A country path

5 points of interest

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  Heritage site

  Bellechassagne

  The origin of the name "Bellechassagne" would simply be "Beautiful oak". In an ancient writing it is referred to as "the Garden of the Mountain", a sweet oasis amid the cold heathers that so uniformly cover the Plateau de Millevaches. ». The 89 inhabitants of Bellechassagne counted in the 2017 census have adopted a gentle way of life.
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  Archaeology

  The Templar Commandery

  Bellechassagne was the seat of a prosperous Templar administrative centre with an agricultural vocation.
  However, in the middle of the Religious Wars, this administrative centre was destroyed. Falling into the hands of a Protestant leader who was taken prisoner, it regained its freedom against the abandonment of Bellechassagne, which was razed to the ground in 1588.
  The headquarters was in the centre of the town. Just a few elements are visible: a door lintel of the village hall, the cross in front of the church above the bells and the funeral slab behind the fountain.
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  Forestry

  The beech wood

  The beech grove on the edge of the track is a reminder that the Plateau de Millevaches forest is not only made up of softwood trees.
  As a result of agricultural abandonment on the one hand and landowner awareness-raising campaigns on the other, the landscape has changed over the last century from moorland to heath to planted forests.
  It is impossible not to mention Marius Vazeilles who, as a visionary, promoted an economic system based on the complementarity of agriculture and forestry.
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  Panorama

  The Cantal Mountains

  Before the village of Le Bouix, in the background, the Cantal mountains. This massif is, in fact, the remnant of a stratovolcano born 13 million years ago, the largest in Europe, eroded by collapse and glacial erosion.
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  Heritage site

  The bread oven

  The villages of Limousin were all heavily involved in agriculture. Walking through these hamlets always produces interesting discoveries during a hike: barns, mansions, crosses and monuments, traditional local architecture...
  Notice the bread oven at the entrance of the village, which is sometimes re-lit for social events.