Blanquefort, un château sur la Briolance

From the Briolance valley, this circuit crosses numerous coppices and chestnut orchards and runs alongside a rich built heritage, the listed church and castle, the Naugarède estate, La Sauvetat... You can see the old tower of the Blanquefort blast furnace and the half-timbered and corbelled houses of the Nogarède estate along the wooded paths of the circuit. This sector of the Haut-Agenais is known for its low furnaces, whose existence can be explained by the presence in the "Pays du Bois" of iron ore and vast forests which provided the indispensable charcoal. These internal combustion furnaces were used to transform iron ore into metallic iron. They look like brick and clay chimneys, where a layer of iron ore and a layer of charcoal are alternately placed and ignited.