We arrive on the Escandorgue, a limestone plateau on which the basalt outcrops where the cracks have left the passage to the magma under the pressure of the bowels of the earth.
After passing the Civil Aviation radar, whose copper dome covered with verdigris reminds us of a pistachio ice cream cone, we turn right towards Caylar. We make out the Buddhist temple with its red copper roof hidden in a valley dominated by a grove of pines. It is the former farmhouse of L'Engayresque which now houses a monastic community and hosts retreats devoted to developing our fundamental qualities, such as love and compassion for all beings.
Here is now the result of logging to meet our cellulose needs.
Ferns are magnificent, they like the acid soils produced by the degradation of volcanic rocks, so do thistles.
We could go down to Romiguières on the left but that is not our objective today, we will rather turn to the right in the direction of the Seats and the cave of Labeil.
The narrow road winds through fields strewn with large bales of fodder left behind after being mowed. The harvest was abundant in the spring. Cows, helped by their newborn calves, graze on the regrowth that is struggling to grow in this heat. More gray marl banks, rounded by erosion, which are said to contain treasures of fossils.
It smells of sheep at the Seats. They pass on the road and the cars crush their droppings that the sparrows peck. This is the entrance to the Labeil cave which tourists can access by a concrete staircase that did not exist when it was occupied by the Merovingian knights whose remains were found in the accumulated sediment.
find out more about the Labeil cave >>>
The road continues below limestone sentinels.
We continue to descend into the Laurounet valley, cool under the shade of the oaks, scorching in the sun which intensifies the scents of thyme. A joyful waterfall ignores the drought and leaps from who knows where.
After multiple bends and crossing one of the Lauroux bridges, we return to Fontreboule. Water supply works block the most direct route and force us to make a long detour on the slope facing it, allowing us to better see the size of the hamlet. This is where the workshop is.
