The Monks' Path

On the stony plateau, the old monks' path crosses a subtle landscape. Crops, groves, vines, paths and traditional buildings make up the harmonious and luminous assembly of a small-scale landscape.

A monastic path:
Clearing a formerly forested Tarn revealed not only rich land but also almost barren places called "èrm" (wasteland). Like Herm, near Mouysset. Who cleared the land? The monks, for the most part. The monastery of Hauterive (near Castres) was one of the first in Gaul to apply the rule of Saint Benoit. Although this rule recommended that monks should not "spread out into the open", they quickly deviated from it to gain land in the forest and cultivate it. The monks of the Abbey of Bonnecombe, in Rouergue, cultivated around their barn in Bernac (south of Castanet) and used, for six centuries, the famous "Chemin des Moines" to transport aniseed, cereals, coriander, pastel and saffron.