The roof of the Limousin

4 points of interest

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  Panorama

  Tour of Mont Bessou

  Climb the few steps of the Mont Bessou Panoramic Tower, which elevates you to the highest point of the Limousin and Limousin Mountain, at an altitude of 1,000 m. Discover the Millevaches plateau in front of you... Do not look for the shepherdess or her flock, which were transformed, according to the legend, by the devil into 100 stones (see the site of the Hundred Stones). Don't linger either, as a good etymologist, looking for the 1,000 pools or 1,000 streams that meander through the caves and hollows, feeding the pastures (wet meadows) and peat bogs, before swelling the waters of the Dordogne and Loire rivers. Finally, don't think that the Limousin highlands look like a chain of puys, the cones of extinct volcanoes, like those in the Auvergne which you can see in the distance. They are much more like a dull succession of heavy hills and hollows separated by barely marked valleys... the landscape of Millevaches is magnificent.

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  Heritage site

  Village of Lavaur

  Perhaps you will have the opportunity to discover, in the valleys, the remains of a partially obliterated landscape... former agricultural terraces laid out by human beings to trap good soil... or even ingenious irrigation levades, large gullies dug in the meadows and supplied with water by a basin above (a pond perhaps with fish)... or finally, sunken lanes bordered with old beech trees and low dry-stone walls. It is hard to imagine today how these landscapes could have looked; this little exercise may help you: As you leave the village of Lavaur, turn around, look at the hamlet as a whole and, squinting, ignore all the trees that surround it...

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  Site

  Douglas des Farges

  You will find the Douglaseraie des Farges, and this is another worthwhile detour... The viaduct, built in 1882, is the largest in Limousin. It is a reminder that the forest and softwoods arrived with the railway. The people left, and the forest settled down in their place where it became something quite remarkable. The Douglaseraie des Farges is distinguished by its age and the quality of its population of trees, which reach 50 m high and 3 m in circumference, each representing about 15 m3 of wood. Nature seems to have partially finished its work; it is now humankind's turn to surpass itself.

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  Peat bog

  Peat bog

  For the peat bogs, imagining what these landscapes were like seems easier... apart from the development of some of them into lakes or ponds, the majority seem to have been abandoned. Was their exploitation less profitable ? Did the beliefs and legends inspired by these hostile environments hinder their development ? Is it simply their great agethat commands respect? This remarkable natural environment, now classified as one of Europe's ecological treasures, began its transformation about 8,000 years ago. It hosts an extremely rare procession of flora and fauna (viviparous lizard, drosera, etc.). The famous Tourbière du Longeyroux, a peat bog classified as a Natura 2000 Site, now enjoys a high level of European protection.