Les Bondons - Balade au pays des menhirs.

A hike in the region Languedoc-Roussillon

A stroll to discover a megalithic patrimony which lead you in a very former time. The succession of raised stones was continualy being a matter about the life and techniques of our ancestors. You can also enjoy panoramas on Puechs and Mont Lozère. Numbered panels indicate the curiosities scattered along the way; these numbers are written in the identical on the map.

Information

General points

• Geographic situation. District : Les Bondons (department Lozère, canton Florac)
                                     Road map with
• Starting point : Car park at the crossroads of D35 and road of Combes.
• The length of the stroll is estimated at 5,6 Km and the walk duration is about 2 h .
• The stroll is marked out all along
• Stroll form : dual (one part as a loop, the other one linear)
• Stroll relief : hilly (alt. mini = 990 m ; alt. maxi = 1180 m)
• Maintenance : frequent (brushwood clearing at least annual)
• Exposure : varied (both covered and uncovered areas)

Noteworthy places

1- Pays des Fées. Placenames of the village of Bondons, such as Peyrefiche or Peyre Plantade, are mixed with others: Peyre de la Vieille, Terre de Malavieille, la Fare. In the local folklore, La Fare and La Vieille (The Old Woman)Êwere used as synonymous of fairies (in French: Les Fées).

2- A travers les temps. In order to modify the heathen faiths linked with the cult of raised stones, most of the menhirs were lying on the ground. People also put a cross above to give a Christian connotation. After several modifications, more than 70 menhirs were held up in order to restore the site of Bondons with a closer presentation as that wanted by its founders.

3- L'Eschino d'Aze. Prominent rocks above the plateau are constituted by hard dolomitic limestones which protect fossiliferous black marls. Human activities from the first Iron Age have been found on a rocky spur in the North. A small fort or castellum is also present. Some archaeological rests permitted to date the site from the 1st Century B.C.

4- l'Horizon des causses. From left to right, view onto the mountain Gargo, the Single, the valley of Tarn, Ispagnac, the Puech of Aluech, Chaumette de Sauveterre, the cliff of Nozières, the village of Montmirat.

5- Les Combettes. A permanent exhibition is presented in the former community bread oven: "Mont Lozère before the history". A Latin inscription can be seen on the front of an house: Quicid Agas, Prudenter Agas, which means: whatever you do, do it cautiously... (see photo).

6- Mines et Menhirs. Scientific analyses give evidence of the exploitation of lead about 500 B.C. and one thousand years later. Recently, a deposit of uranium was exploited in the county of Bondons. The presence of menhirs just above the vein led some people to associate megalithism and tellurism. A popular belief allocated therapeutic properties to megaliths, for example, the menhir of Grisac was told to fight against infertility.

7- Chabusse. The projecting ledge of Chabusse, with its three beautiful menhirs and the more little fourth, has also other vestiges of successive occupations hereabouts.

8- Dolmen des Combes. It lost its superior paving stone and is surrounded with a small tumulus.

9- Les Puechs. Until the beginning of the XIXth century, they were called Puech d'Allègre and Puech de Mariette, they were renamed Truc de Miret and Truc of Bondons. Hard rocks in surface have protected the underlying marls.

10- Pierre des trois paroisses. The highest density of menhirs is situated on the summit of the plateau. They are arranged in circle, called cromlech. The most majestic of them is called "menhir of three parishes" because of its geographic situation, at the borders of three Ancient Regime' s parishes.

Maps

Carto Exploreur 48 Sud, IGN 2739OT.