A few words on Tarn Department

Geography

The Tarn department is widely opened westward and its climate undergoes the Atlantic influence. This area corresponds to the Northeastern border of the Aquitaine basin. A large amount of continental detrital sediments were deposited during the tertiary area in a soft and friable rock, the molasse, which was widely eroded by rivers. This is the case for the Tarn river that deposited very wide alluvial terraces in the same time its bed shifted northward. In such a situation, the highest terrace is the most degraded by soil leaching: it remains an uncultivable gravel which is often covered by copses of common oaks and which were exploited for firewood in the past. Several valleys, such as the Thoré, appeared during the Tertiary when the Hercynian basement was lifted up and faulted. Some sedimentary furrows emerged in the surrection, as the coal field of Carmaux. The highest reliefs are in the East (mountains of Lacaune) and in the Southeast (Montagne Noire). Schists are the most frequent, with also granitic massifs, e.g. the Sidobre massif. The vegetation presents some Atlantic characteristics, e.g. the presence of the Tauzin oak by the downstream of the rivers Viaur and Agout (its oriental limit at this latitude). The sessile oak needs well drained grounds and it is replaced on leached clayey-silicious soils by the common oak mixed with the pubescent oak, the last one being the most frequent on calcareous soils. The sessile oak is more present in higher altitude and it likes to grow in large forests. The cold and wet climate of the high valley of Thoré suits the pure beech forest, or the fir-beech forest on the hillsides of the Montagne Noire. In the mountains of Lacaune, the forest is often replaced by an acidophilous moor with bracken fern, Scotch broom, Scotch heath, and heather.

 

History

The megalithic culture left vestiges mostly in the oriental half of the department, with calcareous dolmens dominant in the North, and granitic menhirs in the South. Such a feature would denote two types of populations, the northern one being connected with Rouergue's culture. In the Gallic epoch, the Tarn was populated with Volques Tectosages who had Toulouse as capital. This tribe was quite early subjected to Rome's authority as a component of the province of Gallia Narbonensis. Few vestiges remains from Celtic or Gallo-Roman times. The barbaric invasions, the ceaseless wars between tribes, and the short Saracen invasion steeped the country in blood. Near the end of the IXth century, Albi country passed under the suzerainty of the Count of Toulouse. The Cathar heresy took root strongly in this land so as much that the followers of this manicheist religion were named Albigensians (i.e. inhabitants of Albi), even though their influence area had spread out on all the Southern half of France. In 1209, pope Innocent III, with the help of the ruthless Norman duke, Simon de Montfort, launched a crusade that not only has eradicated this religion, but has also subjected the South of France to the power of the Lords of the North. The brilliant civilization of the Occitan troubadours lost its independence and, in 1271, the county of Toulouse fell into the royal domain. From the massacre of Lavaur (1211) up to the control of the religious courts by Philippe le Bel (1304), the inhabitants had to undergo Inquisition's repression: tortures and stakes finished to eradicate heresy. Troubles came back in the country with the One Hundred Years War, all the more so since the department of Tarn bordered on the English possessions. Some centuries later, the violence started again. The French Wars of Religion divided the cities, as Castres which became Protestant whereas Albi remained Catholic. Moreover, some events of the Camisard war occurred in the mountains of the Southeast. In the XIXth century, the department went through an intense industrialization: mines of Carmaux, tanneries of Mazamet, glass factory of Albi... From Lisle-sur-Tarn to Albi, the valley of the Tarn benefits nowadays from the strong development of the economic centre of Toulouse.

 

Hiking characteristics

People who are looking for a protected nature will forsake the valley of the Tarn and the downstream of Dadou and Agoût, but will choose the borders of the department: mountains of Lacaune in the East, Montagne Noire in the South. The North presents very diversified landscapes, such as the valley of Viaur, the Tertiary clayey-marly hillsides in the continuation of the limestone plateaus of Quercy, and, endowed with a complex geology, the massif of Grésigne, well-known by French entomologists as one of the most interesting wet forests (site classified Natura 2000, in which more than 2000 Coleoptera species were recorded by Jean Rabil). The Tarn department has also a rich history. The bastide architecture of the cities dates from the One Hundred Years war. The medieval town of Cordes-sur-Ciel is exceptional. There are also several noteworthy Romanesque monuments: the church Saint-Michel in Lescure, the abbey Saint-Michel in Gaillac, the chapel of Lasplanques in Tanus, etc. Saint-Cécile, the impressive cathedral of Albi is a master-piece of the Southern Gothic art. Woad merchants in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries and tanneries directors in XVIIIth and XIXth centuries got very rich and they made to build very beautiful mansions and lordly houses of Renaissance or Classical style.

 

French Internet sites for outdoor activities

Hiking in the mountains of Haut Languedoc : www.cheminer.com
Green tourism around the lake of Laouzas : www.montagne-haut-languedoc.com
Horse trekking in the country of Cathars : La Jalondié