 20% calcium?

  Common and bell heather have a family likeness: they both belong to the Ericaceae. The bells of the bell heather are a strong pink, bigger and urn-shaped. Common heather also has small clusters of flowers, but they are paler and so small that bees visit them less often than those of bell heather.