Pic de La Tourette

11 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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  Landscape

  Pic de la Tourette

  At 914m in altitude, this peak offers vast panoramic views over the Cévennes in Lozère and Gard, over the foothills and onto the plains all the way to the coast. Viewpoint indicators await you there.

  The summit is also the point where three municipalities meet - Vialas, Ventalons-en-Cévennes and Chamborigaud – and marks the limit between the departments of Lozère and Gard.

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  History

  Coudoulous

  Marker 5
  Coudoulous has a squat architecture that is typical of these ridge villages and their mountain climate. It had an inn to accommodate travellers, itinerant shepherds and their flocks, animal-drawn carts, etc. In 1862 Coudoulous had 38 inhabitants in eight houses. Before the Second World War, some 15 people still lived in four of the houses.

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  Tradition

  The day of the fair

  “In Coudoulous there was the fair on the first of April, people sold sheep, goats, pigs. It must have taken place until the First World War. For the fair, all the houses were open and used for drinking and eating. There’s a photo of a fair where you can see people dancing in the road. There was also a real inn, the Deleuze Inn. Apparently it used to be a coaching inn, in the days of horse-drawn carts. They stopped there to change horses, from the coaching inn at La Bégude, the next was at L’Espinas. That was...two hundred years ago.”

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  Architecture

  Verfeuil village

  Marker 6
  On the rock face you can see traces of tools, showing that the rock was hewn. Below the path, and below the draille, there are pèdes, wall foundations cut into the rock, which reveal the location of a village. The former village cannot be seen in its totality, the area’s topography having changed since the Middle Ages (rockslides, backfilling, construction of terraces for cultivating the land after the village had been built, etc.).

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  Architecture

  Verfeuil castle ruins

  Marker 7
  The complex of buildings on the summit terrace corresponds to the castle proper. The buildings follow the shape of the rock plinth, which was hewn to provide the foundations of walls built using lime mortar. Having been built with more care than the annexes or the village, they have withstood the ravages of time better.
  The staircase giving access to the site, also hewn into the rock, hardly seems damaged at all. It may have been protected by wood. The square man-made holes supported wooden elements whose purpose is unknown.

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  Architecture

  A typical Languedoc castrum

  Verfeuil Castle resembles typical Languedoc castra between the 10th and 15th century. Castrum is a mediaeval word for a complex that consisted of a castle and a fortified village. The castle normally had a dwelling, a tower or a keep, and a chapel. The biggest building at Verfeuil Castle was probably a dwelling, but given the lack of excavations, it is not possible to say with certainty what the buildings’ functions were. Nevertheless, the existence of an arms room and a courtyard are known from notarial acts of 1436 and 1446.

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  History

  From the Grimoards to abandonment

  From the 14th century onwards, Verfeuil is mentioned as being the property of the Grimoard family, one of whose members was Pope Urban V. This family also owned the castles of Grizac (Le Pont-de-Montvert) and Bellegarde (St-Privat-de-Vallongue). According to the archives, the order to dismantle Verfeuil was given by the Governor of Languedoc province in 1586, during the religious wars. The site may have been abandoned before then. Castra were frequently deserted from the 14th century onwards in favour of less steep and more comfortable sites.

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  Architecture

  A defensive site

  Marker 8
  On either side of the trail, the rock face has been hewn: we are in the inner ditch of the castle. Verfeuil’s role was above all defensive. The castle, built on a rocky spur, blends into the rock, which has been worked to ensure its defence. The only side that is not protected by the natural sheer slope has two parallel ditches cut into the schist. Beyond the outer ditch, traces of the rutted track can be seen. According to the archaeologist Michel Lorblanchet, this castle, like others, may have been built on the site of a protohistoric oppidum (a fortified habitation predating the Roman conquest).

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  Pastoralism

  The draille (drovers' road)

  Marker 9
  From Coudoulous, the path follows a draille that climbs up from the lowlands via the Château de Portes and joins the draille of Languedoc. Like other ancient routes, drailles are fairly straight and make their way along ridges to passes, avoiding valleys. Two transhumant flocks still make use of this draille today. The dry-stone wall demarcates an old sheep pen used during stops. The manure gathered after the flocks had left enriched crop land on these naturally poor soils. This illustrates how high country and low country complemented each other.