Broussous

Collection : TOP 25 RÉSISTANTE

Scale : 1:25 000

17.20€

2640OT - GORGES DU TARN ET DE LA JONTE CAUSSE MÉJAN PARC NATIONAL DES CÉVENNES

Collection : TOP 25 ET SÉRIE BLEUE

Scale : 1:25 000

13.90€

TOP75011 - CÉVENNES - GORGES DU TARN

TOP100D48 - LOZÈRE MENDE FLORAC-TROIS-RIVIÈRES PARC NATIONAL DES CÉVENNES GORGES DU TARN ET DE LA JONTE

162 RODEZ MILLAU PNR DES GRANDS CAUSSES

89023 - CHEMIN DE STEVENSON - GR70®

Collection : DECOUVERTE DES CHEMINS

Scale : 1:90 000

9.10€

D12-48 AVEYRON LOZÈRE

Collection : CARTES DÉPARTEMENTALES IGN

Collection : CARTES DÉPARTEMENTALES IGN

Collection : DÉCOUVERTE DES PAYS DU MONDE IGN

Scale : 1:2 500 000

7.00€

Description

This forest path explores the banks of the Tarnon river. From the small plateau of the Can de l’Hospitalet, you have breathtaking views onto the cliffs of the Causse Méjean.

Start on the village square in Vébron. Walk on the D 907 road towards Rousses, cross the old bridge and take on your left the path that runs alongside the Tarnon. At the first crossing, turn left. Cross the wooden footbridge over the brook, then go uphill. At the crossing, continue straight ahead to Broussous. In Broussous, your track joins up with another track, onto which you turn right. At the next crossing, continue straight, ignoring the path that goes downhill on the right. Join up with the L’Hospitalet trail, onto which you turn right towards Les Vanels. At the crossing, continue downhill, ignoring the L’Hospitalet trail on your left (or else take the L’Hospitalet variant, a loop which adds 3 km in length). Then take the path on the left which goes downhill through the chestnut grove to Les Vanels. At the crossing, go straight and down (under the telephone mast). In Les Vanels, take the D 907 to the right for 750 m. Leave the road to take the path downhill on the right. Cross the river. Your return to Vébron is on the right bank of the Tarnon at the old Vébron bridge.

Technical Information

Walking

Difficulty

Not specified

Duration

Dist.

8.3 km

Altimetric profile

Starting point

Lat : 44.2392057Lng : 3.5786132

Points of interest

The beaver

You may be lucky enough to spot a beaver (1 metre long including tail, and weighing 15 to 30 kg) as you walk along the Tarnon at dusk or dawn. Keen eyes may discover clues about its presence. Beavers live in lodges dug into the riverbanks, with an underwater entrance. During daylight, they stay dry in a “bedroom”. Whether from its Latinised Celtic name, biber, or the Languedocian bebrou, the beaver gave Vébron its name and features on its coat of arms.

Pine forest

The uphill section is in forest that partly stems from reforestation in the 1930s. First, there are Scots pines, whose patchy canopy lets through enough light for a grassy undergrowth to develop. A little higher up, a tightly reforested area of Douglas firs has no understory: no plants can grow for lack of light. Higher still, the undergrowth thins out here and there, and chestnuts reappear. There is a huge tree stump to the right of the path, a vestige of an ancient chestnut grove belonging to Broussous.

Broussous

Broussous seems lost in the woods, and yet it was an inhabited farm until the 1950s, surrounded by farmland and chestnut groves. Broussous being built in the schist/limestone contact zone, its architecture combines both types of rock. Its limestone lintels, which have been carved rounded, and its vaulted openings show that it was a nobleman's estate and then, in the 17th century, the sharecropping farm of one of the lords of Vébron.

Vébron

A village of 200 inhabitants, Vébron extends from the Tarnon valley to the Causse Méjean. It has a school, temple (Protestant church) and shops. Every summer, it hosts the International Video Film Festival, whose patron until 2014 was French veteran actress] Bernadette Lafont. The square at the heart of the village is a lovely spot for a little rest.